"Carnivals were where old man could shine a little behind their masks and pretend that their vital spirits still worked." In 1989, Philip Marlowe is now 72, retired, living in Baja and contemplating the ways things have changed, not for the better, from the 1950s. He has a bad leg and is not particularly robust, but when he is approached by a couple of insurance investigators he agrees to take on one last case. Donald Zinn drowned in Mexico, making his much younger widow, Dolores Araya, very wea...

It is always a heady prospect for an author to step into the shoes of another acclaimed author, especially one such as the beloved Raymond Chandler. And to then write a story featuring none other than Phillip Marlowe, perhaps the greatest of hardboiled gumshoes. That, my friends, is tempting the fates. But Lawrence Osborne is certainly no fly-by-night author and in this novel, I think he does the character, (and by extension, Chandler himself), justice.This novel is not about the Philip Marlow o...

Chandler’s Marlowe is a towering figure in the lore of hardboiled gumshoes. He is so important to the literary genre that he stands nearly seventy feet tall and when he speaks the earth quivers. For such a towering figure, Chandler only bequeathed us seven full novels and a fistful of short stories. More recently, a host of writers have attempted to add to the Philip Marlowe lore, paying homage to Chandler’s work. Osborne offers us, not another story set in the mean streets of Marlowe’s 1940’s L...

This Raymond Chandler pastiche features the aging Philip Marlowe, in his 70s, on his last, we assume, investigation. It is certainly more Lawrence Osborne than Raymond Chandler; it reads in part like a travelogue, with attention to the details of place and custom. The good news is, as Osborne is one of our greatest living writers, this is a spellbinding tale of detours on the last highway. I chose to not think of the central character as Marlowe but as a man sort of my age who fears that the joy...

With what is now an exceedingly common practice in the publishing world, Lawrence Osborne revives the hard boiled noir series featuring the unforgettable Philip Marlowe, albeit his own version of Marlowe. Set in the coastal areas of California and Mexico, locations that serve well for the underhand dealings, shady characters, con merchants, and as Marlowe terms it, the 'able grables', all requisite requirements for a Philip Marlowe outing. Osborne does a particularly good job in making these pla...

2017 was the year I discovered Lawrence Osborne and my reading choices were summarily upended. By the end of the year, I had read 4 of his books – 2 fiction and 2 non-fiction – and, so far, in 2018, I’ve read 2 more. I’m purposefully leaving several back-catalog options available lest I sink helplessly into a deep funk when there are no more Osborne works left unread. (The foregoing disclosure is far more significant for purposes of assessing my objectivity (none) than knowing that I received a

The year is 1989., the Reagan presidency had just come to an end, and Detective Philip Marlowe is on the case again. Philip Marlowe has retired and is living in Baja. He thinks about the way things have changed (not for the better). He has a bad leg but when he is approached from a couple of insurance investigators, he decides to take on one last case. Donald Zinn had drowned in Mexico, leaving his widow Dolores Araya a wealthy woman. Thinking that the details of Donald Zinn's deathhad been fals...

At 72 years of age, Philip Marlowe has retired. But when he’s offered a case by an insurance company, he decides to have one last adventure. They want Marlowe to investigate the death of Donald Zinn. They’ve paid Zinn’s widow a very large sum of money but something doesn’t seem right and they think Marlowe is the man to get to the bottom of it. Who doesn’t know and love Philip Marlowe? What a perfect delight to have an author such as Lawrence Osborne bring him to life once again. The Robert Chan...

Only To Sleep is a novel featuring private investigator Philip Marlow by Lawrence Obsorne. I really had a difficult time rating this book because on one hand, if it had resonated with this reader more, the rating would have been higher, but for some reason, this novel just did not do that. Obsorne tells a tale where Marlow is on his elderly last legs working one more case and seeking to determine if a man has faked his death or not in order to collect on a large insurance settlement. The novel i...

A wonderful coda to the journey of Philip Marlowe, perhaps the most iconic hardboiled detective in all of fiction. Set amid the desolate, sleepy remnants of the Mexico of old, the story is wistful and often languid, reflecting an already retired Marlowe called back to the game for one last time.Without question, Osborne succeeds in finding Marlowe's voice in a way that rings true and I think fits remarkably well into Chandler's legacy. Certainly his prose and style don't match Chandler at this b...

