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Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is My Business

Part of Pantheon Graphic Library

Author Raymond Chandler, Arvind Ethan David
Illustrated by Ilias Kyriazis
Foreword by Ben H. Winters
Colorist Cris Peter
Ebook
Knopf | Pantheon
On sale May 20, 2025 | 128 Pages | 9780553387605
Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
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The hard-boiled world of Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s iconic private eye, comes to vivid life in this brilliant graphic novel adaptation of the classic noir tale.

In 1940s Los Angeles, a sour-faced millionaire hires Philip Marlowe, a hard-boiled, harder-drinking detective, to scare off a suspected gold digger who has got her claws into his even wealthier stepson. Marlowe takes the case but quickly discovers that Harriett Huntress isn’t just after gold: she’s playing a long, cold game of revenge…  

Marlowe forms an alliance with George, the client's chauffeur-cum-bodyguard-cum-fixer. George is a black, Dartmouth educated veteran with a sniper’s skills and his own agenda, and the two uneasy allies find themselves on the wrong end of a brace of hired killers and an enigmatic casino boss. . . It rapidly becomes clear that Marlowe, sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, is just asking for trouble. But that’s the thing. Trouble is his business.
© (illustration) Michael J. Balzano

Raymond Thornton Chandler (1888 -1959) was the master practitioner of American hard-boiled crime fiction. Although he was born in Chicago, Chandler spent most of his boyhood and youth in England where he attended Dulwich College and later worked as a freelance journalist for The Westminster Gazette and The Spectator. During World War I, Chandler served in France with the First Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, transferring later to the Royal Flying Corps (R. A. F.). In 1919 he returned to the United States, settling in California, where he eventually became director of a number of independent oil companies. The Depression put an end to his career, and in 1933, at the age of forty-five, he turned to writing fiction, publishing his first stories in Black Mask. Chandler’s detective stories often starred the brash but honorable Philip Marlowe (introduced in 1939 in his first novel, The Big Sleep) and were noted for their literate presentation and dead-on critical eye. Never a prolific writer, Chandler published only one collection of stories and seven novels in his lifetime. Some of Chandler’s novels, like The Big Sleep, were made into classic movies which helped define the film noir style. In the last year of his life he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America. He died in La Jolla, California on March 26, 1959.

View titles by Raymond Chandler
Arvind Ethan David is a writer and producer whose career started when he was still a student and adapted the Douglas Adams’ novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency as a play and the great science fiction author came to see it, and took the young writer under his wing. Since then, Arvind has written for page, stage, screen, audio and everywhere else one can tell a story. In addition to Trouble is my Business, his graphic novels include the Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency series (also with art by Ilias Kyriazis), Darkness Visible (Stoker Nominated, written with Mike Carey) and Gray, his reimagining of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Arvind’s audio work includes the chart-topping Audible Originals: The Neil Gaiman at the End of the Universe, the science fiction Anthology series Earworms and The Crimes of Dorian Gray. Television work includes serving as an Executive Producer on Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency for Netflix and BBC America and writing on Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys for Amazon Studios. Theater includes writing the stage adaptations of the Douglas Adams novels Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (with James Goss) and Lenny Henry’s The Boy with Wings. He is also a lead producer of the Tony & Grammy winning musical Jagged Little Pill. View titles by Arvind Ethan David
Ilias Kyriazis is a critically acclaimed cartoonist based in Athens, Greece. He has drawn comics for numerous companies, including DC, IDW, Image Comics, Dark Horse, Humanoids, Rebellion Developments and Dynamite Entertainment. Trouble Is My Business is his second collaboration with Arvind Ethan David after their run on Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency for IDW. He also co-created Chronophage for Humanoids (with writer Tim Seeley), Collapser for DC (with writers Mikey Way & Shaun Simon) and Secret Identities for Image (with writers Jay Faerber & Brian Joines). Previous solo works of his in English are the crowd-funded sci-fi horror Elysium Online, the romantic comedy Falling for Lionheart for IDW and the fantasy thriller Melody for DC while in Greece he’s best known for his iconic series Manifesto. His latest work is the graphic novel What We Wished For, published by Humanoids. View titles by Ilias Kyriazis
“As smart as a slap on a cold morning, this glorious retelling of Chandler’s melancholy story is gripping to the very last page. Wonderful.” 
—Denise Mina, national bestselling author of Conviction and The Second Murderer

“Takes Chandler’s original and makes a world—and what a world! Characters pop, dialogue sizzles, everyone’s got a hustle and trouble is coming—big time. Stay-up-late-to-finish stuff.” 
—Nick Harkaway, author of Karla’s Choice

“The world of Raymond Chandler springs from the shadows in David’s brilliant, beautiful, haunting adaptation. A must read for fans of crime fiction and graphic novels. A jewel in the crown of American Noir.”
—Matt Goldman, New York Times bestselling author and Shamus Award Nominee

“David’s reinvention of Chandler puts bracing new life into classic tropes. He’s a mix-master at the noir console.”
—M. R. Carey, author of The Girl With All the Gifts and Echo of Worlds

About

The hard-boiled world of Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s iconic private eye, comes to vivid life in this brilliant graphic novel adaptation of the classic noir tale.

