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Seventy-five years ago this week a revolution in crime-writing began when Knopf published The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler's first novel. Reviews in 1939 were wary and unenthusiastic, however, and only gradually was it recognised that Chandler had pulled off a bold fusion of highbrow and lowbrow – much-applauded by authors such as WH Auden, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh, but also much-imitated by fellow chroniclers of murder.

A retired homicide detective believes that his father committed the notorious "Black Dahlia" murder that has been unsolved for half a century. In a new book, Steve Hodel states that late physician George Hodel killed 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short in a fit of jealousy. Her body, severed at the waist, nearly drained of blood and posed with arms and legs spread-eagle, was found in a vacant lot in 1947. Authorities said her face and body had been slashed, apparently while she was alive. Short was nicknamed the "Black Dahlia" by acquaintances because of the black clothing and the flower...

Today is the scheduled FREEPER READING CLUB discussion of the Raymond Chandler books. If you have read any of his books, you know that Chandler had a unique command of the American Idiom. A big reason for this is that Chandler did not take the way Americans speak for granted. This was because Chandler, although an American himself, was raised as a youth in Britain and spoke with an English accent. When he returned to America, he was fascinated by the way Americans spoke and this is reflected in his stories. Well, that's my two bits for now on this...

"Then her hands dropped and jerked at something and the robe she was wearing came open and underneath it she was as naked as September Morn but a darn sight less coy."--The Long Good-bye (Chapter 29) "Across the street somebody had delirium tremens in the front yard and a mixed quartet tore what was left of the night into small strips and did what they could to make the strips miserable. While this was going on the exotic brunette didn't move more that one eyelash."--"Red Wind" (Section 5) "To say she had a face that would have stopped a clock...