Philip Marlow and Lambeth Croak British Noir

The first book of the Lambeth Croak series is almost finished, it's taken a lot of time to get to this point, not least because I get too caught up in other forms of writing. I belong to a writing group and the task we had a week or so back, was to write to a favourite character in a book. I chose to write my letter to Raymond Chandler's famed Philip Marlow. below is the piece that I wrote - in case you are wondering I have also used the main character from my nearly finished book Death Comes Stalking book one of the Lambeth Noir series.

Dear Mr Marlow,

I would like to know whether you think you would mind being portrayed as a British, dual heritage, female, reluctant private investigator, a tough dame.

Would you, to quote your creator Raymond Chandler, bring on a man with a gun whenever the action flags, especially if you were a woman?

Your creator describes you as a knight in tarnished armour, who walks the mean streets, but is not himself mean. My character walks the mean streets of South London, rather than the mean streets of LA, but there’s a similar amount of Art Deco architecture (mixed with Georgian and Victorian of course because this is, after all London). As a woman, she does not have even the fictional tarnished armour that Chandler ascribed to you, but neither is she herself mean.

My character can wise crack when the occasion demands and likes the occasional drink, scotch, rather than bourbon. While she is unlikely to get involved in the shenanigans of the rich, as you did in the Big Sleep, she does, on occasion have to deal with people who walk a thin line between legal and illegal – which you also did. Although perhaps Eddie Mar, the nightclub owner was closer to that fine line than most of the people that my character has to deal with.

While you may be shaking your head at the thought of a dame chasing murderers, might I remind you that sometimes, you dealt with dames who were just as guilty as the men. In conclusion, I can only say, that Chandler made your character so real to people, that you were forever imprinted on many people’s minds with the celluloid image of Humphrey Bogart – I’m afraid my character is no Lauren Bacall. The books, wherein you walk the pages have, for the last twenty years, been Penguin Classics – something very few crime writers and their characters have managed to aspire to.

I should say goodbye here, but instead, I think I’ll say so long – and at the risk of melding one character onto another, in closing I have to say if you need me, whistle, you know how to whistle don’t you Sam?