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2.5 stars. The episodic nature of the narrative hindered the flow of the story, but since it covers about 40 years (if you count the flashbacks to William's childhood) I guess it made sense. I probably would have liked it more if I hadn't recently read George Martin's Knight of the Seven Kingdoms which presents another take on the “penniless knight making good through the tournament circuit” theme. Martin's stories are not set in a real medieval Europe of course, but there is a liveliness about them this lacks.
I'm bumping it up a half star because of Chadwick's fidelity to her source material. I studied Marshal years ago as a graduate student in medieval history and was happy to see names I hadn't read or thought about in a long time in this novelization of Marshal's life. Nothing stood out as too outlandish or utterly unbelievable, which is much more than I can say for some other “historical” fiction.
3 stars, rounded up to 3.5
Classic noir entertainment and a very enjoyable read. I couldn't help hearing Bogart's voice narrating the terse prose, which was fun at the beginning, but grated by the end.
I was leaning toward a rating closer to 4 stars, but Marlowe's tough guy act wore thin over the course of the novel. I never entirely connected with Marlowe. Are we expected to believe that he's a martyr to his rigid yet opaque ideals of honor and justice? He spends a lot of time and energy berating others for their shortcomings, but doesn't bat an eye when he makes a pass at or attempts to seduce married women. He feels aggrieved and misunderstood, but you never get a good feel for what makes him do the things he does.
The 50s slang hasn't always aged well, but Chandler does a great job of putting the reader into southern California in the years after WWII. Chandler's description of a landscape and city that I'm sure have now changed beyond recognition is excellent.
