"The Lady in the Lake" by Raymond Chandler

I inhaled this book in a day and a half like a drowning woman whose been handed an oxygen tank.  It was everything I needed right now -- sparkly and gritty and grim and delicious.  

You know by now that I adore Raymond Chandler's books.  I try to read one a year (I have all seven of his novels, plus two collections of his other writings, like short stories and essays), which means it's about nine years between readings, and that lets me forget a lot of what the plots involv...