In this essay, I will compare the authorial style of detective fiction writers, Ian Rankin and Raymond Chandler, by examining the texts of The Big Sleep, featuring private detective, Phillip Marlowe, first published in 1939, and Fleshmarket Close, featuring police detective, John Rebus, published in 2005. With reference to different narrative theories, I will describe how the role of discourse in narratives can impact on their meaning, and consider the discursive strategies used to communicate the narratives, including the use of story space and discourse space and the influence of the different historical, geographical and cultural settings, Chandler ‘s in 1930’s Los Angeles and Rankin’s in Edinburgh at the beginning of the 21^st century. 

Born in 1888 in Chicago, Chandler spent his formative years in Nebraska before moving to London in 1900 where he later worked as a journalist. Returning to Los Angeles after the war he became a highly paid executive in the oil industry, but in 1931, his propensity to alcoholism, promiscuity, and depression, that would haunt him the rest of his life, eventually lost him his job. To earn a living he tried writing for pulp fiction magazines and received his first acceptance in 1931 by Black Mask. With typical wry irony, Chandler wrote of the occasion to his English publisher in 1950. ‘After that I never looked back, although I had a good many uneasy periods looking forward.’ (Chandler, 1969. p. vii). Chandler adopted the hard-boiled style of crime fiction but pushed the boundaries of this formulaic genre with lyrical descriptions and the ironic similes that became his hallmark. The Big Sleep, published in 1935, was the first of seven Phillip Marlow novels, all made into movies. Chandler died in 1956. One of his most famous lines from The Big Sleep "Dead men are heavier than broken hearts’ (Chandler, 1939. P. 44) is carved on his gravestone.  

Born in Scotland in 1960, Ian Rankin studied literature at Edinburgh university, graduating in 1982. He lived in London and rural France before returning to Edinburgh, the setting for his crime fiction novels featuring John Rebus. Fleshmarket close, published in 2004, is his fifteenth novel featuring the cynical Edinburgh policeman who Rankin describes as ‘[A] professional misanthrope made more cynical by the job he does. He delights in flouting authority; he smokes and drinks; he doesn’t play by the rules. He is the ultimate maverick cop who prefers ‘old-school’ graft to new-fangled modern-day policing methods. He’s a flawed, pessimistic, multi-layered character, a troubled, brooding soul and a cynical loner who can find no solace in faith’ (Ian Rankin, 2017). Rankin’s influences include the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Muriel Spark, and William McIlvanney (Rankin, 2014) and ‘US crime writers James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard and Lawrence Block’ (Ian Rankin, 2017). Rankin’s says of Chandler, ‘The Big Sleep opens with my favourite paragraph in all crime fiction….It was one of the first crime novels I ever read and is still one of the best.’ (Rankin, 2005. p. v) The influence of Muriel Spark, who Rankin studied for his PHD, are clear in his references to the supernatural and Scotland’s dark history. In Freshmarket Close, police inspector, John Rebus, and his protégé, Siobhan Clarke, investigate a series of seemingly unconnected murder cases in a dire Edinburgh council estate and a nearby internment camp off asylum seekers, discovering Glasgow gangsters, racism and human trafficking along the way. They pursue their investigations both together and separately without realising the cases are connected. In The Big Sleep, private investigator, Phillip Marlow, is hired by a Los Angeles millionaire who is being blackmailed with pornographic images and gambling debts of his wild younger daughter, Carmen. As the bodies pile up, Marlowe tries to solve the murders and extricate the family from the seedy underworld of drugs pornography and organised crime with the help of older daughter, Vivian. He discovers that Carman is responsible for one of murders but decides to keep quiet about it. Even though Carmen also tried to kill Marlow, he considers justice will be better served by ensuring she receives help, rather than incarceration. 

Both Chandler and Rankin’s work reflects the codes and conventions of detective fiction, for example, following clues and the discovery of a body, which provides the inciting incident in both stories. There are, however, differences in their discursive strategies. Perhaps due to Rankin’s academic study of literature, his stories and plot reflect popular narrative theories, including the three-act structure advocated by Hollywood gurus Robert Mckee and Syd field, He follows the plot points, rising tension, climax and denouement, ensuring all loose ends are tied up. Chandler, on the other hand, considered structure and plot secondary to atmosphere and character, often leaving loose ends untied. Washington Post reviewer, Patrick Anderson, considered Chandler’s plots to be rambling and incoherent (Anderson, 2007).  When The Big Sleep was being adapted for film, Howard Hawks, the director, wired Chandler and asked him who killed Owen Taylor, the Sternwood family's chauffeur, Chandler replied that he didn’t know (ibid). Chandler considered plot to be subordinate to character and objected to English murder mystery writers, including Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayer, who he saw as unnecessarily preoccupied with clues and plot developments (Chandler, 1950). Despite this, Chandler’s plots were more complex than his contemporary detective fiction writers, often with a twist at the end. In The Big Sleep, he finds the murderer but then decides to let them off. But they do not compare with the complexity of Rankin’s plots which follow multiple story lines and characters that converge in the final chapter. This is illustrated with Rebus and Siobhan’s multiple investigations in Fleshmarket Close. 

To Chandler, the fabula was less important than the Sjezet, the atmosphere and characterization being more important than structure or plot. Chandler carefully describes the mise-en-scene for each setting irrespective of its significance to the plot as illustrated by his lengthy description the place where a man he was following, stopped briefly.

 ‘This was a narrow tree lined street with a retaining wall on one side and three bungalow courts in the other…. the second bungalow court (was) called La Bamba, a quite dim place with a double row of tree shaded bungalows on the other. The central walkway was lined with Italian Cypress’s trimmed short and chunky, something the shape of the oil jars in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ (Chandler, 2005. P. 26).

The description of a ‘quiet dim place’ (ibid) suggest the man may have stopped for a clandestine purpose giving meaning to the scene, but his broader and detailed description of setting, including his use of simile when describing the Cyprus trees, functions simply to bring the image more vividly into the reader’s mind.

Conversely, where the setting is irrelevant to the story, plot or meaning, Rankin sketches the mise-en-scene sufficiently only for the reader to recognise where the action is taking place. ‘They parked in a pay bay and walked through the gardens emerging in front of the university library’ Rankin, 2005. P. 255). Unlike Chandler, Rankin does not feel it necessary to describe how the gardeners have trimmed the greenery. However, where relevant, Rankin’s story space is also inhibited by vivid descriptions that create atmosphere seen in his description of the morgue.

‘The viewing gallery comprised three tiers of benches separated by a wall of glass from the autopsy suite. The place made some visitors queasy. Maybe it was the clinical efficiency of it all: the stainless-steel tables with their drainage outlets; the jars and specimen bottles. Or the way the entire operation resembled too closely the skills seen in any butcher’s shop- the carving and filleting by men in aprons and wellingtons. A reminder not only of mortality but of the body’s animal engineering, the human spirit reduced to meat on a slab’ (Rankin, 2005. P. 39).

Rankin often goes further than Chandler, by not only evoking an image of the setting in the reader’s mind, which echo in the novel’s title and foreshadows the narrative but also emotions of revulsion and fear raising deeper questions of mortality and the human spirit.

Chandler uses his descriptions of story space to give meaning to the characters who inhabit it, and create foreshadowing, mystery and suspense as is illustrated in his description of Vivian Regan’s room.

‘The room was too big, the ceiling was too high, the doors were too tall, and the carpet that went from wall to wall looked like a fresh fall of snow at lake Arrowhead. There were full-length mirrors and crystal doodads all over the place. The ivory furniture had chromium on it, and the enormous ivory drapes lay onto the white carpet a yard from the window. The white made the ivory look dirty and the ivory made the white look bled out. The windows stared across the darkening foothills. It was going to rain soon. There was pressure in the air already’ (Chandler, 2005. P. 16).

This can be seen again in his detailed description of an old parquetry floor in a gambling hall.  

‘The parquetry floor was made of half a dozen kinds of hardwood from Burma teak to half a dozen kinds of oak and ruddy wood that looked like mahogany and fading out to the hard pale wild lilac of the California hills, all laid in elaborate patterns with the accuracy of a transit’ (Chandler, 2005. pp. 147-148).  

‘Marlow’s attention to this seemingly innocuous detail allows one to recognise in the flooring the character of the…owner of the gambling house, the extortionist Eddie Marr’ (Jones, 2015. P. 177). Marr has also covered most of the old ballroom floor with heavy carpeting leaving just a small space for dancing, suggesting that the purpose of the room, and the man, is primarily about business, not pleasure.

The difference between Chandler’s lyrical and humorous style and Rankin’s realistic style can be clearly seen in their character descriptions which, even for minor characters, are both often detailed and vivid. 

‘There were gold rings on each of his fingers, chains dangling from his neck and wrists. He wasn’t Tall but he was wide. Rebus got the impression that much of it was fat. A gut hung over his waistband. He was balding badly and had allowed whatever hair he had to grow remain uncut so that it hung to the back of his collar and beyond. He wore a black leather trench coat and black t-shirt with baggy denims and scuffed trainers’ (Rankin, 2005. P.107).

