Summary: The Big Sleep

Dur­ing a somber morn­ing in mid-Octo­ber, Philip Mar­lowe, a tough yet prin­ci­pled pri­vate inves­ti­ga­tor, is sum­moned by an aged and frag­ile Gen­er­al Stern­wood. His task is to man­age Arthur Gwynn Geiger, a prob­a­bly bisex­u­al indi­vid­ual impli­cat­ed in adult con­tent pro­duc­tion, who is extort­ing the Gen­er­al with incrim­i­nat­ing images of his daugh­ter, Car­men Stern­wood. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, Mar­lowe gets entan­gled in the puz­zle of the Gen­er­al’s absent son-in-law, Rusty Regan, who was wed­ded to Vivian, Stern­wood’s elder daugh­ter. Mar­lowe’s explo­ration leads him to Geiger’s store, a mar­ket for adult con­tent dis­guised as an antique book­store. While sur­veilling the place, he takes Geiger to his house where Car­men also shows up. A dra­mat­ic twist occurs when Car­men is pho­tographed, lead­ing her to scream.

Gun­shots are heard from inside Geiger’s res­i­dence, and Mar­lowe dis­cov­ers Geiger deceased with Car­men, drugged and unclothed, near­by. Geiger’s mur­der trig­gers a series of events result­ing in the demise of Owen Tay­lor, the Stern­woods’ chauf­feur infat­u­at­ed with Car­men, and Joe Brody, who intend­ed to take over Geiger’s illic­it busi­ness. Mar­lowe sub­se­quent­ly uncov­ers that the sequence of mur­ders is inter­linked, with Joe Brody being slain by Car­ol Lund­gren, Geiger’s part­ner, under the belief that Brody had killed Geiger.

As the inves­ti­ga­tion unfolds, Mar­lowe also learns that Rusty Regan was inno­cent of the black­mail scheme sus­pi­cions and had actu­al­ly been killed by Car­men. Despite the expo­sure of the black­mail con­spir­a­cy, Mar­lowe per­sists in dig­ging deep­er, lead­ing him to Har­ry Jones, an indi­vid­ual with cru­cial insights about Mona Grant, anoth­er cen­tral fig­ure in this intri­cate plot. With Mon­a’s assis­tance, Mar­lowe evades Eddie Mars’s thug, Lash Cani­no, and even­tu­al­ly unearths the truth behind Regan’s demise. Fol­low­ing the inci­dents, Mar­lowe vows to shield the Gen­er­al by keep­ing the details of Regan’s mur­der con­cealed and the tale clos­es with Mar­lowe pon­der­ing the con­cept of mortality.

Chapter 1

Philip Mar­lowe, a detec­tive, enters the opu­lent­ly adorned Stern­wood man­sion in LA at 11 a.m. on a cloudy mid-Octo­ber day. Attired in his finest attire for the meet­ing with the elder­ly oil mag­nate, Gen­er­al Stern­wood, Mar­lowe is cap­ti­vat­ed by the man­sion’s lux­u­ri­ous embell­ish­ments, espe­cial­ly a stained-glass depic­tion of a knight res­cu­ing a naked lady tied to a tree, and a large oil paint­ing of a gen­er­al with pen­e­trat­ing black eyes. Dur­ing his explo­ration of the res­i­dence, Mar­lowe is greet­ed by a young, attrac­tive woman in her ear­ly twen­ties. She flirts with him, to which he responds by intro­duc­ing him­self as “Dog­house Reil­ly.” This woman is lat­er unveiled as Car­men Stern­wood, the Gen­er­al’s younger daugh­ter, rec­og­nized for her thumb-bit­ing and gig­gling con­duct. Car­men throws her­self into Mar­lowe’s embrace exclaim­ing, “You’re adorable…”—a state­ment she fre­quent­ly uses through­out the nar­ra­tive. While Car­men is embraced by Mar­lowe, Nor­ris, the Stern­woods’ atten­dant, enters and announces that the Gen­er­al is pre­pared to meet Mar­lowe. Mar­lowe play­ful­ly inquires about Car­men’s iden­ti­ty with Nor­ris, jest­ing, “You should detach her. She appears mature enough.”

