"It was about eleven o´clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn´t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars."
Love that first paragraph.
The Big Sleep is my second read in the first round of Booklikes-opoly (because I managed a double with my first dice roll) and it´s my pick for an author that has been born before 1955.
8
0
 - Raymond Chandler)
