About this ebook
This time, Drum is pulled into a case where professional violence is not just an occupational hazard—it's the core of the mystery. Operating in a world where fists and guns do as much talking as suspects and witnesses, Drum navigates a landscape of hired killers, shady operators, and double-crosses. Marlowe's trademark style—lean prose, fast dialogue, and relentless pacing—keeps the narrative moving at breakneck speed.
Yet beneath the surface thrills, Marlowe crafts a story about the corrosive effects of violence on those who wield it and those who endure it. Chester Drum is not a superhero but a complex private eye whose cynicism masks a deep moral code, one constantly tested by the cases he takes. From back alleys to polished offices, the story paints a panorama of mid-century noir where danger is always one step away.
Violence Is My Business is classic Marlowe: raw, urgent, and gripping. It reaffirms his place as one of the key heirs to Chandler and Hammett, while pushing the hardboiled tradition into new, Cold War–era territory.
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About the author
Stephen Marlowe (1928–2008), born Milton Lesser, was an American author celebrated for his prolific contributions to crime fiction, science fiction, and literary novels. Best known under his Marlowe pseudonym, he created the enduring private detective Chester Drum, who appeared in over two dozen novels between the 1950s and 1970s. These books, including Homicide Is My Game and Violence Is My Business, blended classic hardboiled tropes with Cold War–era intrigue, often sending Drum into international settings. Marlowe's crisp prose, sardonic wit, and psychological depth distinguished him from many of his pulp contemporaries. Beyond crime fiction, he wrote historical and biographical novels, notably The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus, which won international acclaim. Over a five-decade career, Marlowe published more than fifty books under his own name and various pseudonyms, leaving a legacy as one of the most versatile and inventive American writers of his generation.
