The Little Sister cover art

The Little Sister

Phillip Marlowe, Book 5

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The Little Sister

By: Raymond Chandler
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

'So you need help. What's your name and trouble?'

Private investigator Philip Marlowe's latest client is Orfamay Quest. She's come all the way from Manhattan, Kansas, to find her missing brother Orrin. Or at least that's what she tells Marlowe, offering him just 20 dollars for his trouble. Feeling charitable, Marlowe accepts - though it's not long before he wishes he hadn't. Soon the trail leads to a succession of Hollywood starlets, uppity gangsters, suspicious cops and corpses with ice picks jammed into their necks....

The Little Sister is Raymond Chandler's fifth novel featuring laconic PI Philip Marlowe.

©2005 Raymond Chandler (P)2021 Penguin Audio Detective Modern Detectives Mystery Private Investigators Fiction

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Critic reviews

"Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye." (Los Angeles Times)

"Chandler grips the mind from the first sentence." (Daily Telegraph)

"One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain." (Sunday Times)
All stars
Most relevant
... apart from the ludicrous music between chapters. Unfortunately all the current crop of Penguin Philip Marlowe books have it (including "Trouble is my business" where they have just renamed various detectives as Marlowe to screw a bit more money out of the punters).
The performance is good, and the story is still as good as it ever was.

On the whole very good

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I can see why they included bits of music reminiscent of 40s-50s American radio crime dramas, but it feels out of place here, and mildly distracting. It's the only reason I'm not giving in a full 5 stars. Scott Brick does well with the voice acting and gets deep into conveying the overall loathing Marlowe (and Chandler for that matter) has for Hollywood. The story itself takes some listening to, it's a lot more twisty than most of the other Philip Marlowe novels. Well worth the listen.

I found the inter-chapter music... jarring.

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I've listen to all the Chandler books read by Scott Brick several times. Great narration and a good listen.

Great story

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I had got most of the ray porter recordings till they suddenly vanished and was hesitant to fill the holes with the new ones.... but this was good.

Good production and great story

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Some great Marlowe metaphors but spoiled by the intrusive music and incredibly labyrinthine plot. Marlowe's humour is also scaled down a notch. And I don't want to hear the word "amigo" again any time soon !

Twisty and Tortuous

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