Raymond Chandler Playback (Standard format, CD, Unabridged edition)

Toby Stephens stars in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatization of Raymond Chandler s final completed Philip Marlowe mystery

Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the 40s and 50s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe must struggle to retain his integrity amid the corruption he encounters daily.

In "Playback," Marlowe is awakened early in the morning by a phone call from a lawyer. Clyde Umney instructs him to meet the eight o clock train from Chicago, and shadow one of the passengers.

The lady in question, Eleanor King, is beautiful, classy, and clearly unhappy. Obediently Marlowe follows her all the way to Esmeralda, where she s going under the name Betty Mayfield and being leaned on by a cheap blackmailer.

Stuck doing a sneaky job for people he doesn t like, Marlowe feels even grubbier than usual and he s soon in more trouble than usual too as he comes up against gangsters, hard men, and a hitman

Starring Toby Stephens, this exciting dramatization retains all the verve of Chandler s last novel."