The Lady in the Lake

Derace Kingsley, executive at a cosmetics company, "...can't stand scandal." But a month before he hired Marlowe, his wife went to Mexico for a divorce in order to marry a playboy named Lavery. However, the wife's car is discovered, abandoned, and Lavery doesn't know anything about the divorce scheme. Kinglsey hires Marlowe to find his wife and keep it all out of the papers. Set in an idyllic town, "The Lady in the Lake" explores the theme of an evil that escapes the cities and infects the countryside--an evil that is, in fact, an individual trait that we each carry with us. Once again, especially in the use of the Arthurian title, Chandler reminds the reader of Marlowe's resemblance to a questing knight.