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By Lawrence Osborne

Philip Marlowe Books

Showing 13 of 13 books in this series
Cover for The Big Sleep
ISBN: 394758285

One of the most acclaimed works of crime fiction ever written, The Big Sleep is the first novel featuring Raymond Chandler’s iconic creation Philip Marlowe, hailed as the “quintessential urban private eye” ( Los Angeles Times ). One of The Atlantic ’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years “Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious.” —Robert B. Parker, The New York Times Book Review When old man Sternwood, a dying millionaire, hires Philip Marlowe to expose the blackmailer of one of his troublesome daughters, Marlowe finds himself involved with more than simple extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, and seduction are just a few of the complications standing in the way of completing the task at hand. And just as Marlowe feels he’s getting ahold of the situation, he discovers the first body.

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Cover for Farewell, My Lovely

The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" ( Los Angeles Times ), Philip Marlowe • Featuring the iconic character that inspired the film Marlowe , starring Liam Neeson. Philip Marlowe's about to give up on a completely routine case when he finds himself in the wrong place at the right time to get caught up in a murder that leads to a ring of jewel thieves, another murder, a fortune-teller, a couple more murders, and more corruption than your average graveyard.

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Cover for The High Window
ISBN: 394758269

The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" ( Los Angeles Times ), Philip Marlowe • Featuring the iconic character that inspired the film Marlowe , starring Liam Neeson. A wealthy Pasadena widow with a mean streak, a missing daughter-in-law with a past, and a gold coin worth a small fortune—the elements don't quite add up until Marlowe discovers evidence of murder, rape, blackmail, and the worst kind of human exploitation. "Raymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude."  Erle Stanley Gardner "Raymond Chandler has given us a detective who is hard-boiled enough to be convincing . . . and that is no mean achievement." -- The New York Times

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Cover for The Lady in the Lake

The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" ( Los Angeles Times ), Philip Marlowe • Featuring the iconic character that inspired the film Marlowe , starring Liam Neeson. In The Lady in the Lake , hardboiled crime fiction master Raymond Chandler brings us the story of a couple of missing wives—one a rich man's and one a poor man's—who have become the objects of Philip Marlowe's investigation. One of them may have gotten a Mexican divorce and married a gigolo and the other may be dead. Marlowe's not sure he cares about either one, but he's not paid to care.

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Cover for The Little Sister
ISBN: 039475767X

The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" ( Los Angeles Times ), Philip Marlowe • Featuring the iconic character that inspired the film Marlowe , starring Liam Neeson. In noir master Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister , a movie starlet with a gangster boyfriend and a pair of siblings with a shared secret lure private eye Philip Marlowe into the less than glamorous and more than a little dangerous world of Hollywood fame. Chandler's first foray into the industry that dominates the company town that is Los Angeles.

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Cover for The Long Goodbye
ISBN: 394757688

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE 'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME •  The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" ( Los Angeles Times ), Philip Marlowe • Featuring the iconic character that inspired the film Marlowe , starring Liam Neeson. In noir master Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye , Philip Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a very wealthy nymphomaniac wife, whom he divorced and remarried and who ends up dead. And now Lennox is on the lam and the cops and a crazy gangster are after Marlowe.

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Cover for Playback
ISBN: 394757661

The renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" ( Los Angeles Times ), Philip Marlowe • Featuring the iconic character that inspired the film Marlowe , starring Liam Neeson. In noir master Raymond Chandler's Playback , Philip Marlowe is hired by an influential lawyer he's never heard of to tail a gorgeous redhead, but then decides he'd rather help out the redhead. She's been acquitted of her alcoholic husband's murder, but her father-in-law prefers not to take the court's word for it. "Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence:" -- Ross Macdonald

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Cover for Poodle Springs
ISBN: 425239349

When Raymond Chandler died in 1959, he left behind the first four chapters of a new Philip Marlowe thriller. Now three decades later, Robert B. Parker , the bestselling creator of the Spenser detective novels, has completed Poodle Springs in a full-length masterpiece of criminal passion. "More than just an impressive homage, this is a first-rate detective novel with all of the suspense, action, and human drama that we have come to expect from the best."--Playboy Philip Marlowe is alive and well and living in Poodle Springs, California. He's married to a wealthy heiress now. But living in the lap of luxury hasn't made a dent in Marlowe's cynicism--or his talent for attracting trouble. Soon he's on a trail of greed, lust, and murder as dark and cunning as any he's ever seen. Philip Marlowe is back in business. " Raymond Chandler fans, throw away your dog-eared copies of The Big Sleep...Philip Marlowe has returned!"--Milwaukee Journal

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Cover for Perchance to Dream
ISBN: 425131319

In a sequel to Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, Marlowe takes on a case involving General Sternwood, who is six feet under, Vivian, who is dating a blackmailer, and Carmen, a sanitorium escapee. Reprint.