Chapter 2

Mar­lowe, the inves­ti­ga­tor, joins the unwell Gen­er­al Stern­wood in a green­house filled with dense, trop­i­cal flo­ra and a sti­fling scent of damp orchids. The Gen­er­al, con­fined to his wheel­chair, thrives in the oppres­sive warmth akin to the orchids. After shar­ing a bev­er­age and a brief dis­cus­sion on their back­grounds, they delve into the press­ing issues. The Gen­er­al dis­clos­es that he’s fac­ing extor­tion once again. In a pri­or inci­dent of black­mail, he had to pay Joe Brody $5,000 to stay away from his youngest daugh­ter, Car­men. This time, Arthur Gwynn Geiger asserts that Car­men is indebt­ed due to gam­bling, sup­port­ed by promis­so­ry notes signed by her, and demands $1,000 in return. Mar­lowe is pre­sent­ed with these doc­u­ments along with a busi­ness card indi­cat­ing Geiger’s pro­fes­sion as a rare book pur­vey­or, which appears to be a facade. The Gen­er­al also rais­es the dis­ap­pear­ance of his son-in-law, Rusty Regan. Regan, an Irish rebel and immi­grant, was mar­ried to the Gen­er­al’s eldest daugh­ter, Vivian, and had a spe­cial bond with the Gen­er­al, often spend­ing time with him in the green­house. The con­ver­sa­tion con­cludes fol­low­ing this rev­e­la­tion. As Mar­lowe exits the green­house, the but­ler, Nor­ris, is wait­ing to com­pen­sate him. He also informs Mar­lowe that Vivian Stern­wood denot­ed as “Mrs. Regan,” desires to meet him as she’s intrigued about her father’s engage­ment with a pri­vate detective.

Chapter 3

Mar­lowe steps into Mrs. Regan’s lav­ish cham­ber, where he encoun­ters the stun­ning Vivian. He can’t help but label her as “trou­ble” due to her intense dark gaze and her flir­ta­tious demeanor, akin to her sis­ter but more mature. He notes her tall and stur­dy physique, a sharp con­trast to her sib­ling. Their con­ver­sa­tion revolves around Vivian’s inquis­i­tive­ness about her father’s motives. She’s par­tic­u­lar­ly intrigued by Mar­lowe’s hir­ing and its link to her hus­band, Rusty Regan’s van­ish­ing. Mar­lowe finds her prob­ing nature some­what sus­pi­cious. Vivian nar­rates how her spouse dis­ap­peared abrupt­ly, with his car lat­er found in a pri­vate garage. Mar­lowe reas­sures her that his employ­ment is unre­lat­ed to trac­ing Regan, a fact he knows she wants to hear. He departs quite abrupt­ly, leav­ing his rela­tion­ship with Mrs. Regan on uncer­tain grounds. Once out­side, Mar­lowe gazes over the Stern­woods’ oil fields. The dark­en­ing skies and rum­bling thun­der mir­ror his con­tem­pla­tions as he bids adieu to the man­sion. Mulling over Geiger and the ongo­ing case, he opts to vis­it the Hol­ly­wood Pub­lic Library to research rare books and ini­tial editions.

Chapter 4

Mar­lowe heads to Geiger’s book­shop to scru­ti­nize the “oper­a­tions” tran­spir­ing with­in. He is greet­ed by an attrac­tive woman garbed in a black gown who moves “with a cer­tain je ne sais quoi [not] often observed in book­stores.” Mar­lowe quizzes her on some ini­tial edi­tions he recent­ly perused at the library to assess her knowl­edge of rare books. She affirms that the book­store does not stock what he’s seek­ing. He informs her he’ll wait for Geiger, insin­u­at­ing that Geiger may pos­sess more infor­ma­tion about the books he’s pur­port­ed­ly seek­ing. Mar­lowe set­tles in, observ­ing and smok­ing. He observes a man mov­ing in and out of the back­room, sus­pi­cious­ly car­ry­ing a book-shaped par­cel. As the man pre­pares to depart, Mar­lowe ris­es from his seat to tail him. The man tries to dodge Mar­lowe but even­tu­al­ly decides to aban­don the dubi­ous pack­age he’s car­ry­ing. Mar­lowe retrieves the dis­card­ed, wrapped book beside a tree. Through­out, dis­tant thun­der can be heard.