Lawrence Osborne is the third author who got asked by the Chandler estate to add to the the Philip Marlowe book, earlier entries being two books by Robert B Parker and John Banville. Which is certainly not a list of poor writers.Osborne chose to place the Philip Marlowe in the year 1988 with the lovely idea of having Marlowe being 72 years old, which makes a tough detective who can manage with his fists what his wits can not conquer. This is an older retired Marlowe who lives in Baja Mexico and

I’m afraid I found Only To Sleep pretty dull and rather aptly titled for me. As a lover of Chandler’s originals I approached it with some scepticism, especially after John Banville’s The Black-Eyed Blonde, which I thought was a pretty dreadful pastiche of Chandler’s style. This was stylistically better, but really didn’t add up to much.It’s a good idea in many ways to set the book in 1988, when Marlowe is 74 years old; his narrative voice is calmer, less snappy and the wisecracks and brilliant s...

“Only to Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel” written by Lawrence Osborne, is to the best of my knowledge, the third authorized Philip Marlowe to be written since the death of Raymond Chandler on 26 March 1959 in La Jolia Ca. with the blessing of the Chandler estate. And I say that it is lucky number three.Of the two previous attempts, which were written by two earlier mystery authors, it was asked when John Banville, was writing under his mystery novel pseudonym Benjamin Black, would he be able to pu...

I have not read a Chandler novel of detective Philip Marlowe and his hardboiled noir escapades of hustlers, femme fatales, the darker side of LA, and booze, lots of booze. I did see The Big Sleep years ago, and am familiar with some of Marlowe’s famous one-liners and cases through literary allusions and literature culture in general. But, being a fan of Lawrence Osborne, I decided to read this, knowing I wouldn’t have too many pre-conceived notions (if any) on how Marlowe’s character and actions...

Thanks to First to Read for the advance copy.Philip Marlowe in his dotage is not a pretty picture. Then again, he's still snooping about in a world that isn't so pretty itself. That he maintains any sly wit is impressive. However, without his penchant for, and selfless skill at, falling for the femme fatale, there would be no story. He maintains that dream-like progression through the events of the case, a clue here and there pushing the narrative forward despite Marlowe's every effort to hold s...

Just the name Philip Marlowe straight away conjured images of Humphrey Bogart with a beautiful woman by his side for me, of course I had to age him in my mind as in this story he was in his 70's and eager to take on just one more case. So with Marlowe magic written all over the blurb and the story reading in my mind in the voice of Bogart, I was in for a one sitting session with a clear don't disturb warning written on my expression.Marlowe was invited by two men representing an insurance compan...

Lovingly true to Raymond Chandler in spirit, tone and wisecracking-but-wistful similes.Osborne's been much lauded for this post-Chandler Philip Marlowe sequel, and rightly so. Osborne effortlessly adds age, deep weariness, and fragility to the hero's makeup while preserving the original Bogart flavors of caginess and stoically battered chivalry.How much you enjoy the book depends on how much you liked the Marlowe mysteries in the first place.The novel's ostensibly set in 1980s Mexico. But Marlow...

One of the limitations of the Goodreads star system is that it doesn't allow for nuance. This is an excellent novel that I admire immensely (five stars) yet it's one that I didn't personally much enjoy (two or three stars). Ideally I'd simply not give it a star rating at all, but that doesn't appear to be an option.It's the late 1980s and Philip Marlowe is 72 years old. An insurance company calls him out of retirement to investigate the recent drowning death in Mexico of real estate magnate Dona...

Two of my favorite writers have worked with Raymond Chandler’s material, John Banville and William Faulkner. And now the superb Lawrence Osborne throws his hat into the soup, portraying Marlowe as an old, crippled man with memories of better times. In a somewhat convoluted plot that ranges from El Centro to various Mexican locales, Osborne has the old fellow bumbling along, sardonically. I wish the Chandler trust would be happy releasing the old books. We just did not need Only To Sleep.

For some reason I just couldn’t get into this novel. I love Phillip Marlow and was looking forward to reading this novel, but when you feel like you are reading a book just to finish it, you shouldn’t punish yourself by making yourself stick with it. It was well written, I don’t know if it was setting or what that made this a difficult read for me.