The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler

When he returns to Lavery's home, he finds the man murdered in his own bathroom. What's more, they say she was accompanied by a man matching Chris Lavery's description. In fact, multiple employees say they saw a woman matching Crystal's description. On the way, however, he decides to drop in on a few hotels, hoping to catch a lucky break that maybe somebody saw Crystal lately. But it's not his case, so Marlowe returns to Los Angeles. The police arrest Chess, though Marlowe isn't so sure that Chess is the killer. While the decomposition and water damage has made the woman's face unrecognizable, the clothes and jewelry identify her as Muriel. While rounding the lake, the two discover a bloated, decomposed, and waterlogged dead woman that's washed ashore. While Marlowe and Chess walk the grounds, a visibly distraught Chess explains that his wife, Muriel, left him around the same time of Crystal's disappearance. There, Marlowe meets the caretaker, Bill Chess, who is expecting him. In any case, Marlowe doesn't need the heat he's getting from Degarmo and temporarily shifts his investigation to Little Fawn Lake where Kingsley owns a cabin. Almore's wife, Marlowe learns, died a suspicious death, and some believe that the wealthy doctor bribed the local police to look the other way. Degarmo mistakenly believes that the house Marlowe is watching is the one next door belonging to Dr. While staking out Lavery's house in the nearby town of Bay City, a local scumbag cop named Al Degarmo threatens Marlowe and asks him to leave. After taking the case, Marlowe's first stop is to Lavery's, where he suspects Crystal may be hiding out despite Lavery's claims of ignorance. Unable to reach Crystal, Kingsley pays Lavery a visit, but Lavery claims to have no knowledge of her whereabouts. But two weeks ago, she finally sent a telegram to Kingsley asking for a divorce so that she could marry her new boyfriend, a gigolo named Chris Lavery. Kingsley and his wife, Crystal, have been separated and estranged for some time. Marlowe is approached in his office by a wealthy business tycoon named Derace Kingsley. In The Lady in the Lake, Marlowe investigates the disappearance of a woman in a small mountain village outside Los Angeles, California. It features Chandler's trademark character, Philip Marlowe, the Los Angeles-based private investigator played by Humphrey Bogart in the 1946 film The Big Sleep and Elliott Gould in 1973's The Long Goodbye.

The Lady in the Lake is a detective novel published in 1943 by the American author Raymond Chandler.

The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler