An accident? Not likely. In fact, suspicion has already fallen on his luscious widow, a cunning beauty fifty years his junior, set to inherit a sizeable fortune, and rumored to be carrying on with a strapping young tutor comfortably ensconced in the family estate. But criminologist Charles Hayward is casting his own doubts on the innocence of the entire Leonides brood. He knows them intimately. And he's certain that in a crooked house such as Three Gables, no one's on the level...

    An omnibus comprising Raymond Chandler's three Philip Marlowe novels, The Lady in the Lake, The High Window and The Little Sister.

    The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerism's, appearance, and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception until old secrets emerge that jeopardize the imposter's plan and his life.

    Immigrant Nick Garcos, like his father before him, becomes an independent trucker, soon landing in the brutal and crooked underworld of the produce markets of San Francisco, Oakland, Stockton, and Los Angeles.

    Garland suspects a traitor in the organization, and sets Beck to ferret him out. Beck has five suspects—Sid Dominic, Eddie Cortes, Hervey Isham, Paul Moon and J. J. Everett. Each one holds a position of power, but only one is working for the Attorney General's office. Beck suspects Everett, Garland's lawyer. But Beck is also falling in love with Everett's 20-year-old daughter, Marcy, while at the same time trying to fend off the advances of Garland's wife, Lena. Torn between his allegiance and his heart, Beck finds he isn't as tough as he thinks he is—because whoever the informer turns out to be, it's still his job to kill him. And the weakest link in the organization is turning out to be Beck.