It goes without saying that I was in love with Sherlock Holmes, and, once I got around to it, with Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe as well. There is something to be said for a greatcoat or trenchcoat, a back alley, and a clenched jaw, and that none of these men au fond had much respect for women did not bother me a whit: the blonde usually did it, and I was not a blonde.