Saturday, July 18, 2009

Mandarin's Jade (short story; Chandler, Raymond)

Rating: 4
Year: 1937
Genre: Crime
Read Again? maybe.

Fifth of 12 shorts in "Trouble is My Business," and another chunk of "Farewell, My Lovely."

John Dalmas is hired by a rich guy to act as protection while he pays off some jewel thieves. They drive to a secluded place. Dalmas gets sapped (as always--the guy's got to have some headache issues by now!). The client gets his head caved in.

We also see the Big Indian, the psychic, and the girl reporter in scenes that later became part of "Farewell."

At first, the novelty of these shorts kept me reading...but by the time I got done with this one (or it got done with me) I was getting tired of the formula and of having read it all already. Still, I'll give it a 4 like the ones before. It's not a bad story. I just want to see something different now.

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