Noir Like Me

By CHRISTINA DALTON

Oct. 31, 2004 12 AM PT

We can’t all be Raymond Chandler, but you wouldn’t know it from the book blurbs. Crime fiction has been lousy with “Chandler heirs” ever since Chandler--himself dubbed the successor to Dashiell Hammett--turned cynical-yet-romantic L.A. private eye Philip Marlowe loose in hardboiled classics such as “The Lady in the Lake” and “The Big Sleep.” Take Kem Nunn, whose latest surf-noir opera, “Tijuana Straits,” wears this jacket blurb from the Washington Post: “Kem Nunn is the most accomplished practitioner of California noir writing today, the principal heir to the tradition of Raymond Chandler and Nathanael West.” He isn’t the only one. Below, a body count.

Chandler spawn: Michael Connelly

Marlowe-esque gumshoe: Los Angeles police detective Harry Bosch.

Hard-boiled moments: “The Concrete Blonde,” “The Black Echo,” “City of Bones.”

Anointed by: Hackwriters.com (“Connelly is the true heir of the hard-boiled tradition perfected by Raymond Chandler’s ‘Philip Marlowe’ novels.”)

Chandler spawn: John Shannon

Marlowe stand-in: Aerospace worker-turned-investigator Jack Liffey.

Hard-boiled moments: “The Concrete River,” “Terminal Island.”

Anointed by: Blurbs fellow “heir” Michael Connelly: “Tough and engaging. ‘The Concrete River’ is my kind of L.A. novel--hard as nails with a soft spot in the middle. Philip Marlowe would have been proud of his contemporary heir.”

Chandler spawn: Dennis Lehane

Marlowe stand-in: Boston private eyes Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro.

Hard-boiled moments: “Darkness, Take My Hand,” “Prayers for Rain.”

Anointed by: Publishers Weekly (“The hippest heir of Hammett and Chandler.”)

Chandler spawn: Elmore Leonard

Marlowe stand-in: Different from book to book.

Hard-boiled moments: “Mr. Paradise,” “Out of Sight,” “Tishomingo Blues.”

Anointed by: Philadelphia Inquirer (“Leonard is a consummate stylist, a deserving heir to the mantle of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.”)

Chandler spawn: Robert B. Parker

Marlowe stand-in: Boston private eye Spenser.

Hard-boiled moments: “Bad Business,” “Back Story.”

Anointed by: David Geherin, author of “Sons of Sam Spade” (1980): “The legitimate heir to the Hammett-Chandler-Macdonald tradition.”

Chandler spawn: Robert Ferrigno

Marlowe stand-in: Different from book to book.

Hard-boiled moments: “The Wake-Up,”

“The Horse Latitudes.”

Anointed by: Entertainment Weekly (“Every few years another writer is described as the next Raymond Chandler, but Robert Ferrigno

may be the real thing”); Los Angeles Times

Book Review (“Like other inheritors of the Hammett-Chandler-Ross Macdonald private-eye tradition, Ferrigno balances the tough doings with a strong sense of moral outrage and compassion.”)

Chandler spawn: James Ellroy

Marlowe stand-in: Different from book to book.

Hard-boiled moments: “L.A. Confidential,” “White Jazz.”

Anointed by: Bookseller powells.com (“James Ellroy is the heir apparent to Raymond Chandler. His dark, convoluted, steroid-infused crime novels have made him the reigning king of L.A. Noir.”)

Chandler spawn: James Crumley

Marlowe stand-in: Montana private eye C.W. Sughrue.

Hard-boiled moments: “The Last Good Kiss,” “The Wrong Case.”

Anointed by: Himself (“I always introduce my work by explaining that I am a bastard child of Raymond Chandler.”)