Raymond Chandler created the fast talking, trouble seeking Californian private eye Philip
Marlowe for his first great novel The Big Sleep in 1939. Marlowe's entanglement with
the Sternwood family - and an attendant cast of colourful underworld figures - is the
background to a story reflecting all the tarnished glitter of the great American Dream. The
hard-boiled detective's iconic image burns just as brightly in Farewell My Lovely, on
the trail of a missing nightclub crooner.