"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room." - Philip Marlowe Literary Mixology No. 3 features the #cocktail of choice for both private detective Philip Marlowe and his creator, Raymond Chandler, the #gin gimlet. Chandler's #LA set series of hard-boiled noir novels are among my favourite reads and one of the finest examples of the genre. Chandler's iconic prose had a beautiful, easy rhythm, creating a kind of urban poetry, while both his characterisation of knight errant Marlowe and the seedy, neon drenched world he evokes are masterfully realised. Like all great writers, he creates a living, breathing world with a pulse and through Marlowe he gives you the perfect 'private eyes' to experience it through. I have a theory that all stories are detective stories and that we're all detectives and it's a theme I explore in my own work as I find mysel...