The big sleep

Raymond Chandler created the fast talking, trouble seeking Californian private eye Philip Marlowe for his first great novel 'The Big Sleep' in 1939. Marlowe's entanglement with the Sternwood family - and an attendant cast of colourful underworld figures - is the background to a story reflecting all the tarnished glitter of the great American Dream. The hard-boiled detective's iconic image burns just as brightly in 'Farewell My Lovely', on the trail of a missing nightclub crooner.