Lunchtime read: Trouble is my business

This is a real pleasure to read and you are rooting for John Dalmas throughout enjoying it when he rides his luck and smiling at his wise cracks. Chandler has the ability to create a world (that is often set at night) where the lines between good and bad are blurred almost completely and the winners are those that live to fight another day with their integrity intact.

Highlights from the second half of Trouble is my business

* Having been picked up by the driver for the client who has hired him and witnessed the shooting of the younger of the two gun men who held him up in his flat earlier Dalmas heads back to the hotel to visit the girl at the centre of the commotion

* She isn't there but the gambler her boyfriend owes money to is and after threatening Dalmas he tells him that he would have not authorised the shooting of either the car Dalmas was in or the detective he had discovered dead earlier

* Dalmas is left in the hotel room alone and investigates in the bedroom and discovers his client's son dead in the wardrobe but leaves him there and heads home and meets the police who have been tipped off that he was involved in the earlier shooting

* Dalmas comes out of it clean and then after encountering the now lone gunman who he handcuffs to his bed he heads for a showdown with the client and a chance to break it to him about his son and discovers on arriving at his house that the dame has already arrived

* Dalmas outlines his theory which you are in suspense over along with the other three characters in the room and it turns out that the killer is George the driver who hoped to be made an heir to his master's millions once the real heir was out of the way

* The ending includes a trip to the Police station, some dates with the woman and a couple more chances to use the line "Trouble is my business"

Great stuff and more comes tomorrow...