The Little Sister / Raymond Chandler / 250 pages / Deceased Author Challenge

As I read Little Sister I couldn't help wondering if Philip Marlowe was the inspiration for Robert B. Parker's Boston PI Spenser.  Both are rather cheeky and work for peanuts.  Both work in unorthodox ways outside the law.  Marlowe is asked by a resident of Manhattan, Kansas to find her missing brother.  During his L.A. investigation, he uncovers murder, mobsters, drug dealing, a movie star sister, and a female Mata Harri.