Philip Marlowe making a comeback, thanks to Irish author

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - Many mystery fans have a soft spot for Raymond Chandler's fictional sleuth Philip Marlowe.

Now, he's making a comeback, thanks to Irish author John Banville.

Henry Holt and Co. announced Tuesday that Banville's new book, currently untitled and scheduled for release next year, will be set in Chandler's fictional Bay City and feature Chandler's most famous detective. It has been authorized by the estate of Chandler, who died in 1959.

The 66-year-old Banville is a Man Booker Prize winner. He will write under the pen name Benjamin Black, which he has used for previous crime novels, including "Vengeance," which just came out today.

The gun-toting, Camel-smoking, whiskey-swilling Marlowe was at the heart of such Raymond Chandler novels as "The Big Sleep" and "The Long Goodbye."

Other writers who have featured Marlowe include Robert B. Parker, Sara Peretsky and Max Allan Collins.