‘She had long thighs and walked with a certain something I hadn’t often seen in bookstores. She was an ash blonde with greenish eyes, beaded lashes, hair waved smoothly back from ears in which large jet buttons glittered. In spite of her get up she looked as if she would have a hall bedroom accent. She approached me with enough sex appeal to stampede a businessman’s lunch (Chandler, 2005).

Both the descriptions lead the reader to form judgments about the character but Chandler’s style is arguably more entertaining and the reference to ‘the hall bedroom accent’ suggest a greater meaning to the story space and the theme of duality. Chandler’s one-liners are ‘both witty and full of subtle meaning’ (Rankin, 2005. p. vi.) For example, ‘As honest as you can expect a man to be in a world where it’s going out of style’ (Chandler, 2005. p. 218). Rankin, however, was not averse to using the occasional one-liner of his own. ‘It was like watching a gorilla's first attempt at flower arranging’ (Rankin, 2005. p.309).  

This use of simile and metaphor often combined with hyperbole became a hallmark of chandler’s writing, differentiating him from his contemporaries like Hammett and Gardner. Other rhetorical devices Chandler used include syllepsis, ‘I went to bed full of whisky and frustration’ (Chandler, 2005. p. 45) and ‘…which forced him to make a left turn and a lot of enemies’ (ibid. p. 33), and synaesthesia ‘She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight. (Forsyth, 2013. p. 32). 

Duality is a theme that runs through both books. Rankin’s fascination with duality began with his first John Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses (Rankin, 1987), inspired by Scottish author, Robert Lewis Stephenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). This duality was to become a theme of the plots, characters, and settings of the subsequent rebus novels including the multi-layered character of Rebus himself, driven to uphold the law while remaining friends with city’s greatest villain, Morris Gerald Cafferty. The friendship itself creating a duality of loyalties. The duality of Edinburgh itself, quiet and peaceful city in the daytime, but dark and turbulent at night. The city the tourist see and the one the residents live within. The beauty and prosperous old town with its high society, discerning culture and grand architecture contrasting with the deprived council estates of the new town, ugly and lawless, linked in both a physical and literary sense by Fleshmarket Close. This is the story space of Rankins book where the binary opposites of wealth and poverty, beauty and desolation, law and lawlessness, good and evil, authority and the individual, are explored in multi-layered plots and brutal imagery.

This theme of duality in Chandler’s book begins with the complex and flawed character of Philp Marlow who reflects both the faults and aspirations of the author himself. According to Rankin he ‘remains a knight of sorts- tarnished to be sure. but a knight errant. The work he does is dirty but he maintains his own moral code. (Rankin, 2005. P. vi). It is also seen in the contrasts of story space, as the wealthy and privileged enclaves of the Steadman mansion, ‘I was calling on four million dollars’ (Chandler, 2005. p. 1), contrast with the seedy bookshops selling pornographic literature and the violent underworld of sex, drugs and blackmail. It is the collision of these two worlds that forms the premise of the story and is foreshadowed in the opening chapter when the Marlow observes ‘The windows stared towards the darkening foothills (ibid. p.16) The plot plays out as Marlow attempts to disentangle them and this duality is echoed in the concluding pages ‘…the bright gardens outside the Sternwood mansion have a haunted look. (ibid, p. 250). 

The historical settings of both books are contemporary, which influenced the themes and social issues raised. Chandler, drugs and pornography in 1930’s California (Buckland, 2014).  Rankin, racism and people trafficking in 21^st century Edinburgh. (Amnesty International UK, 2014). The sensationalism of detective fiction of the thirties as illustrated by his fellow writers for Black Mask (Deutsh, 2013), influenced Chandler’s hard-boiled style. This contrasted with the realistic style of Rankin in the 21^st century, focussing, like his American contemporary Michael Connelly, and T.V. series like The Prime Suspect, on police procedures, now considered a sub-genre of detective fiction. Rankin’s work has also been described as an example of Tartan Noir and Chandler’s as Hollywood Noir. Comparing them to authors in the spy fiction genre, Chandler’s work has more in common with Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, including his fast pace and witty one-liners, whereas Rankin is more aligned to John le Carre’s, George Smiley novels, with their complex plots, pedestrian pace and painstaking procedures. Chandler faster space is also illustrated by shorter chapters: Rankin averages 2238 words per chapter, where Chandler ‘s average is 1215. Both books have 32 chapters.

