Description

In this colorful reinvention of a classic, Philip Marlowe finds himself tangled in two missing persons cases; “Ide has chiseled off the rust while keeping the soul of one of American fiction’s icons” (Dennis Lehane).

The seductive and relentless figure of Raymond Chandler’s detective, Philip Marlowe, is vividly re-imagined in present-day Los Angeles. Here is a city of scheming Malibu actresses, ruthless gang members, virulent inequality, and washed-out police. Acclaimed and award-winning novelist Joe Ide imagines a Marlowe very much of our time: he’s a quiet, lonely, and remarkably capable and confident private detective, though he lives beneath the shadow of his father, a once-decorated LAPD homicide detective, famous throughout the city, who’s given in to drink after the death of Marlowe’s mother.
 
Marlowe, against his better judgement, accepts two missing person cases, the first a daughter of a faded, tyrannical Hollywood starlet, and the second, a British child stolen from his mother by his father. At the center of The Goodbye Coast is Marlowe’s troubled and confounding relationship with his father, a son who despises yet respects his dad, and a dad who’s unable to hide his bitter disappointment with his grown boy. 

Steeped in the richly detailed ethnic neighborhoods of modern LA, Ide’s The Goodbye Coast is a bold recreation that is viciously funny, ingeniously plotted, and surprisingly tender.

What's Inside

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Praise

“How the hell do you write a mystery about Philip Marlowe, set it in Los Angeles, and still make it a total gobsmacking original? That’s the miracle of Joe Ide’s The Goodbye Coast. Ide has created a Philip Marlowe for the 2020s. And an L.A. that he clearly loves and hates.”  —James Patterson
"Not so much a reimagining of Chandler's world as a reinvigoration. By transplanting Philip Marlowe to 2021 LA, Joe Ide has chiseled off the rust while keeping the soul of one of American fiction’s icons. The Goodbye Coast is a blast from start to finish.”
  —Dennis Lehane
"Sunshine and skullduggery, movie stars and mayhem -- Joe Ide brings us a Philip Marlowe who wears our twenty-first century like a well-cut suit." —Ian Rankin
“This version of Raymond Chandler's iconic PI patrols the mean streets of contemporary Los Angeles, and while he shares the original's bone-deep iconoclasm, he's distinctly his own man, complete with a rich backstory… The sleuthing here is top notch, but it's the bantering father-son interplay (evoking Jim Rockford and father Rocky in The Rockford Files) that really gives the book its zip. More Marlowe and Emmet would be most welcome.” 
  —Booklist, starred
PRAISE FOR THE IQ NOVELS:
"Joe Ide's IQ novels are an electrifying combination of Holmesian mystery and SoCal grit." —Time
"Ide is still the hottest of recently-emerged crime writers. He has populated Southern California with wildly entertaining characters, from those hinted at offstage to the motormouths whose priceless talk fills his pages." —Janet Maslin, New York Times
"As far as I'm concerned, Joe Ide can't write them fast enough." —Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
"Joe Ide expands the territory of L.A. noir." —Gal Beckerman, New York Times
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