The good news about "Poodle Springs" is that Robert B. Parker hits the bull's eye writing in the style and tone of Raymond Chandler. The bad news is that "Poodle Springs" is a story without much oomph.
When Chandler died in 1959, he had written the first four chapters. One wonders whether he got too sick to write or just put it aside, realizing that this case for Philip Marlowe wasn't heading anywhere interesting. In 1988, Chandler's estate chose Parker to finish the book.Marlowe is newly married in "Poodle Springs" - which, presumably, is Palm Springs - to a woman with a rich father. She thinks he should live on her millions; he thinks he should grub at his gumshoeing, a difference of opinion that apparently never surfaced during courtship.
In his first post-wedding case, Marlowe turns up a sleazy photographer-bigamist right down the street, whose wife also has a rich father. The earlier wife is in a beach house near Los Angeles. Marlowe also turns up two corpses and gets shot at by the killer.
Chandler fans probably will want to read "Poodle Springs." And Parker fans can be amazed that not a bit of the style he uses when writing about his own private eye, Spenser, slips in.