THE BLACK-EYED BLONDE A Philip Marlowe Novel

What fun to be back in 1950s Los Angeles with Philip Marlowe as imagined by Benjamin Black, aka acclaimed Irish author John Banville. Dennis Boutsikaris narrates with marvelous aplomb. In this new take on Raymond Chandler’s iconic P.I., he meets a cool blonde and acquires a dangerous case. She walks in one hot summer day and asks Marlowe to find her vanished boyfriend. Marlowe agrees to look and meets a whole lot of trouble along the way. Boutsikaris nails the cool but inviting tone, the clipped tempo, the razor and the velvet of such a tale. He differentiates between characters without overacting, and does a more than passable female—shades of Lauren Bacall, in fact. This is a perfect weekend listen. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2014]