This is the first novel Chandler wrote that is not based on some previous short story. It was made into a movie called "The Brasher Doubloon" but the plot was different somewhat, and Marlowe was not played by Bogart. All move adaptations have simpler plots as Chandler's novels get really complicated at times. In "The Big Sleep" about 1/3 of the plot was cut out and the ending is completely different from the book.
The "High Window" is a story of a rare coin from early USA stolen from an old rich lady with an attitude adjustment problem. Her secretary is the one that hires Marlowe and her son's wife is the one who is suspected of stealing the coin. There are some local goons involved because the son has a gambling habit and the mom is just not dying.
Eventually, a denture maker and old coin collector are killed in the same building and the secretary comes to Marlowe to confess to a murder she didn't commit. Marlow finds the real murderers who were making copies of the doubloon with the denture maker's casts and returns it to the old lady, but now there are several of them already.
Marlowe finds evidence that it was the old lady who pushed her ex husband through a high window and framed her secretary for it. The secretary is free and Marlowe escorts her to her parents in Idaho. Pretty good book.
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