Chapter 5

Mar­lowe’s inquiries per­sist in attempt­ing to acquire Geiger’s res­i­den­tial tele­phone num­ber from a booth, yet his calls remain unan­swered. An idea occurs to him to vis­it oth­er book­shops near Geiger’s. He chances upon a quaint store and dis­plays his detec­tive badge to the lady at the counter. Repeat­ing the inquiries he had posed at Geiger’s store, this lady demon­strates exper­tise, respond­ing to even his clever ques­tion like an authen­tic book­seller would. Mar­lowe recounts how Geiger’s shop assis­tant failed to address these queries and fum­bled his trick, exploit­ing this dis­par­i­ty to elic­it a detailed depic­tion of Geiger from the lady. Depart­ing the book­store, Mar­lowe unwraps the pack­age he has been trans­port­ing to unveil its con­tents: “smut.” This rev­e­la­tion expos­es Geiger’s scheme of run­ning a porno­graph­ic lend­ing library at the rear of his store, dis­guis­ing it as a rare bookstore.

Chapter 6

Mar­lowe keeps watch over Geiger’s shop until a man, resem­bling Geiger’s descrip­tion, arrives. He tails Geiger to his abode. While sur­vey­ing the house, Mar­lowe notices a white auto­mo­bile pulling in. A young woman alights and heads towards Geiger’s res­i­dence. Once she is inside, Mar­lowe ver­i­fies the car’s par­tic­u­lars and rec­og­nizes it is reg­is­tered to Car­men Stern­wood. Lat­er, after sur­veilling the house through the night, Mar­lowe wit­ness­es a flash ema­nat­ing from inside the dwelling, fol­lowed by a cry that appears more star­tled than fright­ened. As he nears the house to probe fur­ther, he hears three gun­shots and the sound of some­one flee­ing. Upon enter­ing the house through a win­dow, Mar­lowe dis­cov­ers two indi­vid­u­als with­in: “Nei­ther of the two peo­ple in the room paid any atten­tion to the way I entered, although only one of them was deceased.”

Chapter 7

Mar­lowe enters Geiger’s res­i­dence, tak­ing in the opu­lent ori­en­tal decor, lux­u­ri­ous fur­nish­ings, and the pecu­liar array of scents, includ­ing ether. Car­men Stern­wood is present, unclothed, and perched on a seat, her eyes fren­zied. She seems obliv­i­ous to her envi­ron­ment and the shoot­ing, evi­dent­ly under the influ­ence of drugs, includ­ing ether. The motion­less body of Geiger lies near­by on the floor. A con­cealed cam­era catch­es Mar­lowe’s eye, inge­nious­ly hid­den in a totem pole with a flash­bulb attached. He links the bright flash and Car­men’s cry to the covert cam­era. Unable to attire her­self due to her drugged con­di­tion, Mar­lowe aids Car­men in dress­ing. He notes, how­ev­er, that the cam­era lacks its film plate, and it is not in Geiger’s pos­ses­sion either. Despite a thor­ough scour­ing of the res­i­dence, the plate remains elu­sive. He does, how­ev­er, stum­ble upon a cod­ed ledger encased in blue leather. Tak­ing the ledger with him, Mar­lowe escorts Car­men to her car and dri­ves her home.

