The Big Sleep Audiobook By Raymond Chandler cover art

The Big Sleep

Philip Marlowe, Book 1

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The Big Sleep

By: Raymond Chandler
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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The iconic first novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, featuring Philip Marlowe, the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times).

A dying millionaire hires private eye Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.

©1939 Raymond Chandler (P)2020 Random House Audio Crime Crime Fiction Fiction Hard-Boiled Mystery Noir Private Investigators Traditional Detectives Detective Suspenseful

Featured Article: These Noir Listens Will Take You to the Dark Side of Fiction


What do you love most in your mystery listens? Is it dark, moody settings and gritty storylines? Is it morally ambiguous main characters with complex inner lives? If so, noir is your kind of fiction. As a literary genre, noir can be difficult to nail down because so much of it is based on a general feeling of darkness and danger. Noir fiction was inspired by film noir, and film noir traces its roots to hard-boiled detective novels. Check out the world of noir fiction audiobooks.

Featured Article These Noir Listens Will Take You to the Dark Side of Fiction
Classic Noir • Twisting Plot • Perfect Narration • Vivid Descriptions • Witty Dialogue • Atmospheric Storytelling
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Performance was perfect, it's fun to listen to Chandler's writing and turns of phrase but trying to keep up with all the twists and turns and who is who is almost impossible.

Fun but Confusing

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I have become a big fan of these works in Recent years and adds to the enjoyment first experience with the movie.

Outstanding

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The big sleep. You got that right and as a classic gumshoe he wants to be better and in the end he was. A true great Noir

Philip Marlowe

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A very good performance. No weaknesses for me. Other Chandler stories can suffer to whatever degree by casual racial stereotypes. This story is perhaps his tightest as to plot and plausibility.

My favorite Chandler story

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I like this book a lot — especially the performance. Scott Brick kills it. His voice and tones are perfect — noire to a tee. The story is a little convoluted but overall good. I’ll listen to another Raymond Chandler book for sure.

Solid Noire

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Finally read this--Brick is maybe the perfect narrator--and I understand how important this is as a fundamental noir novel. It works! I may be too influenced by parodies and stories inspired by this and other noir novels, but the story felt a iny bit predictable.

Fundamental with great narration

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New favorite book and author. can't wait to read more! absolutely love the plot, story telling, and visual wordplay.

I love how he creates such a visual experience with wordplay!

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Story was good Chandler. Narrator was a little too dramatic for my taste. Writing was typical Chandler which I love. I think his novels may be better read than listened to. When I read a novel I create the voices in my head. When a novel is narrated I believe the narrator ought to be relatively neutral so as to leave something to the listener's imagination. I know not everyone will agree with me on this point.

Crime noir

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The quintessential LA noir... the source of the tropes... perfect sentences underpinning perfectly drawn characters and plot... laugh out loud witty quips...

Brilliant

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got to keep track to keep all the characters straight. high brow fiction now,pulp fiction then. how we've regressed.

no one writes a simile like Raymond Chandler

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