description: This is one of three collections extracted from The Simple Art of Murder, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1950. The collection contains four stories, all about fifty pages long. Each is set in Los Angeles, centered on a tough-guy protagonist, and told by a third-person narrator who describes actions rather than thoughts. All first appeared in detective magazines. Philip Marlowe, hero of Chandler’s novels, is nowhere to be found. In the title story, originally published as “Noon Street Nemesis” in 1936, undercover narc Pete Anglish accidentally becomes involved in a scheme to extort money from a movie star. “Smart-Aleck Kill” (1934), another tale with a Hollywood angle, tells of P. I. Johnny Dalmas’s attempts to unravel a bogus blackmail plot. In “Guns at Cyrano’s” (1936) Ted Carmady, once a detective, now a hotel owner, gets into trouble when he discovers a pretty dancer unconscious in the hallway. Gambler Johnny De Rose hopes to avoid a vengeful gangster in “Nevada Gas” (1935) but is dragged into deadly violence anyway.
language: English
title: Pickup on Noon Street
titlecomplete: Pickup on Noon Street
characters: The white girl with a cheap brown felt hat, Smiler, John Vidaury, Pete Anglich, Rufe at Juggernaut, Mopsy (Pickup on Noon Street), The girl in the green hat, Trimmer Waltz, Detective Lieutenant Angus, Two police officers, William McKinley (Pickup on Noon Street), Reno at 4623 Noon Street, Irma (Pickup on Noon Street), The night clerk at Surprise Hotel
genres: Noir, Mystery, Pulp, Short Stories, Detective, Fiction, Crime
ratings_count: 298
places: Los Angeles, California
series: Philip Marlowe
publisher: Ballantine