Since their inception, detective novels have been a wildly successful genre of American fiction, featuring a uniquely American belief in rugged individualism. This book focuses on Raymond Chandler"s creation of Philip Marlowe, a detective whose feeling for community and willingness to compromise radically changed the genre"s vigilantism and violence. It compares Chandler"s work to early and mid-20th century American detective novels, particularly those by John Carroll Daly, Mickey Spillane, Dashiell Hammett and Ross Macdonald, as well as contemporary British detective fiction, highlighting Chandler"s contribution to the American genre.