"Farewell, My Lovely" is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1940. It is the second novel he wrote featuring the Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. "Farewell, My Lovely", like many of Chandler's novels, was written by what he called cannibalizing previous short stories—taking previously written short stories and altering them to fit together as a novel. This practice is sometimes known as a fix-up. In this case the three stories were "Try the Girl", "Mandarin's Jade", and "The Man Who Liked Dogs".

"Try the Girl" provided the initial story about a hoodlum looking for his old girlfriend. She moved on to a more respectable life. "Mandarin's Jade" was the basis for the middle sections of the novel "Farewell, My Lovely". The sections focus on a jewel theft and actions which may or may not have actually happened, the murder of a blackmailer, and a corrupt psychic who works with a crime ring. "The Man Who Liked Dogs" provided the final part of the novel. Here, the detective is looking for a criminal and his search ultimately takes him to a gambling boat anchored off the Santa Monica coast. It is out of reach of the local law.

Respectively, "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1934), "Mildred Pierce" (1941), and "Double Indemnity" (1943) are all great selling crime novels that were written by James M. Cain.

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