In 1940s Los Angeles, a sour-faced millionaire hires Philip Marlowe, a hard-boiled, harder-drinking detective, to scare off a suspected gold digger who has got her claws into his even wealthier stepson. Marlowe takes the case but quickly discovers that Harriett Huntress isn’t just after gold: she’s playing a long, cold game of revenge…  

Marlowe forms an alliance with George, the client's chauffeur-cum-bodyguard-cum-fixer. George is a black, Dartmouth educated veteran with a sniper’s skills and his own agenda, and the two uneasy allies find themselves on the wrong end of a brace of hired killers and an enigmatic casino boss. . . It rapidly becomes clear that Marlowe, sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, is just asking for trouble. But that’s the thing. Trouble is his business.

Author

© (illustration) Michael J. Balzano

Raymond Thornton Chandler (1888 -1959) was the master practitioner of American hard-boiled crime fiction. Although he was born in Chicago, Chandler spent most of his boyhood and youth in England where he attended Dulwich College and later worked as a freelance journalist for The Westminster Gazette and The Spectator. During World War I, Chandler served in France with the First Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, transferring later to the Royal Flying Corps (R. A. F.). In 1919 he returned to the United States, settling in California, where he eventually became director of a number of independent oil companies. The Depression put an end to his career, and in 1933, at the age of forty-five, he turned to writing fiction, publishing his first stories in Black Mask. Chandler’s detective stories often starred the brash but honorable Philip Marlowe (introduced in 1939 in his first novel, The Big Sleep) and were noted for their literate presentation and dead-on critical eye. Never a prolific writer, Chandler published only one collection of stories and seven novels in his lifetime. Some of Chandler’s novels, like The Big Sleep, were made into classic movies which helped define the film noir style. In the last year of his life he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America. He died in La Jolla, California on March 26, 1959.

View titles by Raymond Chandler
Arvind Ethan David is a writer and producer whose career started when he was still a student and adapted the Douglas Adams’ novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency as a play and the great science fiction author came to see it, and took the young writer under his wing. Since then, Arvind has written for page, stage, screen, audio and everywhere else one can tell a story. In addition to Trouble is my Business, his graphic novels include the Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency series (also with art by Ilias Kyriazis), Darkness Visible (Stoker Nominated, written with Mike Carey) and Gray, his reimagining of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Arvind’s audio work includes the chart-topping Audible Originals: The Neil Gaiman at the End of the Universe, the science fiction Anthology series Earworms and The Crimes of Dorian Gray. Television work includes serving as an Executive Producer on Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency for Netflix and BBC America and writing on Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys for Amazon Studios. Theater includes writing the stage adaptations of the Douglas Adams novels Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (with James Goss) and Lenny Henry’s The Boy with Wings. He is also a lead producer of the Tony & Grammy winning musical Jagged Little Pill. View titles by Arvind Ethan David
Ilias Kyriazis is a critically acclaimed cartoonist based in Athens, Greece. He has drawn comics for numerous companies, including DC, IDW, Image Comics, Dark Horse, Humanoids, Rebellion Developments and Dynamite Entertainment. Trouble Is My Business is his second collaboration with Arvind Ethan David after their run on Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency for IDW. He also co-created Chronophage for Humanoids (with writer Tim Seeley), Collapser for DC (with writers Mikey Way & Shaun Simon) and Secret Identities for Image (with writers Jay Faerber & Brian Joines). Previous solo works of his in English are the crowd-funded sci-fi horror Elysium Online, the romantic comedy Falling for Lionheart for IDW and the fantasy thriller Melody for DC while in Greece he’s best known for his iconic series Manifesto. His latest work is the graphic novel What We Wished For, published by Humanoids. View titles by Ilias Kyriazis

Praise

“As smart as a slap on a cold morning, this glorious retelling of Chandler’s melancholy story is gripping to the very last page. Wonderful.” 
—Denise Mina, national bestselling author of Conviction and The Second Murderer

“Takes Chandler’s original and makes a world—and what a world! Characters pop, dialogue sizzles, everyone’s got a hustle and trouble is coming—big time. Stay-up-late-to-finish stuff.” 
—Nick Harkaway, author of Karla’s Choice

“The world of Raymond Chandler springs from the shadows in David’s brilliant, beautiful, haunting adaptation. A must read for fans of crime fiction and graphic novels. A jewel in the crown of American Noir.”
—Matt Goldman, New York Times bestselling author and Shamus Award Nominee

“David’s reinvention of Chandler puts bracing new life into classic tropes. He’s a mix-master at the noir console.”
—M. R. Carey, author of The Girl With All the Gifts and Echo of Worlds

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