Chapter 8

Upon arriv­ing at the Stern­wood estate, Mar­lowe inquires about Mrs. Regan and learns of her absence. The Gen­er­al is found in slum­ber, a fact Mar­lowe appre­ci­ates. Nor­ris, the house­hold but­ler, escorts Car­men and extends a taxi offer to Mar­lowe, which he declines, intend­ing to leave no traces of his vis­it to the Stern­woods that evening. Opt­ing to tra­verse the rain-drenched side­walks, he returns to Geiger’s abode. Enter­ing Geiger’s res­i­dence once more, he notes the absence of two silk strips from the wall and Geiger’s no-show. He con­ducts a thor­ough search of the house but fails to locate the body. He chances upon a secured room, which he unlocks using Geiger’s keys. The room stands in con­trast to the rest of the res­i­dence, appear­ing more mas­cu­line in Mar­lowe’s esti­ma­tion. Mar­lowe infers that the indi­vid­ual who con­cealed the body sought to cre­ate an impres­sion of Geiger’s dis­ap­pear­ance rather than his demise. He spec­u­lates that it was not the killer who con­cealed the body, but anoth­er par­ty. The killer, anx­ious that Car­men might have spot­ted him, depart­ed hasti­ly. Mar­lowe deems the con­cealed body advan­ta­geous, afford­ing him time to pon­der whether he can shield Car­men Stern­wood’s name from the occur­rences of the pri­or night. After deep con­tem­pla­tion, Mar­lowe endeav­ors to dis­cern the code in the ledger he brought. He only man­ages to ascer­tain that it is a cod­ed list, poten­tial­ly of patrons, with a vast num­ber of entries, approx­i­mate­ly four hun­dred. That night, slight­ly ine­bri­at­ed, he returns home and suc­cumbs to slum­ber filled with rem­nants of the pre­vi­ous night’s incidents.

Chapter 9

Mar­lowe awak­ens under the radi­ant morn­ing sun­light, a stark con­trast to the pre­ced­ing grim days. He is beset by a throb­bing head from a hang­over and craves a drink. His morn­ing com­mences with a phone call from Bernie Ohls, the pri­ma­ry inves­ti­ga­tor for the Dis­trict Attor­ney. Ohls was the one who intro­duced Mar­lowe to Gen­er­al Stern­wood. The call con­cerns a dis­con­cert­ing find: a Buick vehi­cle sub­merged in the Pacif­ic Ocean, alleged­ly hav­ing careened off the Lido fish­ing pier. It is a chill­ing sight com­pound­ed by the pres­ence of a corpse in the automobile.

Chapter 10

Mar­lowe revis­its Geiger’s book­store, inform­ing the cap­ti­vat­ing blonde employ­ee that his pri­or vis­it was a guise; he actu­al­ly seeks to con­verse with Geiger him­self. He dis­clos­es that he too is “in the busi­ness,” which dis­con­certs her. Ner­vous­ly, she con­tends that Geiger is not around, urg­ing Mar­lowe to return the fol­low­ing day. Before he can respond, a young man briefly opens the back door of the store. Mar­lowe catch­es sight of fre­net­ic activ­i­ty in the back room, real­iz­ing Geiger’s illic­it inven­to­ry is being relo­cat­ed. Exit­ing the store, Mar­lowe hops into a taxi and tails a black truck depart­ing from Geiger’s premis­es. The truck leads him to an apart­ment com­plex. Upon arrival, he scru­ti­nizes the names on the mail­box­es and rec­og­nizes one — “Joseph Brody,” an indi­vid­ual who had once extort­ed $5,000 from Gen­er­al Stern­wood. Seek­ing val­i­da­tion, Mar­lowe inter­ro­gates the indi­vid­ual unload­ing the truck at the garage about the goods’ des­ti­na­tion. Pre­dictably, they are head­ed for Brody. Armed with this infor­ma­tion, Mar­lowe heads back down­town to his office, where a client awaits him.

