"I sat down on the edge of a deep soft chair and looked at Mrs. Regan. She was worth a stare. She was trouble."

Private detective Philip Marlowe is honest and honourable in a world that most decidedly isn't. Summoned by the wealthy General Sternwood to deal with a blackmailer who's in possession of scandalous photos of his daughter, Marlowe agrees to track down the man. However, what at first seemed to be a straightforward case turns out to be a tangled web of deceit, lies and madness. Marlowe must wade into the dark underworld of bootleggers and blackmailers to bring the truth to light.

Raymond Chandler's breakthrough novel features one of crime fiction's most famous detectives, up there with Poirot and Holmes. Set in the gritty era of 1930s Los Angeles, The Big Sleep pioneered a new type of detective novel—an action-packed thriller with a tough-talking hero.

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