On holiday, I swapped science for literature. First, I tried a resurrection: Denise Mina recreates Raymond Chandler鈥檚 detective Philip Marlowe in her new book . She beautifully captures Chandler鈥檚 staccato, witty style, although I found her Marlowe a fraction less admirable than the original. To compare versions, try Chandler鈥檚 1939 book, , for lines like: 鈥淵ou鈥檙e broke, eh? I been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate.鈥�
Then I enjoyed Chester Himes鈥檚 1957 book , a searing work of crime fiction by a leading Black writer. It features a hearse full of gold and a conman dressed as a Sister of Mercy.
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(pictured above) by Ursula K. Le Guin also impressed me. This 1969 sci-fi story, set on a planet where gender is fluid, examined binary concepts of gender and their influence decades before many were thinking about it.
Chris Simms
Assistant news editor
London