Chapter 11

Mar­lowe’s lat­est vis­i­tor is Vivian Stern­wood. She acknowl­edges her aware­ness of Owen Tay­lor’s fate and admits his infat­u­a­tion with her sis­ter, Car­men. Mar­lowe informs her of Tay­lor’s crim­i­nal past, test­ing her reac­tion. She casu­al­ly remarks that Tay­lor “did­n’t know the right peo­ple. That’s all a police record means in this rot­ten crime-rid­den coun­try.” In a sur­pris­ing turn, Vivian is not there to dis­cuss Tay­lor. Instead, she is a vic­tim of black­mail. She received a let­ter con­tain­ing a nude pho­to­graph of Car­men. A woman called lat­er demand­ing $5,000 for the return of the remain­ing pho­tographs and neg­a­tives. After Vivian recounts her tale, Mar­lowe probes her about her where­abouts the pre­vi­ous evening. She claims she was at Eddie Mars’s Cypress Club and denies knowl­edge of Tay­lor tak­ing her car. Mar­lowe hints at poten­tial­ly aid­ing Vivian, with­hold­ing the specifics of his plan or ratio­nale. She flirts with him, express­ing her fond­ness for him and her inten­tion to secure the $5,000.from Eddie Mars. She dis­clos­es that Mona Mars, Eddie’s spouse, was the indi­vid­ual who eloped with Rusty Regan, Vivian’s mate. She play­ful­ly prompts Mar­lowe to own up to whether he’s in search of Regan, but he refutes it. The teas­ing exchange per­sists until Mar­lowe demon­strates he won’t be influ­enced by Vivian. She departs with an unpleas­ant tone. Fol­low­ing that, Mar­lowe con­vers­es with Ohls, who upholds the ambi­gu­i­ty about whether Tay­lor’s demise was self-inflict­ed or a homi­cide. Ohls affirms that every­one was at the Stern­wood’s res­i­dence the pri­or evening, except for Mrs. Regan, who was at Cypress Club, as ver­i­fied by a young asso­ciate of Ohls oper­at­ing at the club’s gam­ing tables. Mar­lowe reclaims his pre­vi­ous­ly towed vehi­cle and con­firms that no reports of Geiger’s demise have been print­ed. He opts to revis­it Geiger’s cryp­tic diary.

Chapter 12

Mar­lowe revis­its Geiger’s res­i­dence, dis­cov­er­ing Car­men Stern­wood there. The place appears more dis­con­cert­ing in day­light: “All this in the day­time had a stealthy nas­ti­ness.” Car­men queries if Mar­lowe is a police offi­cer, to which he clar­i­fies that he’s essen­tial­ly her father’s acquain­tance. He inter­ro­gates Car­men about Geiger’s assas­si­na­tion, propos­ing Joe Brody as the cul­prit. She reacts pos­i­tive­ly, con­sent­ing to Mar­lowe’s sus­pi­cion. As Mar­lowe delves deep­er, Car­men reverts to her stan­dard demeanor: inno­cent, play­ful, and slight­ly cru­el in a flir­ta­tious man­ner. Car­men imparts to Mar­lowe that her sib­ling, Vivian, dis­closed his true iden­ti­ty to her: that he’s a con­fi­den­tial inves­ti­ga­tor named Philip Mar­lowe, not “Reil­ly”. Mar­lowe briefs Car­men that the pho­to­graph she had been seek­ing is absent. He once more inquires about Brody, ask­ing if she sin­cere­ly believes he’s the killer. She nods in agree­ment. Sud­den­ly, Car­men express­es a wish to depart just as they hear a vehi­cle arriv­ing at the dri­ve­way. Car­men pan­ics. As some­one pro­ceeds to unlatch the front door, a man enters and spots them together.

Chapter 13

Eddie Mars enters Geiger’s abode where Mar­lowe endeav­ors to per­suade him that he and Car­men were mere­ly there to gath­er a book. Mars, how­ev­er, remains uncon­vinced. He frees Car­men but desires to con­verse with Mar­lowe, hint­ing at his two com­pan­ions out­side pre­pared to heed his orders. Car­men flees. Mars sens­es some­thing awry and notices Geiger’s blood. Despite Mar­lowe’s non­cha­lant response, Mars grows skep­ti­cal and demands to ascer­tain his iden­ti­ty. Mar­lowe divulges he’s a detec­tive and Car­men is his client, ensnared in Geiger’s extor­tion plot. Mar­lowe then queries Mars’s abil­i­ty to access Geiger’s abode. Mars divulges his pos­ses­sion of the house, ren­der­ing Geiger his lodger. The ensu­ing dia­logue between Mars and Mar­lowe is one of numer­ous cut­ting exchanges in the tale. Mars feigns igno­rance regard­ing Geiger’s loca­tion, but Mar­lowe is cog­nizant of Mars’ par­tic­i­pa­tion in fur­nish­ing “pro­tec­tion” for Geiger’s illic­it enter­prise. He deft­ly nav­i­gates the dis­course, dis­clos­ing sole­ly essen­tial details to gauge Mars’ reac­tions. Mar­lowe’s con­duct vex­es Mars who beck­ons his gun­men to frisk Mar­lowe. Dis­cov­er­ing he’s unarmed and sin­cere­ly a detec­tive, Mar­lowe still con­ceals details about Joe Brody and Car­men. Even­tu­al­ly, Mars releas­es Mar­lowe who then pro­ceeds back to Hollywood.

