The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

 

I can't remember the last time that I read any Chandler - in fact, I didn't remember that I HAD read any Chandler until I got into this one and remembered bits'n'pieces - and I definitely saw Bogart playing this part, as well. But, I was randomly looking at the Libby app and trying to think of something to idle away some time and this came up.

Everyone knows Phillip Marlowe, the strong, quiet, smart, handsome Private Eye with a personal code of honor that doesn't always have him see eye-to-eye (so to speak) with the law or with the beautiful women that he inevitably runs into in the course of his cases.

Chandler writes with Marlowe in the first person, describing all he sees and does in the hard-boiled, down-to-earth language of the time, which is a big reason why this series became so popular. He also has intricate, multi-layered plots that spins you around until you don't kow where you're going until he pulls it all together in the end.

This tale starts with a simple blackmail and turns quickly into multiple homicides ('the big sleep") that, at first, seem unrelated - other than the fact that Marlowe is in the middle of it all - but Marlowe solves it all in the end.

I doubt that I need to recommend Chandler to anyone who cares about murder mysteries, but if by some wild chance you are interested in such things and haven't read him, do so!