Raymond Chandler

The Big Sleep (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first to feature detective Philip Marlowe. The work has been adapted twice into film, once in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los Angeles, California and is noted for its complexity, with many characters double-crossing one another and many secrets being exposed throughout the narrative. The title is a euphemism for death; it refers to a rumination in the

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"Get this, and get it straight: Crime is a sucker's road, and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison, or the grave." Raymond Chandler's tough, capable, smart-talking creation Philip Marlowe is one of the best-known fictional investigators in America. Through Marlowe's gaze, the translucent light of the L.A. basin comes to life, the nighttime smell of jasmine and sage, the sudden storms that cause traffic wrecks, and the desert winds

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Who do you turn to when you need a friend to help you out? For scarred war veteran Terry Lennox, that friend is Philip Marlowe. Suspected of murdering his millionaire ex-wife, Lennox begs Marlowe to drive him across the Mexican border to escape the authorities. Marlowe's investigation into the murder puts him in the crosshairs of crooked cops, crazy gangsters, and a vengeful maid, who are all trying to prevent him from uncovering the truth.

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Playback: Jaded and cynical Los Angeles detective Philip Marlowe is assigned to tail Betty. Initially Marlowe believes this job will be a cinch, that is until lounge lizard Larry Mitchell turns up dead outside Betty's Hotel room a few hours after pawing her in a California club. Here, Marlowe tries to solve a tale of big money and, of course, murder. A BBC Radio dramatization of the novel. Poodle Springs: Hard-boiled detective Philip Marlowe has settled...

"Has Philip Marlowe finally met his match? It's early fall when a heatwave descends on Los Angeles. Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery is missing. Young, naïve, and set to inherit an enormous fortune, she's a walking target, ripe for someone to get their claws into. Her dying father and his sultry bottle-blonde girlfriend...

Walter Neff is a smooth talking insurance salesman who meets the very attractive Phyllis Dietrichson when he calls to renew her husband's automobile policy. The couple are immediately drawn to each other and have an affair. They scheme together to murder Phyllis' husband for life insurance money with a double indemnity clause. Unfortunately, all does not go as planned. Barton Keyes is the wily insurance investigator who must sort things out.