The Goodbye Coast: A Philip Marlowe Novel

by Joe Ide

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

If you’ve come to know and love Joe Ide’s prior books featuring LA-based sleuth Isaiah Quintabe as much as we have, then reader, you will be in for a treat! The Goodbye Coast brings us one of the most famous fiction detectives in literature: Philip Marlowe. We hope you agree that Joe Ide does Raymond Chandler proud in this modern-day Marlowe novel.

In this colorful reinvention of a classic, Philip Marlowe finds himself tangled in two missing persons cases; “Ide has chiseled off the rust while keeping the soul of one of American fiction’s icons” (Dennis Lehane).

The seductive and relentless figure of Raymond Chandler’s detective, Philip Marlowe, is vividly re-imagined in present-day Los Angeles. Here is a city of scheming Malibu actresses, ruthless gang members, virulent inequality, and washed-out police. Acclaimed and award-winning novelist Joe Ide imagines a Marlowe very much of our time: he’s a quiet, lonely, and remarkably capable and confident private detective, though he lives beneath the shadow of his father, a once-decorated LAPD homicide detective, famous throughout the city, who’s given in to drink after the death of Marlowe’s mother.
 
Marlowe, against his better judgement, accepts two missing person cases, the first a daughter of a faded, tyrannical Hollywood starlet, and the second, a British child'stolen from his mother by his father. At the center of The Goodbye Coast is Marlowe’s troubled and confounding relationship with his father, a son who despises yet respects his dad, and a dad who’s unable to hide his bitter disappointment with his grown boy. 

Steeped in the richly detailed ethnic neighborhoods of modern LA, Ide’s The Goodbye Coast is a bold recreation that is viciously funny, ingeniously plotted, and surprisingly tender.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316459273
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	02/01/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	122,185
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Joe Ide is of Japanese American descent. Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, Joe's favorite books were the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories. The idea that a person could face the world and vanquish his enemies with just his intelligence fascinated him. Joe went on to earn a graduate degree and had several careers before writing his debut novel, IQ, inspired by his early experiences and his love of Sherlock Holmes. Joe lives in Santa Monica, California.

Editorial Reviews

11/15/2021

In this uneven detective novel, Thriller Award finalist Ide (the IQ series) reimagines Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled sleuth, Philip Marlowe, as a contemporary PI. When the rebellious Marlowe doesn’t last long on the police force, his father, a veteran LAPD cop, helps him get his start as an investigator. Marlowe’s latest client is megastar actor Kendra James, who hires him six weeks after her husband was fatally shot near their Malibu home. Though that murder’s unsolved, Kendra doesn’t want Marlowe to take a crack at it, instead asking him to trace her 17-year-old stepdaughter, who hasn’t been seen for weeks. Despite his distaste for the unpleasant Kendra, Marlowe takes the case. Things get complicated after he lands a second missing person search from British academic Ren Stewart, whose ex-husband has kidnapped their seven-year-old son. Ide’s fans will appreciate the humor and evocative descriptions of L.A., but Chandler purists may miss the intimate first-person narration of the originals and not care for the attempt to deepen the lone wolf character of Marlowe by giving him a complicated relationship with his father. Not everyone will be looking forward to a sequel. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM Partners. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

How the hell do you write a mystery about Philip Marlowe, set it in Los Angeles, and still make it a total gobsmacking original? That’s the miracle of Joe Ide’s The Goodbye Coast. Ide has created a Philip Marlowe for the 2020s. And an L.A. that he clearly loves and hates.” —James Patterson

"Not so much a reimagining of Chandler's world as a reinvigoration. By transplanting Philip Marlowe to 2021 LA, Joe Ide has chiseled off the rust while keeping the soul of one of American fiction’s icons. The Goodbye Coast is a blast from start to finish.”
 —Dennis Lehane

"Sunshine and skullduggery, movie stars and mayhem — Joe Ide brings us a Philip Marlowe who wears our twenty-first century like a well-cut suit."—Ian Rankin

“This version of Raymond Chandler's iconic PI patrols the mean streets of contemporary Los Angeles, and while he shares the original's bone-deep iconoclasm, he's distinctly his own man, complete with a rich backstory… The sleuthing here is top notch, but it's the bantering father-son interplay (evoking Jim Rockford and father Rocky in The Rockford Files) that really gives the book its zip. More Marlowe and Emmet would be most welcome.” 
 —Booklist, starred

PRAISE FOR THE IQ NOVELS:


"Joe Ide's IQ novels are an electrifying combination of Holmesian mystery and SoCal grit."—Time

"Ide is still the hottest of recently-emerged crime writers. He has populated Southern California with wildly entertaining characters, from those hinted at offstage to the motormouths whose priceless talk fills his pages."—Janet Maslin, New York Times

"As far as I'm concerned, Joe Ide can't write them fast enough."—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

"Joe Ide expands the territory of L.A. noir."—Gal Beckerman, New York Times

From the Publisher

09/01/2021

Ide takes a detour from his raved-about "IQ" series by reimagining iconic detective Philip Marlowe in contemporary times. This Marlowe is a reserved and efficient private eye who takes on two tricky cases, agreeing to find the daughter of a difficult Hollywood starlet and a child kidnapped from his mother by his father. Just as important is Marlowe's relationship with his once-admired LAPD homicide detective dad, awash in alcohol after the death of his wife. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

★ 2021-11-30
Ide brings Philip Marlowe to modern-day LA in this hard-boiled noir PI yarn.

Marlowe is a private investigator in modern-day Los Angeles. His father, Emmet, is an alcoholic cop still mourning the loss of his beloved wife and wishing his son had become a cop. The famous but fast-fading movie star Kendra James reluctantly hires Marlowe to find her 17-year-old runaway stepdaughter, Cody. That’s not a hard task, but the two women hate each other, and both deserve it. Kendra’s husband, Terry, had been shot to death two weeks earlier, and she hardly cares one bit. The guy was just a washed-up moviemaker anyway. And Cody won’t come home, accusing Kendra of killing her dad. Emmet and Marlowe have serious father-son issues, but Dad gives him critical help, especially by sheltering and protecting Cody. Then Marlowe unsuccessfully tries to turn down a second case: Englishwoman Ren Stewart’s young son, Jeremy, has been kidnapped by his father, and Ren is desperate to bring him back to London. The tension builds as the two plotlines intersect with the aid of Russian and Armenian gangsters. Every character has great lines, and the descriptions alone make the story worth reading. “The movie went by like a cement wall taking a walk.” “Freddie’s smile imploded, as if his throat were sucking in his features.” Kendra tells Marlowe that Cody's relationship with her brother, Noah, was “like a reenactment of the war in Vietnam. Firefights and bombing runs for years on end.” Fans of the genre know that Philip Marlowe is the creation of the late Raymond Chandler, beginning with The Big Sleep in 1939. Chandler’s Marlowe has long been considered the quintessential private investigator, relentless and resolute in his work. There is tension, violence, humor, and a bit of sadness, with romance just out of the hero’s reach.

This one’s witty, clever, and fun, and it’s worthy of the great Raymond Chandler.

Kirkus Reviews