The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep (1939) is Raymond Chandler's debut novel and the first to feature private detective Philip Marlowe. Hired by the wealthy General Sternwood to handle a blackmailer, Marlowe is drawn into a labyrinth of pornography, gambling, and murder involving the General's two wild daughters. Set in the rain-soaked streets and sun-bleached mansions of Depression-era Los Angeles, the novel established Chandler as the master of hard-boiled detective fiction and Marlowe as one of literature's most iconic investigators.