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• Raymond Chandler The Collected Radio Dramas....Buy this boxed set
  A boxed set of eight of the BBC's recent acclaimed, full-cast dramatisations of novels, featuring Toby Stephens as Philip Marlowe. Titles include The Big Sleep, The Lady In The Lake, Farewell My Lovely, Playback, The Long Goodbye, The High Window, The Little Sister and Poodle Springs. (November 2011)
  
  
• L.A. Noire. ..Buy it for PS3 Buy it for Xbox 360
  To these old fart eyes, it just looks like a cartoon version of Ellroy's L.A. Confidential, but people are going apeshit over this thing. To "'honour" (ie: tie-in with) the release of Rockstar's hot new videogame, Mulholland Books is releasing L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories, a collection of eight original stories by some of the best writers in the biz, including Lawrence Block, Duane Swierczynski, Joe Lansdale, Joyce Carol Oates, Megan Abbott and Andrew Vachss. I dunno. Can the Inch High, Private Eye Anthology be far behind?
  
  
• Northern Aggression....Download this CD
  I'm sitting here, listening to Steve Wynn' and the Miracle 3's new album, a pure blast of noir rock, dirty guitar and dead end angst. Imagine Lou Reed backed by Crazy Horse on a Jim Thompson rag...
  
  
• Great Detectives--the Private Investigators. Which are you most like?
  Mortimer Randolph's fun little quiz suggests five possible answers to that burning question. (I'm a Lyon's man, myself).Please, no wagering.
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• The Singing Detective: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack....Buy this CD
  This soundtrack to the ambitious but flawed big-screen remake of the TV cult fave about an author feverishly rewriting his life even as he faces his own personal Big Sleep swaps the original's big band-era tunes for classic 1950s-era doo wop and rock'n'roll. The film's star, Robert Downey Jr., offers the only new recording, a soulful cover of In My Dreams. Goodies include Gene Vincent's original, Johnnie Ray's Just Walking In The Rain, The Chordettes' Mr. Sandman and the eerily appropriate It's Only Make Believe by Conway Twitty. A tasty selection, balancing the expected with some genuine sleepers that deserve to be rescued from obscurity. Dreamy.
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• TV Land Presents Crimestoppers: TV's Greatest P.I. Themes.. Buy this CD
  No P.I. show worth its salt would be ever be caught dead without a cool theme, so the good folks at TV Land, the American nostalgia channel, and Rhino Records have collected 16 of the original themes from such classic P.I. shows as The Rockford Files, Mannix , Charlie's Angels, 77 Sunset Strip, Vega$, Peter Gunn, Cannon, Hart To Hart, Remington Steele, Honey West, Hawaiian Eye, Spenser: For Hire, Harry O, Checkmate, Tenspeed and Brownshoe and Magnum P.I. by artists such as Mike Post, Lalo Shifrin, Jack Elliot & Allyn Ferguson, Warren Barker, Dominic Frontiere, John Parker, Mark Snow, Henry Mancini & His Orchestra, Alfred Perry, Steve Dorff & Friends, The John Gregory Orchestra and Johnny Williams & His Orchestra. The liner notes, by Thane Tierney, are also great fun. Noticeable by their absence are the themes from Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, by Pete Rugolo, and Staccato, by Elmer Bernstein, but who's complaining? A companion volume, entitled Crime Stoppers: TV's Greatest Cop Themes, is also available. A perfect little stocking stuffer.

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