The position of Raymond Chandler in the pantheon of American letters has long been subject to much debate. Naturally imbued with a literary sensibility Chandler helped to revolutionise the crime genre, bringing to it a colourful, hard edged vernacular allied to a modern social commentary. Through the figure of private eye, Philip Marlowe, Chandler created a contemporary knight errant whose not so picturesque adventures trudging the mean streets of Los Angeles helped to vividly define the moral dilemmas of a dark, uncertain post-war world. And yet - can The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely and Lady in the Lake be considered 'literature'? Author Anthony Fowles - who freely admits to writing half-adozen 'sub-Chandlerian' thrillers - brings to the discussion both the detached eye of the professional critic and the sympathetic understanding of the practitioner. It is a background which allows Fowles to make a balanced, finely-nuanced contribution to the ongoing Chandler debate, refusing to relegate the noir master to the wilderness of 'genre writer' but equally avoiding outlandish claims of literary pre-eminence. In circumventing the pitfalls and simplicities of 'either/or', Fowles places Chandler's achievements in a fully-realised context, enabling the reader to appreciate more deeply the peculiar strengths and limitations of the prose lyricist of the American mid-century.