The Big Sleep

By Raymond Chandler

Being a big fan of Michael Connolly I discovered that he enjoyed reading Raymond Chandler and the darker side of LA society portrayed within the pages of his numerous books. But it really wasn't until I go some vouchers for Christmas did I think to get myself a couple of his books.

As always, I much prefer to begin at the start of a series, though I don't think it really matters too much as each Philip Marlowe adventure is pretty much stand alone.

"The Big Sleep" has been turned into a movie back in 1946, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Becall. But I haven't seen the movie, the book however, was a great read.

Marlowe is a detective, contemporary to 1940's/50's. He's employed by a retired old general who is being extorted. But the general has two wayward daughters who cause Marlowe more and more trouble as the detective delves deeper and deeper into their lives.
A I was reading I could picture each seen vividly in the film noir style... a style that some might even say these novels, and the movies that they spored, defined.

Synopsis

Los Angleles PI Philip Marlowe is working for the Sternwood family. Old man Sternwood, crippled and wheelchair-bound, is being given the squeeze by a blackmailer and he wants Marlowe to make the problem go away. But with Sternwood's two wild daughters prowling LA's seedy backstreets, Marlowe's got his workcut-out - and that's before he stumbles over the first corpse.

Author

Raymond Thornton Chandler was a British-American novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression.
 
Other Books by the Author
The Big Sleep (1939)
Farewell, My Lovely (1940)
The High Window (1942)
The Lady in the Lake (1943)
The Little Sister (1949)
Trouble is My Business (1950)
The Simple Art of Murder (1950)
The Long Goodbye (1953)
Playback (1958)