My favorite Raymond Chandler book is The Lady in the Lake. Why? There is a saying in Hollywood: Deliver the moment. These two passages show how he did just that.

In the first, it’s the sheer excellence of his writing.

Marlowe has entered the reception area of the Gillerlain Company, makers of perfume. They display some of their wares in a showcase:

“There were perfumes in tall thin bottles that looked as if a breath would blow them over and perfumes in little pastel phials tied with ducky satin bows, like the little girls at a dancing class. The cream of the crop seemed to be something very small and simple in a squat amber bottle. It was in the middle at eye height, had a lot of space to itself, and was labeled Gillerlain Regal, The Champagne of Perfumes. It was definitely the stuff to get. One drop of that in the hollow of your throat and the matched pink pearls started falling on you like summer rain.”

Later on, there’s a passage that shows drama and, more than that, Chandler’s great control of a scene. Marlowe has some news for a loquacious small-town sheriff up in the mountains, which he delivers in his sly, understated manner. It tends to pack more of a punch that way:

“Are you Sheriff Patton?” “Constable and deputy sheriff. What law we got to have around here I’m it. Come election anyways. There’s a couple of good boys running against me this time and I might get whupped. Job pays eighty a month, cabin, firewood and electricity. That ain’t hay in these little old mountains.” “Nobody’s going to whip you,” I said. “You’re going to get a lot of publicity.” “That so?” he asked indifferently and ruined the spittoon again. “That is, if your jurisdiction extends over to Little Fawn Lake.” “Kingsley’s place. Sure. Something bothering you over there, son?” “There’s a dead woman in the lake.”

Max Epstein is the author of the noir mystery The Gods Who Walk Among Us, winner of the Kindle Scout competition. On sale March 14th, it is available here.