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Cover for The Black-Eyed Blonde / Marlowe

Raymond Chandler's incomparable private eye is back, pulled by a seductive young heiress into the most difficult and dangerous case of his career "It was one of those summer Tuesday afternoons when you begin to wonder if the earth has stopped revolving. The telephone on my desk had the look of something that knows it's being watched. Traffic trickled by in the street below, and there were a few pedestrians, too, men in hats going nowhere." So begins The Black-Eyed Blonde , a new novel featuring Philip Marlowe―yes, that Philip Marlowe. Channeling Raymond Chandler, Benjamin Black has brought Marlowe back to life for a new adventure on the mean streets of Bay City, California. It is the early 1950s, Marlowe is as restless and lonely as ever, and business is a little slow. Then a new client is shown in: young, beautiful, and expensively dressed, she wants Marlowe to find her former lover, a man named Nico Peterson. Marlowe sets off on his search, but almost immediately discovers that Peterson's disappearance is merely the first in a series of bewildering events. Soon he is tangling with one of Bay City's richest families and developing a singular appreciation for how far they will go to protect their fortune. Only Benjamin Black, a modern master of the genre, could write a new Philip Marlowe detective novel that has all the panache and charm of the originals while delivering a story that is as sharp and fresh as today's best crime fiction.

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Cover for Only to Sleep
ISBN: 9781524759612

Lawrence Osborne brings one of literature’s most enduring detectives back to life—as Private Investigator Philip Marlowe returns for one last adventure. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND NPR • NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR AND SHAMUS AWARDS The year is 1988. The place, Baja California. And Philip Marlowe—now in his seventy-second year—is living out his retirement in the terrace bar of the La Fonda hotel. Sipping margaritas, playing cards, his silver-tipped cane at the ready. When in saunter two men dressed like undertakers, with a case that has his name written all over it. For Marlowe, this is his last roll of the dice, his swan song. His mission is to investigate the death of Donald Zinn—supposedly drowned off his yacht, and leaving behind a much younger and now very rich wife. But is Zinn actually alive? Are the pair living off the spoils? Set between the border and badlands of Mexico and California, Lawrence Osborne’s resurrection of the iconic Marlowe is an unforgettable addition to the Raymond Chandler canon. Praise for Only to Sleep “A new case for Philip Marlowe and—have a smell from the barrel, all you gunsels and able grables —it crackles .” — The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) “Brilliant. Osborne and Chandler are a perfect match.” —William Boyd, author of Any Human Heart “A Marlowe we at once know, but have never met before. As much a meditation on aging and memory as it is a crime thriller.” — Los Angeles Times “It’s the kind of book where, when you read it, it turns the world to black and white for a half-hour afterward. It leaves you with the taste of rum and blood in your mouth. It hangs with you like a scar.” —NPR

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Cover for The Goodbye Coast
ISBN: 316459275

In this colorful reinvention of a classic, Philip Marlowe finds himself tangled in two missing persons cases; “Ide has chiseled off the rust while keeping the soul of one of American fiction’s icons” (Dennis Lehane). The seductive and relentless figure of Raymond Chandler’s detective, Philip Marlowe, is vividly re-imagined in present-day Los Angeles. Here is a city of scheming Malibu actresses, ruthless gang members, virulent inequality, and washed-out police. Acclaimed and award-winning novelist Joe Ide imagines a Marlowe very much of our time: he’s a quiet, lonely, and remarkably capable and confident private detective, though he lives beneath the shadow of his father, a once-decorated LAPD homicide detective, famous throughout the city, who’s given in to drink after the death of Marlowe’s mother. Marlowe, against his better judgement, accepts two missing person cases, the first a daughter of a faded, tyrannical Hollywood starlet, and the second, a British child stolen from his mother by his father. At the center of The Goodbye Coast is Marlowe’s troubled and confounding relationship with his father, a son who despises yet respects his dad, and a dad who’s unable to hide his bitter disappointment with his grown boy. Steeped in the richly detailed ethnic neighborhoods of modern LA, Ide’s The Goodbye Coast is a bold recreation that is viciously funny, ingeniously plotted, and surprisingly tender.

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Cover for The Second Murderer

Philip Marlowe is on the hunt for a missing heiress—and up against a rival PI—in this smart and atmospheric authorized mystery from acclaimed crime writer and "one-of-a-kind storyteller" Denise Mina (James Patterson), the first woman to recreate Raymond Chandler’s infamous detective.​ Has Philip Marlowe finally met his match? It’s early fall when a heatwave descends on Los Angeles. Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery is missing. Young, naïve, and set to inherit an enormous fortune, she’s a walking target, ripe for someone to get their claws into. Her dying father and his sultry bottle-blonde girlfriend want her found before that happens. To make sure, they’ve got Anne Riordan—now head of her own all-female detective agency—on the case, too. The search for Chrissie takes the two investigators from the Montgomery mansion to the roughest neighborhoods of LA, through dive bars and boarding houses and out to Skid Row. And that’s all before they find the body at The Brody Hotel. Who will get to Chrissie first? And what happens when a woman doesn’t want to be found? In The Second Murderer , Denise Mina becomes the first woman to recreate Raymond Chandler’s infamous detective, delivering a clever and timely new take on Philip Marlowe, as well as a propulsive, dark, and witty mystery all its own.

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