Goldfish by Raymond Chandler

Goldfish - Classic Marlowe short story.

Goldfish follows private eye Philip Marlowe through a world of pool hall informants on the hunt for stolen pearls. Along the way, Marlowe and his characters spit out all the short, snappy, now clichéd lines that Chandler invented. You can almost smell the stale smoke hanging in the air and the cheap whiskey on Marlowe's breath.

The Leander pearls were stolen nineteen years ago. The thief caught, but the pearls were never found. But there is still a $25,000 reward for anyone who finds them. Then somebody comes to private detective Carmady with a story about a guy. This guy knows where the pearls are hidden.Carmady agrees to talk to the guy who says he knows. But he finds him dead in his bed, with burned feet. And it seems there are quite a lot of people in Los Angeles who have heard the story, and who are out looking for the Leander pearls...