Hmmm... don't read this if you're SPOILER-phobic.
The ending of NOBODY RUNS FOREVER, as Mark pointed out, seems
to leave several things up in the air. Is this Stark's
swansong for Parker, perhaps? Or a suggestion a big change
("a crisis point") is coming, possibly to do with Claire? The
title is ominous enough.
I agree that the book might mark an "interesting turning
point in the series....where Parker's attachments bring him
to a crisis point" Perhaps the next book will tell... if
there is one.
But really, that brings us back to Chandler and the ending of
PLAYBACK (the novel) and the first few chapters of POODLE
SPRINGS. Those snippets of a Marlowe in love aren't
completely out of character, if you view them as the logical
extension of the view of Marlowe as knight, which goes right
back to the beginning, in THE BIG SLEEP.
Marlowe's always been one of the more romantic figures in
detective fiction, after all. Certainly, there's something of
the Arthurian romance or the chivalric tradition or whatever
you want to call it in the Marlowe books (LADY IN THE LAKE,
anyone?), so it does make at least a little sense that
eventually Marlowe would find his lady fair. PLAYBACK and
POODLE SPRINGS may have marked a change from the other books
(and perhaps Chandler didn't pull it off as well as he
could), but all that lovey-dovey stuff isn't completely
inconsistent with Marlowe's world view. Maybe Chandler just
wanted Marlowe to be happy for once, especially since the
author's own life was circling the drain by then.
Interesting to note that Ross Macdonald's last published
book, THE BLUE HAMMER, suggests Archer may have finally found
someone too. And McDonald's McGee met the love of his life
near the end of the series, as well (although she got bumped
off in THE GREEN RIPPER, he did pick up a daughter in the
last book, THE LONELY SILVER RAIN). And Marlowe and Loring's
relationship in many ways paved the way for Spenser and
Susan, a point Parker himself has made (Jim, put that in your
paradigm).
I mean, marrying off or otherwise pairing off your formerly
lone wolf detective has been done a zillion times before and
since, but in many ways it would have been interesting to see
where Chandler would have taken it. Would he have let Marlowe
and Linda crash and burn, or would he have figured out a way
to pull it off? Certainly, Parker suggested one way, a sort
of separate-but-together scenario, but what would Chandler
have done?
--
Kevin Burton Smith
The Thrilling Detective Web Site Holiday Issue New stories and the 2004 Thrillies. http://www.thrillingdetective.com
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 21 Dec 2004 EST