Name: The Big Sleep
Rating: 3.94 (167495 reviews)
Author: Raymond Chandler

The Long Goodbye

★ 4.19

Raymond Chandler

Down-and-out drunk Terry Lennox has a problem: his millionaire wife is dead and he needs to get out of LA fast. So he turns to the only friend he can trust: private investigator Philip Marlowe. Marlowe is willing to help a man down on his luck, but later Lennox commits suicide in Mexico and things start to turn nasty. Marlowe is drawn into a sordid crowd of adulterers and alcoholics in LA's Idle Valley, where the rich are suffering one big suntanned hangover. Marlowe is sure Lennox didn't kill his wife, but how many stiffs will turn up before he gets to the truth?

Farewell, My Lovely

★ 4.09

Raymond Chandler

Alternative cover edition of ISBN 9780394758275

Marlowe's about to give up on a completely routine case when he finds himself in the wrong place at the right time to get caught up in a murder that leads to a ring of jewel thieves, another murder, a fortune-teller, a couple more murders, and more corruption than your average graveyard.

The Thin Man

★ 3.9

Dashiell Hammett

Nick and Nora Charles are Hammett's most enchanting creations, a rich, glamorous couple who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. At once knowing and unabashedly romantic, The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.

The Maltese Falcon

★ 3.87

Dashiell Hammett

Sam Spade is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderley to track down her sister, who has eloped with a louse called Floyd Thursby. But Miss Wonderley is in fact the beautiful and treacherous Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and when Spade's partner Miles Archer is shot while on Thursby's trail, Spade finds himself both hunter and hunted: can he track down the jewel-encrusted bird, a treasure worth killing for, before the Fat Man finds him?

The Long Good-Bye

★ 4.19

Raymond Chandler

Down-and-out drunk Terry Lennox has a problem: his millionaire wife is dead and he needs to get out of LA fast. So he turns to the only friend he can trust: private investigator Philip Marlowe. Marlowe is willing to help a man down on his luck, but later Lennox commits suicide in Mexico and things start to turn nasty. Marlowe is drawn into a sordid crowd of adulterers and alcoholics in LA's Idle Valley, where the rich are suffering one big suntanned hangover. Marlowe is sure Lennox didn't kill his wife, but how many stiffs will turn up before he gets to the truth?

Red Harvest

★ 3.94

Dashiell Hammett

When the last honest citizen of "Poisonville" was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty—even if that meant taking on an entire town.

The Op was in Personville, derogatory nickname aside, as the result of a letter to the Continental Detective Agency in San Francisco from Donald Willsson, publisher of the local paper, asking for an agent to visit. No other information. As soon as the OP arrives, the body count begins and it starts with his client!

'Red Harvest' is more than a superb crime novel; it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in America and one of the greats of 20th century literature.

Librarian's note #1: this entry relates to the novel 'Red Harvest.' Collections, and other Hammett stories can be found elsewhere on Goodreads.

Librarian's note #2: the two serialized novels are: 1. The Cleansing of Poisonville (which later became Red Harvest), and 2. The Dain Curse.

Librarian's note #3: there are a total of 28 Continental Op short stories plus one incomplete; they can be found by searching GR for: 'a Continental Op Short Story.' They are: 1. Arson Plus, 2. Crooked Souls, 3. Slippery Fingers, 4. It, 5. Bodies Piled Up, 6. The Tenth Clew, 7. Night Shots, 8. Zigzags of Treachery, 9. One Hour, 10. The House on Turk Street, 11. The Girl with the Silver Eyes, 12. Women, Politics & Murder, 13. The Golden Horseshoe, 14. Who Killed Bob Teal? 15. Mike or Alec or Rufus, 16. The Whosis Kid, 17. The Scorched Face, 18. Corkscrew, 19. Dead Yellow Women, 20. The Gutting of Couffignal, 21. Creeping Siamese, 22. The Big Knock-Over, 23. $106,000 Blood Money, 24. The Main Death, 25. This King Business, 26. Fly Paper, 27. The Farewell Murder, 28. Death and Company and, 29. Three Dimes (unfinished).

A Dance At The Slaughterhouse

★ 4.16

Lawrence Block

In Matt Scudder's mind, money, power, and position elevate nobody above morality and the law. Now the ex-cop and unlicensed p.i. has been hired to prove that socialite Richard Thurman orchestrated the brutal murder of his beautiful, pregnant wife. During Scudder's hard drinking years, he left a piece of his soul on every seedy corner of the Big Apple. But this case is more depraved and more potentially devastating than anything he experienced while floundering in the urban depths. Because this investigation is leading Scudder on a frightening grand tour of New York's sex-for-sale underworld -- where an innocent young life is simply a commodity to be bought and perverted ... and then destroyed.

The High Window

★ 4.04

Raymond Chandler

Toby Stephens stars in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Raymond Chandler’s third Philip Marlowe mystery.

Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the ’40s and ’50s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe must struggle to retain his integrity amidst the corruption he encounters daily.

In The High Window, Marlowe starts out on the trail of a single stolen coin and ends up knee-deep in bodies. His client, a dried-up husk of a woman, wants him to recover a rare gold coin called a Brasher Doubloon, missing from her late husband’s collection. That’s the simple part.

But Marlowe finds that everyone who handles the coin suffers a run of very bad luck: they always end up dead. If Marlowe doesn’t wrap this one up fast, he’s going to end up in jail - or worse, in a box in the ground.

Starring Toby Stephens, this thrilling dramatisation by Robin Brooks retains all the wry humour of Chandler’s serpentine suspense novel. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 8 October 2011.

The Big Sleep

More in Philip Marlowe Series

Farewell, My Lovely

The High Window

The Little Sister

The Long Good-Bye

The Long Goodbye

Books similar to The Big Sleep

The Long Goodbye

Farewell, My Lovely

The Thin Man

The Maltese Falcon

The Long Good-Bye

Red Harvest

A Dance At The Slaughterhouse

The High Window

The Big Sleep

More in Philip Marlowe Series

Farewell, My Lovely

The High Window

The Little Sister

The Long Good-Bye

The Long Goodbye

Books similar to The Big Sleep

The Long Goodbye

Farewell, My Lovely

The Thin Man

The Maltese Falcon

The Long Good-Bye

Red Harvest

A Dance At The Slaughterhouse

The High Window

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