Teaser Tuesdays: The Lady in the Lake

Cover of the 1971 Ballantine edition

This week my teaser lines come from The Lady in the Lake, a Philip Marlowe mystery by Raymond Chandler. In this snippet, Marlowe and a companion are looking for (and unfortunately finding) said lady in the lake:

I looked down with him into the water at the edge of the submerged staging.
Languidly at the edge of this green and sunken shelf of wood something waved out from the darkness, hesitated, waved back again out of sight under the flooring.
The something had looked far too much like a human arm. (Chapter 6, Loc.624)

I guess I should apologize for this, but I had a lot of trouble settling on just one teaser, so I'm including a few more. Chandler's work is always so full of quotable lines, it's really hard to choose.

"I don't like your manner," Kingsley said in a voice you could have cracked a Brazil nut on.
"That's all right," I said, "I'm not selling it." (Chapter 1, Loc.98)

The self-operating elevator was carpeted in red plush. It had an elderly perfume in it, like three widows drinking tea. (Chapter 23, Loc.2047)

Degarmo spun on his heel and looked at me wonderingly, "Did he say 'whom'?"
"Yeah, but don't hit him," I said. "There is such a word." (Chapter 35, Loc.2833)

Good stuff.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.