Book Log 2021 #62: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

The reading challenge I'm doing had a space for noir fiction, so I figured why not go right to the classics. 

This is the first outing for LA private detective Philip Marlowe, whose been hired by a retired general to investigate incidents involving his two daughters. The general's wilder daughter is being blackmailed by a local bookseller, and he wants Marlowe to sort it out (it's not encouraging that she's been blackmailed before). The general also wants Marlowe to find his other daughter's husband, who's gone missing. 

Both cases get complicated quickly, between the shifting relationships between those involved and an ever-growing body count. Marlowe finds himself in danger more than once - sometimes at the end of a gun, other times in the arms of a woman. 

I found it a little difficult to get established in the book due to the unique pace and style of noir/hardboiled crime fiction. But I got used to it pretty quickly and came to enjoy its twisty plot and cynical characters. There is an annotated version of the book which includes personal letters from Chandler as well as notes and essays about LA in the '30s. I may have to go back and give that a look.

But if you'd rather watch than read, there is also the classic 1946 film adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Which I actually haven't seen. May need to give that a look, too.