Three exceptional stories, The Big Sleep (1939), Farewell My Lovely (1940) and The Long Good-Bye (1953) by an undoubted master of detective fiction. Each are tailor-made as film scripts within the popular genre of Film Noir. These novels and films feature cynical characters, sleazy settings and a dysfunctional society. The Big Sleep, in its original form as a film, became an instant classic in 1946, with Farewell My Lovely preceding it in 1944, with The Long Good-Bye only reaching cinemas in 1973. The two former films cast Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe so perfectly that he has become synonymous with the character. Each story takes the reader into a world of private detectives, bend cops, extreme violence, chancers and protection rackets. Philip Marlowe himself is the ultimate anti-hero – flawed, chain smoking, alcoholic and strangely attractive to beautiful women.
All three stories are compelling, complicated and totally captivating. Adult themes are handled well, never titillating but sordid nonetheless. Each story is a page-turner and utterly absorbing. Clearly, the author is one of the greatest of crime writers. Although The Big Sleep as a film has been roundly criticised as being over complicated, the book excels in the very fact that the reader is bamboozled by the twists and turns of the plot, which give such satisfaction on understanding at the last, in what has been an enjoyable read.
It has been difficult to assess according to these stars because clearly the subject matter is so against the teaching of the church, yet definitely describes what happens to a society without religion.