Denise Mina's version of Marlowe

Spoilers in my review.

The Second Murder by Denise Mina is pretty good. You can still make more reality of having gay people and competent women, social awareness. I find it richer to rewrite things with a modern sensibility. There’s still a feel of Marlowe. 

Kittens only cabaret, men aren't invited. Putting Marlowe in the club and uncomfortable is genius. She makes a female PI, sort of like Enola Holmes. I really enjoyed Lidia Poet on Netflix. Putting people back into history that were present. The whole world is there, not just a slimmed down version. People are brave enough to proudly proclaim their twisted prejudices nowadays, but in the America I grew up in, they were slightly ashamed and hid their negative and narrow views.

I really liked Shelly Parker-Chan's book She Who Became The Sun, writing transgender experience into ancient China historical novel. Good writers don't make it feel programmatic, pushed it, it feels balanced, and accurate.

Makes me want to see the movies:

• The Falcon Takes Over (1942) – (adaptation of Farewell, My Lovely with detective "The Falcon" substituting for Marlowe) George Sanders as The Falcon.
• Time to Kill (1942) – (adaptation of The High Window with detective Michael Shayne substituting for Marlowe) Lloyd Nolan as Shayne.
• Murder, My Sweet (1944) – (adaptation of [and released in the UK as] Farewell, My Lovely) Dick Powell as Marlowe.
• The Big Sleep (1946) – Humphrey Bogart as Marlowe.
• Lady in the Lake (1947) – Robert Montgomery as Phillip Marlowe ("Phillip" is spelled with two "l"s in this film.^[3])
• The Brasher Doubloon (1947) – (adaptation of [and released in the UK as] The High Window) George Montgomery as Marlowe.
• Marlowe (1969) – (adaptation of The Little Sister) James Garner as Marlowe. This became the partial inspiration for The Rockford Files, the other being the series Maverick.
• The Long Goodbye (1973) – Elliott Gould as Marlowe.
• Farewell, My Lovely (1975) – Robert Mitchum as Marlowe.
• The Big Sleep (1978) – Robert Mitchum as Marlowe.
• Marlowe (2022) – (adaptation of The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black) Liam Neeson as Marlowe.

Honestly not sure the quality, probably should just read Chandler.

I wonder how Mina learned about midcentury LA from Glasgow 70 years later.

One mistake she makes, she uses "queue" which Americans and Marlowe would not have used. We use "line" (p. 192).

She even put in some incomprehensible and boring pages to copy Chandler. 

In the end Marlowe gets drunk because a woman he's attracted to has a boyfriend, silly of him, but probably more realistic.