Banville, a Booker Prize winner for The Sea, has written a number of Martin Quirke mysteries that take place in Dublin but this is an entirely new genre for him.  Writing in the noir style of Raymond Chandler, Black/Banville recreates the private eye, Philip Marlowe, hard drinking, tough talking, but highly ethical and moral and puts him in the middle of a muddled mystery filled with LA characters from Hollywood—the beautiful and mysterious rich but forsaken wife (Clare Cavendish), the sadistic Mexican hit-men, the rich but crooked LA real estate developer, etc etc.  Makes for a good story and a real in depth revisit of Marlowe and Chandler and their 1930’s LA.