"You're just like one of those rubber balls on the end of an elastic."

I am reading the wonderful "FINGER MAN" by RAYMOND CHANDLER in "THE BLACK LIZARD BIG BOOK OF PULPS."
Chandler was such a masterful writer. My favorite of his stories is "Red Wind," also included in this 1,000-page collection of classic pulp crime fiction of the 1920s, 30s and 40s.
Oddly, when "Finger Man" first appeared -- in the October 1934 issue of Black Mask -- the protagonist was an unnamed private eye. In the version included in the "Big Book," the protagonist has been identified as PHILIP MARLOWE, Chandler's greatest creation and -- with Sam Spade -- probably the most identifiable, fictional "dick."
I'm savoring this story, as I do the stories of Dashiell Hammett and Cornell Woolrich.
The writing is crisp, the lines are memorable and the excitement rarely fades.