Dreaming of Babylon

by Richard Brautigan

It is early 1942. You are in San Francisco, and you need a private eye. Sam Spade is rumored to be in Istanbul. Philip Marlowe is up at Little Fawn Lake investigating the disappearance of Mrs. Derace Kingsley. Lew Archer is in the army. Who's left? Nobody but C. Card. You haven't heard of C. Card? That's all right. Nobody has. When you hire C. Card, you have scraped the bottom of the private eye barrel. But you won't be bored.