The Machinery of Night

Posted 9:46 AM by Angie Schultz

I Have No Topic, and I Must Blog

I expect there's going to be a lot of that around here.

Today I wander over to Ken Layne's place, and his Amazon ad is showing all Raymond Chandler books. Now I'm scared. Did Layne suggest Chandler to Amazon? Do they have a sekrit sooper computer that seeks out proper literary genres to match to blog advertising? Or worse, a human who does that? Or is it just a big spooky coincidence?

Chandler's one of my favorite authors. He has the ability to teleport you to the scene. When Marlowe's prowling through some dame's closet to find what she has hidden, you feel the dresses and shoes and suitcases under your own hand. You smell the sun-heated dust and hear the drip from the water in the bathroom sink that the landlord is always promising to fix, but never does. I don't know how he does that.

But more to the point, occasionally Ken Layne will channel the shade of Chandler. Not often. I think he saves it for his books. Gotta get me one o' them rascals one day.

Assuming I am ever employed again, a likely place for me to wind up is Los Angeles. I have this fantasy of having Layne and Welch take me on a Chandler tour, showing me all the local sites [sic, yes] that ended up in Chandler's novels. (And yes, you pervs, that's all there is to the fantasy. After all, I've seen pictures of those guys.)