The Big Sleep

TheBig Sleep (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond ThorntonChandler , the first in his acclaimed series about detective PhilipMarlowe. The work has been adapted twice into film,once in 1946 andagain in 1978.The story is noted for its complexity, with manycharacters double-crossing each other and many secrets being exposedthroughout the narrative. The title is a euphemism for death; itrefers to a rumination in the book about "sleeping the bigsleep", and is not descriptive of the plot.In 2005,Time magazineincluded the novel in its 100 Best Novels published after 1923