Lady in the Lake 1947

Private investigator Phillip Marlowe recounts one of his recent cases, which he has named The Lady in the Lake. Just prior to Christmas, he is secretly hired by Adrienne Fromsett, the tough talking second in command at Kingsby Publishing, to find Chrystal Kingsby, the wife of her boss Derace Kingsby. Chrystal has been missing for two months, and Derace, who believes for her own reasons has run off, just wants her to be left alone. But Adrienne knows that Chrystal has a boyfriend named Chris Lavery, the supposed reason for her running off. Marlowe believes Adrienne has ulterior motives for wanting Chrystal found, beyond her want to get Chrystal out of the way so that she can become Mrs. Derace Kingsby herself. Those ulterior motives may have something to do with the fact that everywhere Adrienne points him, people are either unhappy to see him, or he finds other people murdered. One of those murdered is a woman found in a lake near where the Kingsbys own a cabin. But what Marlowe learns is that to find Chrystal and discover the reasons for the additional murders, he has to dig through a complex web, which also includes the involvement of the police.