What we know of Raymond Chandler is shrouded in secrets and half-truths as impenetrable and deceptive as anything in his magisterial novel, The Long Goodbye. Now, drawing on new interviews, previously unpublished letters and archives on both sides of the Atlantic, literary gumshoe Tom Williams casts light on this most mysterious of writers. In this long-awaited new biography, the most balanced and comprehensive yet written, Tom Williams shadows one of the twentieth centurys true literary giants and considers how crime was raised to the level of art.