The contrast of geographical and cultural settings within the story space could not be more different. Chandlers story begins in the wealthy and privileged suburbs of high society Los Angeles, Rankin’s in a council estate in the darker side of Edinburgh’s new town and continues in the deprivation of refugee Internment camps. Even when Chandler’s story moves to the darker side it is masked by the glamorous surroundings of high-class gambling clubs and respectability of antique book shops. Edinburgh could claim its cultural history, old money, against the brash, new money society of Los Angeles, however, little of this side of Edinburgh is evident in Rankin’s novel.

The points of view are also very different. The author does not intrude directly into the narrative discourse of The Big Sleep. The discourse space and story space are one and the same as the homodiegetic and autodiegetic narrator, Phillip Marlow, tells the story in the first person and past tense. He can be considered a subjective narrator ‘whose feelings beliefs and judgments colour the treatment of the situations and events presented’ (Prince 2003. p. 95). For example, ‘I sat down next to Mrs Regan. She was worth a stare. She was trouble (Chandler, 2005. P.16). Chandler’s book could, therefore, be described as more memetic than Rankin’s third person narration. ‘Mimesis seems to be the imitation of the exact words a character speaks’ (Cobley, 2001. p. 59).  

In Fleshmarket Close we can assume the the omniscient heterodiegetic narrator to be Rankin himself speaking directly to the reader from some unknown discourse space in the third person omniscient as he describes the progress of his characters through the narrative. The focus switches between Rebus and Siobhan as they pursue their separate investigations. 

Both narrators could be said to be unreliable as the authors seek to promote their own views and prejudices through the voice of the narrator. Patrick Anderson criticised chandler treatment of black, female and homosexual characters in The Big Sleep (Anderson, 2007). The writer’s ideologies influenced by the dominant social ideologies are apparent as they address the social issues of the day. Organised crime and the proliferation of drugs and pornography in The Big Sleep. People trafficking and racism in Fleshmarket Close. Rankin’s way of dealing with controversial issues such as race is more sensitive and perhaps another example of the dominant ideology of the time. 

Both authors use language as a code they share with their reader to provide a sense of belonging to the tribe. Rankin’s uses Scottish dialect to give a sense of place, ‘just a wee trick’ (Rankin, 2005 p. 108), and the procedural language of police investigations, for example, ‘SOCO’ (Rankin, 2005 p. 230), for realism. Chandler used the language of ‘hard-boiled slang’ (Linder, 2001. p. 35), a facsimile of the underworld slang of criminals and police of the period. This ‘non-standard variety of literary language’ (ibid), was shared by detective fiction writers and their readers. Examples include: ‘tail job’ (Chandler, 2005. p. 56); ‘hotcha’ (ibid. p. 53); ‘snap it up’ (ibid. p. 47).  

The Knight, and in particular the Knight Errant, is a reoccurring symbol in both books reflecting the nature the two main protagonists, chivalrous and operating within their own code of honour as they travel the land in their quests for justice. This symbol is woven into the narrative and syuzhet of The Big Sleep starting with the description of the stain glass window on the opening page and later, when the chess game is used as a metaphor for events in the story ‘I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. I put it back where I had moved it from. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights’ (Campbell, 1969. p129). This also reflects the narrative theory of the monomyth described by Campbell in Hero with a Thousand Faces (2008), updated by Vogler in The Writers Journey (2007) and used as template by many modern writers, including J. K. Rowling and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as Hollywood filmmakers, including George Lucas in the Star Wars movies. The characters, story and plot of both books follow this formula. The call to action, an invitation to the Steadman mansion for Marlow, Secondment to the west end force on a murder for Rebus. They follow the rest of the hero’s journey, overpowering the enemy before returning with the elixir: Marlow, the release from potential incarceration and a promise of help for Carmen. Rebus, release from the refugee internment camp and housing for the Yurgl family.  

All seven of Chandler’s Phillip Marlow novels were made into movies, In The big sleep, Marlow was played by Humphrey Bogart who also plays Hammett’s hero, Sam Spade, in the Maltese Falcon. Many consider Bogart’s performance to be the definitive portrayal of Marlow. Fleshmarket Close, along with other John Rebus novels, has twice been featured in a TV series. The first starring John Hannah as Rebus, the second, Ken Stott. Stott’s, gravelly voice, gruff mannerisms and aura of grumpiness, fitted the image of a hardened Scottish detective better than the younger fresh faces Hannah, but Hannah’s episodes were darker in tone and more gruesome in detail than Stott’s which lack some of the bleakness of the novels.

