The Big Sleep

By Raymond Chandler,

Book cover of The Big Sleep

Book description

Raymond Chandler's first three novels, published here in one volume, established his reputation as an unsurpassed master of hard-boiled detective fiction.

The Big Sleep, Chandler's first novel, introduces Philip Marlowe, a private detective inhabiting the seamy side of Los Angeles in the 1930s, as he takes on a case involving…

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Why read it?

19 authors picked The Big Sleep as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I love reading a thriller with a complex plot that has me trying to figure out who did what, where and when, and what or who may be connected in the main or subplot.

This was one of those books I had to read twice, not because I didn’t “get it” but because I admired the way Chandler weaved his characters around, like the actors in a Whitehall farce play. This is a book I kept turning back a few pages to keep up with the who, where, and when. Fantastic read.

The first novel about legendary private eye Phillip Marlowe is also the first mystery novel that ever made me cry when I turned the last page.

Marlowe’s poetic narration and bruised outsider’s voice offer a cynical but also strangely hopeful perspective on both the shady underworld types and the corrupt high-society folk who fill the “mean streets” down which Marlowe must walk (in Chandler’s much-quoted phrase).

Why hopeful when death–the big sleep–awaits us all? Because a man of principles like Marlowe can still bring a measure of justice in this unjust world, sometimes just by bearing witness.

Two aspects of this novel really shine: Philip Marlowe, the fearless, dogged private detective with unshakable integrity; and 1930s Los Angeles, with its wide variety of neighborhoods, landscapes, and the diverse socioeconomic classes who inhabit those places.

Throw in an intriguing mystery plot, and it’s easy to see why Chandler is considered a master of the genre. But mostly, I kept reading to see how far Marlowe would go to unravel the puzzle and how he would maintain his principles in a world that, by and large, doesn’t share them.

It’s rare to find a mystery in which a character…

Twelve Palominos

By Joe Kilgore,

Book cover of Twelve Palominos

Joe Kilgore Author Of Misfortune’s Wake

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

In a previous career, I traveled extensively to many parts of the world. I always found new cultures, old traditions, strange languages, and exotic environments fascinating. Perhaps even more fascinating, were the expats I found who had traded in their home country for an existence far from where they were born and different from how they were reared. In many instances, I’ve attempted to incorporate—in Heinlein’s words—this stranger in a strange land motif in my work. It always seems to heighten my interest. I hope the reader’s as well. 

Joe's book list on expat adventures

What is my book about?

San Diego Private Investigator, Brig Ellis, is hired by a wealthy industrialist to help him acquire the final horse in a set of twelve palomino miniatures that once belonged to the last Emperor of China. What begins as a seemingly reasonable assignment quickly morphs into something much more malevolent.

The gumshoe has to deal not only with brigands, kidnappers, and commies, but also with the beautiful, enigmatic daughter of the industrialist whose involvement raises the danger level exponentially. As complications and the body count rise, Ellis tries to make sure this ill-fated job won’t be his last.

Twelve Palominos

By Joe Kilgore,

What is this book about?

San Diego Private Investigator, Brig Ellis, is hired by a wealthy industrialist to help him acquire the final horse in a set of twelve palomino miniatures that once belonged to the last Emperor of China. What begins as a seemingly reasonable assignment quickly morphs into something much more sinister. The intrepid gumshoe finds himself having to bargain with brigands, kibitz with kidnappers, clash with commies, and duel with a stone cold assassin incapable of feeling pain. All while navigating potentially deadly pitfalls instigated by his employer's beautiful but enigmatic daughter. Conflict and danger increase at warp speed as Ellis tries…


Chandler’s novel, first published in 1939, is a touchstone for anyone writing detective fiction.

Never mind that private detective Philip Marlowe never actually solves anything.

In addition to the famously unsolved murder that Chandler brushed off when told about it, there are plot holes you could drive a Buick Roadmaster through, and prose occasionally edged in purple. Never mind its shortcomings, The Big Sleep overall remains intoxicatingly hard-boiled, a much-imitated classic of the genre.

I have gone back to it many times since I first read it, seeing its flaws but loving its tough-as-nails sensibility. It played an important part…

Most don’t think “comedy” when they think of Chandler, but I include his debut here to honor the sly wit behind the hard-boiled PI voice Chandler famously invented. Before him, nobody wrote sentences like, Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead, but after him, every crime writer wanted a sprinkle of that. Of course, Chandler’s the all-time, undisputed champion of the simile, so adroit, so confident, that it’s okay if sometimes it feels like he’s playing beyond our grasp. She…

The week I started working as a private investigator, a friend gave me The Big Sleep. I fell in love – with Raymond Chandler. To me, as a new PI, every word rang true. The book is set in Los Angeles, starring detective Philip Marlowe – “I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it” – and I read it in Los Angeles, too, amid the sunstruck tangle of ambition and envy and deception and longing that makes the city such an easy place, I was learning, to be a private eye. Marlowe’s droll…

This wasn't the first crime mystery novel I read, but The Big Sleep hooked me on Philip Marlowe as a character and the genre as a whole. Raymond Chandler created one of the most striking and engaging narrative voices in the superbly cynical and sharp-tongued Private Investigator. Marlowe's dialogue and observations have a poetic grittiness about them that reflect his toughness and the seedy world he’s steeped in, and yet, through his interactions with other characters and the values he espouses, I warmed to him as a big-hearted and sensitive character who is hard not to admire and want to…

Another timeless novel which, like The Big Sleep, was made into a classic film. Both movies starred Humphrey Bogart, in the first case as Sam Spade in 1941 and then as Philip Marlowe in 1946. This is Chandler’s first novel in which he introduced Los Angeles private investigator, Phillip Marlowe. When a dying millionaire needs help, Marlowe answers the call and changes forever the course of crime fiction. As with all of Chandler’s books, the plot is murky, but that doesn’t really matter. You read Chandler for the writing itself, which is beautiful and impossible to imitate.

Philip Marlowe is a cynical, hardened, private detective hired by wealthy, but ailing, General Sternwood. The job is to “take care of” a pornographer who has been blackmailing the General with scandalous pictures of his youngest adult daughter. This book shows the tawdry side of 1930s Los Angeles – pornography, blackmail, gangsters, prostitution, drug-dealing – and is filled with strong, believable characters, each with their own ulterior motives. The novel is dark and sleazy and Marlowe becomes disgusted by the wickedness and corruption he sees all around him. The final reveal will surprise the reader. The Big Sleep is the…

From Rob's list on a hard-nosed detective series.

Even when you know how this tale ends, following the events in this author's snappy prose is a compelling delight. A complex tale related by private investigator Philip Marlowe, who is hired by a dying oil millionaire to rescue his wild younger daughter from a blackmail scheme. Other cast members include the second daughter, her missing husband, a bookseller who openly deals in pornography, gangster Eddie Mars and his missing wife, a dead—or murdered?—chauffeur, and many others. The novel has been adapted several times, the best being the 1946 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and the 1978 movie…

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