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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About this listen

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 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.

What listeners say about The Big Sleep

Highly rated for:

Classic Noir Story Compelling Twists Evocative Character Descriptions Witty Dialogues Atmospheric Writing
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Fun but Confusing

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.

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Outstanding

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

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    3 out of 5 stars

Philip Marlowe

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

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Solid Noire

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.

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1 person found this helpful

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Fundamental with great narration

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.

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Crime noir

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.

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3 people found this helpful

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Brilliant

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

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no one writes a simile like Raymond Chandler

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

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What a story!

I loved it! I had just listened to the Maltese Falcon and was looking for something similar. Oh boy did I get more than I expected! The story was dark but without filth. It’s amazing how it’s unnecessary to fill the readers eyes or ears with smut and violence and yet that’s all our modern writers do. It’s sad really that they have forsaken an art like suspense and instead sell us trash all naked and covered in blood and fools just lap it up and call it good. What a story! Riveting, suspenseful, even provocative but never smut. What a story!

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classic noire

Scott Brick delivers a very compelling performance of a classic noire novel. Brick channels a very world weary Philip Marlowe in a tale that keeps you guessing until the bitter end.

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