The Lady in the Lake, by Raymond Chandler, is a detective novel originally published in 1943. Chandler was born in Chicago but later moved to California, and he drew on his experiences living there when writing his Philip Marlowe novels. Marlowe, a down-on-his-luck Los Angeles detective, first appears in Chandler’s novel The Big Sleep, which was adapted into a film noir in 1946 with Marlowe played by Humphrey Bogart. In the 1946 adaptation of The Lady in the Lake, Marlowe is played by Robert Montgomery, who also directed the film. The novel is a work of hard-boiled detective fiction that explores the themes of Identity and Deception, Institutional Corruption, and The Power of the Outsider.

This guide cites the 1976 Vintage Books paperback.

Content Warning: The source material includes several homicides, including one that is staged to look like suicide, assault by police and other instances of violence, and alcohol addiction and sexism.

Plot Summary

Philip Marlowe meets with Derace Kingsley, a wealthy businessman who is looking for his wife, Crystal. Their marriage has been on the rocks, and Kingsley started inquiring into her whereabouts after she sent a telegram saying she was marrying Chris Lavery in Mexico. Marlowe gets Lavery’s contact information from Kingsley’s assistant and mistress, Adrienne Fromsett.

In Bay City, Marlowe questions Lavery, who says he never planned to marry Crystal in Mexico. Lavery lives across the street from Doctor Almore. Almore calls the police, thinking Marlowe is casing his house in preparation for a robbery, and detective-lieutenant Al Degarmo hassles Marlowe. Marlowe eventually learns that Degarmo helped Almore cover up the murder of his wife, Florence. Degarmo’s wife, Mildred, was Almore’s nurse.

Marlowe travels to Kingsley’s property in Little Fawn Lake and talks to the caretaker there, Bill Chess. Chess’s wife, Muriel, left him on the same day that Crystal failed to arrive at a party at the lake. While Chess and Marlowe are talking, Chess spots the arm of a corpse in the lake. He tosses a stone in the water, freeing the corpse from under a dock. The corpse is very deteriorated but still has blond hair. This hair color, as well as the clothes and jewelry on the corpse, leads Chess to think it is Muriel. Marlowe talks with the local sheriff, Patton, about a Los Angeles cop named De Soto (a fake identity that Degarmo uses) who was looking for someone named Mildred, who looked a lot like Muriel. Eventually, Marlowe learns that Mildred and Muriel are the same person, and the corpse is Crystal. Patton also helps Marlowe find an anklet engraved with a love note from Al to Mildred.

Before he uncovers all the secret identities, Marlowe visits the Prescott Hotel, where Crystal’s car was found. Employees there remember seeing someone who looked like Crystal with Lavery, but they admit it could have been another, similar-looking, blond woman. Marlowe goes back to Lavery’s place and his landlady, Mrs. Fallbrook, is there with a gun. She claims to have found the gun when trying to get Lavery’s rent, gives the gun to Marlowe, and leaves in a hurry. Marlowe later learns that this is yet another identity used by Mildred, who killed Lavery.

Marlowe takes the gun to Kingsley in Los Angeles, and Kingsley offers him several hundred dollars to lose the gun. However, Marlowe refuses and returns the gun to the scene of the crime and calls the police. He finds Fromsett’s handkerchief in Lavery’s place and confronts her about it. She admits to having once been in love with Lavery, and that their relationship was a mistake. Fromsett also gives Marlowe information about Florence’s parents, who hired a detective to investigate her death. Marlowe interviews them, as well as the missing detective’s wife, and then is pulled over by the Bay City cops. They assault him and frame him for drunk driving. At the Bay City police station, Captain Webber, who has only recently taken up his position, apologizes to Marlowe. Marlowe turns down Webber’s offer to press charges.

After sharing some of his theories with Webber, Marlowe goes to meet with Kingsley and Fromsett. Crystal called them and asked for money. They give the money, and Kingsley’s scarf (so Crystal can recognize Marlowe), to Marlowe. He recognizes the woman he meets; the last time they met she was calling herself Fallbrook. Eventually, he learns that Mildred is impersonating both the landlady and Crystal. When he goes back to Mildred’s room, Marlowe is hit from behind, unable to see his attacker, and knocked out. Later, it is revealed that the attacker is Degarmo.

When Marlowe comes to, he is next to the corpse of the woman he met, who ends up being Mildred. Degarmo is trying to frame Marlowe as Crystal’s killer, when in fact Degarmo killed Mildred while she was disguised as Crystal. Marlowe climbs out of the bathroom window into an adjacent apartment and pretends to be its inhabitant, Talbot. In this disguise, Marlowe talks to a cop who doesn’t recognize him, but he is recognized by Degarmo. Marlowe lies to Degarmo, claiming to believe that Kingsley killed Crystal, due to the presence of his scarf.

Degarmo and Marlowe look for Kingsley first at Fromsett’s place then at Little Fawn Lake. There, with Sheriff Patton, Marlowe reveals that he knows Degarmo killed Mildred, who killed Crystal and Lavery, and he knows about all of Mildred’s identities. Degarmo threatens Marlowe, but Patton is able to shoot Degarmo’s gun out of his hand. Lacking substantial physical evidence, Patton allows Degarmo to leave town. When Degarmo reaches the Puma Lake dam, he refuses to follow the orders of the military sentry stationed there, and the sentry shoots him.