The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, Bk 1)
Author:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Unknown Binding
Author:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Unknown Binding
For some reason I have put off reading the Philip Marlowe crime novels of Raymond Chandler. I did read one of his later novels, THE LITTLE SISTER, back in the 1970's but I don't really remember much about it. I've read a lot of other hard-case noir detective novels including most of Dashiell Hammett as well as Mickey Spillane, John MacDonald, etc. Anyway, I really enjoyed THE BIG SLEEP and I will be looking forward to reading more Chandler. I do remember seeing the Humphrey Bogart movie version of this many years ago and I will also be looking out for it to see how it compares to the book.
This is the first in Chandler's series of Philip Marlowe novels and was published in 1939. Marlowe is hired by a wealthy retired General Sternwood to look into a case of blackmail. Sternwood is the father of two somewhat wild daughters, Vivian and Carmen, and the youngest, Carmen seems to owe a rather large gambling debt. Vivian is married to an ex-bootlegger who has apparently run off with a mobster's wife. Carmen is also prone to drugs and men and is easily manipulated. Although Marlowe is hired to address the blackmailing related to gambling, Sternwood also hints that he would like to find Vivian's missing husband. What appears to be a rather straightforward case turns into a real morass for Marlowe taking him through the bleak worlds of illicit pornography, drugs, and other forms of racketeering in the Los Angeles of the late 1930's. Several murders occur along the way with Marlowe in the thick of things but everything seems to tie back to the Sternwoods and especially the two daughters.
Chandler really has a flair for descriptive language and he also is among the first of the hard-boiled noir writers where the detective follows random leads rather than trying to deduce conclusions based on clues and intellect which was a mainstay of detective novels since the time of Sherlock Holmes. Sorry I took so long to read this great crime classic and I will be looking forward to more by Chandler.
This is the first in Chandler's series of Philip Marlowe novels and was published in 1939. Marlowe is hired by a wealthy retired General Sternwood to look into a case of blackmail. Sternwood is the father of two somewhat wild daughters, Vivian and Carmen, and the youngest, Carmen seems to owe a rather large gambling debt. Vivian is married to an ex-bootlegger who has apparently run off with a mobster's wife. Carmen is also prone to drugs and men and is easily manipulated. Although Marlowe is hired to address the blackmailing related to gambling, Sternwood also hints that he would like to find Vivian's missing husband. What appears to be a rather straightforward case turns into a real morass for Marlowe taking him through the bleak worlds of illicit pornography, drugs, and other forms of racketeering in the Los Angeles of the late 1930's. Several murders occur along the way with Marlowe in the thick of things but everything seems to tie back to the Sternwoods and especially the two daughters.
Chandler really has a flair for descriptive language and he also is among the first of the hard-boiled noir writers where the detective follows random leads rather than trying to deduce conclusions based on clues and intellect which was a mainstay of detective novels since the time of Sherlock Holmes. Sorry I took so long to read this great crime classic and I will be looking forward to more by Chandler.
