The beginning of this book - the part Chandler wrote - isn't great Chandler, but it's still decent. The problem comes when the Chandler runs out and the Parker begins.

While Parker's intention is to continue in Chandler's style, and there isn't a marked change, once I got past the Chandler chapters I began to find the book unpleasant. This was the feeling I later got when I tried to read a Parker book; I found it unlikable. Parker might be able to emulate Chandler's style to some extent, but there is something fundamentally different about his approach to character and tone and feel that irritates me.

Poodle Springs may not really have been worth finishing, but if it was going to be done, it should have been done by someone else.