A Mysterious Something in the Light by Tom Williams

Williams generously agreed to my request to do an interview for The Rap Sheet. I especially appreciate how Williams has clarified and demystified many things, particularly during the period of Chandler’s life before he started writing crime fiction, but also after Cissy died in 1954. Having now read A Mysterious Something (that subhead coming from a line near the end of Chandler’s first novel, 1939’s The Big Sleep), I agree with the British critics: this biography is the best all-round portrayal of the troubled California writer. publishers as well, and hopes to release an edition on this side of the Atlantic in the near future. Williams is currently shopping his work to U.S. I’ve been eagerly tracking his progress since then, and I purchased the Aurum Press edition of the biography from the Amazon UK Web site immediately upon publication. Williams and I became acquainted while he was doing research and ran across my essay about The Long Goodbye. thanks to his biography Chandler himself is a less mysterious something than he was.” And perhaps responding to the impulse to question the requirement of yet another biography of the hard-boiled pioneer (there have been four if you include The Long Embrace, Judith Freeman’s 2008 contemplation on the relationship between Chandler and his wife, Cissy), The Scotsman called Williams’ book “precise, kindly and necessary.” The London Times hailed Williams as the “best biographer” of one of America’s foremost detective novelists, and described his book as “packed, insightful, entertaining.” A follow-up review in The Sunday Times said, “Outstanding.

Critics are calling UK author Tom Williams’ debut study of Raymond Chandler, Raymond Chandler: A Mysterious Something in the Light, a definitive work.

A Mysterious Something in the Light by Tom Williams