SOURCE: "Close-up of Chandler," in New Statesman, Vol. LXIII, No. 1618, March 16, 1962, pp. 379-80.

In the following review of Raymond Chandler Speaking, Priestley assesses Chandler's story-telling skills and his efforts to turn murder mysteries into literature.

Raymond Chandler Speaking offers us various unpublished pieces, including several chapters from the novel he left unfinished at his death, and a large number of letters written to his publishers, agents, fellow writers and various friends. It is a rather more solid book than it would first appear to be, and Chandler's many admirers will find it good value. Young writers chiefly concerned with the novel of action and violence should not miss it, for Chandler, at his best a master of this kind of fiction, has much to say that deserves their attention.

Though I make no appearance in these pages, I was in fact among the first over here to praise...