The Black-Eyed Blonde is an authorized sequel to the Raymond Chandler novel The Long Goodbye, starring Hardboiled Detective Philip Marlowe. It is written by Booker Prize winner John Banville under his crime writing alias of Benjamin Black.
Beautiful perfume heiress, Clare Cavendish, comes to Philip Marlowe with a strange request: find her missing boyfriend. The twist is that he's been dead for almost two months, having died in a car accident outside a swanky nightclub.
Investigating the circumstances of the man's death, Philip soon finds himself caught between a millionaire, Mexican gangsters, and some of the homegrown variety of criminal. What happened to Nico Peterson and why does everyone think he's faked his death rather than actually died? What was everyone's interest in what seems like a two-bit grifter? Why does Clare seem more interested in seducing Philip than finding her dead lover?
The book was losely adapted into the Marlowe (2022) starring Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger.
This book contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Philip Marlowe is a great deal more tolerant of gay people, minorities, and criminals in general than his Raymond Chandler counterpart. Notably, his character in those books were also
Fair for Its Day. - Asshole Victim: Lopez and Gomez are subjected to Cold-Blooded Torture and execution. It couldn't have happened to a nicer pair of guys.
- Back for the Dead: Terry Lennox heads back from Mexico, only to be killed by Everett Cavendish.
- Betty and Veronica: More like Veronica and Veronica. Philip is still pining for Linda Loring when he starts developing feelings for Clare Cavendish, who is also an intelligent millionaire with a sketchy family.
- Broken Pedestal: Philip comes away with this feeling for Terry Lennox, believing that he became a Fallen Hero when he accepted jobs for Mendy Mendez.
- Chandler's Law: Philip's meeting with Lynn Peterson is interrupted by two Mexican gangsters who proceed to beat the living stuffing out of him.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Terry and Philip might have had to throw down or Terry could have gone after the heroin before the police got it but Everett just walks into the room, high as a kite, before killing Terry.
- Faking the Dead: Everyone assumes that Nico Peterson did this to escape his enemies. They're right and he finally shows up in the final part of the book, revealing he substituted a random body that he had his sister identify as his own.
- The Don:
- Lou Hendricks is one of the most powerful criminals in Bay City.
- Mendy Mendez is a Mexican gangster who is the owner of the heroin that Nico stole.
- Fat Bastard: Lou Hendricks is a grossly overweight man as well as a ruthless gangster.
- Femme Fatale: Clare Cavendish is one of these, seducing Philip Marlowe on behalf of her lover, Terry Lennox.
- Go Seduce My Archnemesis: This turns out to have been Terry Lennox's plan in order to get Philip Marlowe involved. He dispatches Clare Cavendish to do so.
- Greed: All of this was due to Nico Peterson wanting to steal a million dollars worth of heroin.
- Karma Houdini: Nico Peterson escapes to become a gigolo working on a cruise ship with no serious consequences despite his involvement in multiple murders, including getting his sister killed.
- Macguffin: All of this is over ten kilos of heroin that Nico attempted to steal before deciding give back to his boss via Marlowe. Marlowe, of course, decides to hand it over to the cops instead.
- The Mistress: Clare Cavendish has the male version of this with Nico Peterson, claiming she and her husband have an arrangement. She's actually sleeping with Terry Lennox from The Long Goodbye.
- Rape as Drama: Lynn Peterson is subjected to this before her murder by the Mexican gangsters.
- Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: The Mexicans, Lopez and Gomez, are a pair of rapists and murderers who put Nico as well as other locals to shame.
- Savage South: Mexico is shown as a crime ridden location that is dominated by ruthless gangsters. At least the parts that Philip deals with.
- Spoiled Brat:
- Nico Peterson grew up the son of a millionaire but rebelled to become a petty criminal.
- Everett "Rett" Cavendish is a dope-addicted Manchild that murders Terry Lennox.
- Tap on the Head: Averted despite Chandler's frequent use of this as Philip gets knocked out by a pistol blow to the face and later being drugged.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Nico Peterson stole a bunch of heroin, blackmailed his gay hotel manager associate to help him fake his death, and got his sister to identify his body. This results in a massive manhunt for him after Clare Cavendish spies him in San Fransisco before telling her boyfriend, Terry Lennox, who passes it along to his gangster boss.
