I read a very vintage penguin copy of this book that doesn't include Marlowe at all. I'd classify them as novellas, they're too long to be short stories. I imagine it would be too difficult to build up a satisfactory level of suspense in anything shorter. Considering these are so short, Chandler does a pretty good job. I suspect the first two stories in my copy were published in the wrong order, but it didn't detract too much, the plots are essentially self contained.