His "Nevada Gas" opens with George Dial and Hugo Candless playing squash, while "The King in Yellow" ends with Steve Grayce eating breakfast at Rim-of-the-World Inn.  Misplaced pearls are a major plot point in his stories "Red Wind" and "Goldfish."  This author's last completed novel focuses on a search for Betty Mayfield in the town of Esmeralda and ends with the protagonist getting back in touch with Linda Loring. That work, Playback, was to be followed by Poodle Springs, which was left unfinished at his death. His first work, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot," was published in Black Mask Magazine in 1933, but his most famous creation, a hard boiled crime solver, was introduced in the story "Killer in the Rain." For ten points, identify this aut
His "Nevada Gas" opens with George Dial and Hugo Candless playing squash, while "The King in Yellow" ends with Steve Grayce eating breakfast at Rim-of-the-World Inn.  Misplaced pearls are a major plot point in his stories "Red Wind" and "Goldfish."  This author's last completed novel focuses on a search for Betty Mayfield in the town of Esmeralda and ends with the protagonist getting back in touch with Linda Loring. That work, Playback, was to be followed by Poodle Springs, which was left unfinished at his death. His first work, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot," was published in Black Mask Magazine in 1933, but his most famous creation, a hard boiled crime solver, was introduced in the story "Killer in the Rain." For ten points, identify this author who chronicled Philip Marlowe's adventures in Farewell, My Lovely and The Big Sleep.
His "Nevada Gas" opens with George Dial and Hugo Candless playing squash, while "The King in Yellow" ends with Steve Grayce eating breakfast at Rim-of-the-World Inn.  
Raymond Chandler