Rankin’s, Fleshmarket Close and Chandler’s, The Big Sleep are books that reflect the different historical and cultural settings and the social issues of their time and mark milestones in the development of the detective fiction genre, Chandler’s raising it from the province of pulp fiction magazines into mainstream literature, Rankin raising the profile of Tartan Noir and reflecting the best of the police procedural sub- genre who’s realistic style has become popular in literature, T.V. and film. Both writers attempt to convey greater meaning in their narrative discourse and even in their titles. Fleshmarket Close, a place previously populated by abattoirs and butchers foreshadowing the gruesome tale and the trade in human flesh. The meaning of The Big Sleep becomes apparent at the conclusion of the story as Marlow contemplates death, reflecting the depressive and sometimes suicidal nature of both the character and Chandler himself.

APPENDIX

THE BIG SLEEP – SYNOPSIS

http://www.shmoop.com/big-sleep/summary.html

It's a dreary October morning in Los Angeles. And it looks like it's about to rain.

Private detective Philip Marlowe pays a visit to millionaire General Sternwood. The dying General is being blackmailed by Arthur Geiger, who claims that Sternwood's daughter Carmen owes him gambling debts. And it's Marlowe's job to track down Geiger's whereabouts. During the meeting, Marlowe also senses that there is something fishy going on with the disappearance of Rusty Regan, the General's son-in-law and husband to Vivian. Rumor has it that Regan ran off with Mona Grant. So in a nutshell, there seem to be two main plotlines in the novel: (1) the blackmail scheme, and (2) the disappearance of Regan.

Let's start with the first plotline. Marlowe learns that Geiger's using his rare bookstore as a front for an illegal pornography racket. Later the same day, Geiger is murdered and Marlowe finds Carmen naked at the scene of the crime… yikes.

The next morning, another stiff surfaces, and this time it's Owen Taylor—the chauffeur. Apparently, Vivian is being blackmailed with nude photos of Carmen, and Marlowe traces the photos back to a Mr. Joe Brody. But before Marlowe is able to turn Brody in to the police, Carol Lundgren shows up out of nowhere and shoots Brody in the mistaken belief that Brody had killed Geiger. Don't worry if your head is spinning. Ours is, too. The plot is really convoluted and hard to follow, so you just have to go with the flow.

Okay now on to the second plotline. Marlowe's job is technically done now. He has exposed the blackmailers and the case should be closed. But Marlowe decides against his better judgment to find the truth behind Regan's disappearance. No one wants to help Marlowe, least of all Vivian, who owes gambling debts to Eddie Mars (who also happens to be Mona's husband, as in the gal who supposedly ran off with Regan. Talk about a love triangle…. or quadrangle…).

Enter Harry Jones. He has a scoop on Mona's whereabouts, but before Marlowe is able to get the necessary information, Harry is poisoned by Canino, Mars' right-hand man. Marlowe somehow manages to track down Mona, and a few fist fights and gunshots later, Marlowe has killed Canino and escaped with Mona.

The next day, Marlowe pays a visit to the General and runs into Carmen, who wants Marlowe to teach her how to shoot a gun. And then…. bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! Carmen fires five shots straight at Marlowe. But having already suspected Carmen of foul play, Marlowe had loaded the gun with blanks. Phew, close call.

Marlowe figures out that Carmen is the one who murdered Rusty, because he (like Marlowe) had also rejected her sexually. When Marlowe confronts Vivian, she confesses that Rusty is buried under an oil sump and that she had paid Mars to help her bury the body. At the end of the novel, Marlowe contemplates death—the "big sleep"—and concludes that death is the only escape from the nastiness and depravity of life.

FLESHMARKET CLOSE – SYNOPSIS

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205650.Fleshmarket_Close?from_search=true&search_version=service

An illegal immigrant is found murdered in an Edinburgh housing scheme: a racist attack, or something else entirely? Rebus is drawn into the case, but has other problems: his old police station has closed for business, and his masters would rather he retire than stick around. But Rebus is that most stubborn of creatures. As Rebus investigates, he must visit an asylum seekers' detention centre, deal with the sleazy Edinburgh underworld, and maybe even fall in love... Siobhan meanwhile has problems of her own. A teenager has disappeared from home and Siobhan is drawn into helping the family, which will mean travelling closer than is healthy towards the web of a convicted rapist. Then there's the small matter of the two skeletons - a woman and an infant - found buried beneath a concrete cellar floor in Fleshmarket Close. The scene begins to look like an elaborate stunt - but whose, and for what purpose? And how can it tie to the murder on the unforgiving housing-scheme known as Knoxland

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