Chapter 14

Mar­lowe revis­its Joe Brody’s flat and gains entry by unveil­ing that he knows Brody pos­sess­es Geiger’s books. He also asserts to have a client list, urg­ing Brody to be forth­right. Brody, armed with a firearm, has Agnes Lozelle, the fair-haired lady from Geiger’s store, accom­pa­ny­ing him. She ini­tial­ly rebuffs Mar­lowe’s accu­sa­tions about Geiger’s objec­tion­able book­store deal­ings. Mar­lowe then implies that Brody might be wrong­ly sus­pect­ed of the mur­der to acquire con­trol of Geiger’s obscene busi­ness. He main­tains that he’s aware Brody holds the incrim­i­nat­ing pho­tographs, is account­able for extort­ing Vivian, and that the uniden­ti­fied female voice on the phone was Agnes. Under this pres­sure, Brody slips up and men­tions a “punk kid” who van­ished after Geiger’s demise, a fig­ure lat­er revealed to be Car­ol Lund­gren, Geiger’s part­ner. After an extend­ed dis­cus­sion, Mar­lowe deduces that Brody is being truth­ful about not being impli­cat­ed in Geiger’s assas­si­na­tion. Brody con­fess­es he sev­ered ties with Car­men due to her errat­ic con­duct, which she did­n’t respond well to. Even­tu­al­ly, Mar­lowe per­suades Brody to sur­ren­der the pho­tographs. How­ev­er, just as he’s on the brink of acquir­ing them, the door­bell inter­rupts them.

Chapter 15

Right before answer­ing the door, Brody hands a firearm to Agnes to point at Mar­lowe. He also wields a weapon. Car­men Stern­wood, also armed, is at the door. She’s there to reclaim her pho­tographs. She false­ly accus­es Brody of slay­ing Arthur Geiger, a fic­ti­tious asser­tion serv­ing as both a frame-up and a counter-black­mail ploy. Caught off guard by Car­men at the door, Brody seizes the moment to seize the gun from Agnes. A tus­sle unfolds. Agnes endeav­ors to retrieve her weapon, but Mar­lowe sub­dues her. A gun­shot ensues between Car­men and Brody, with Mar­lowe end­ing up with all the firearms. He then prompts Brody to relin­quish all pho­to­graph prints and neg­a­tives. Mar­lowe dis­miss­es Car­men, unmoved by her per­sis­tent advances, and retains her pho­tographs temporarily.

Chapter 16

Once Car­men exits, Mar­lowe finds him­self in Brody’s apart­ment with Car­men’s gun. He inter­ro­gates Brody about his pro­fes­sion, dis­cov­er­ing that he toils for Puss Wal­greens in insur­ance. Mar­lowe delves deep­er, desir­ing to com­pre­hend how Brody pro­cured Car­men’s pic­ture and ensure Brody won’t divulge Car­men’s pres­ence there with her gun. Brody attempts to nego­ti­ate pay­ment for his ret­i­cence and infor­ma­tion, to which Mar­lowe accedes to a mod­est sum. Brody unveils that an uniden­ti­fied “indi­vid­ual” passed him the pic­ture, but his nar­ra­tive does­n’t cease there. He admits to hav­ing sur­veilled Geiger’s res­i­dence to enter the “book rack­et.” He noticed Vivian Stern­wood’s Buick, which Owen Tay­lor steered the night he dis­patched Geiger, parked near­by. Brody also divulges that he pur­sued Tay­lor after hear­ing gun­fire and mas­querad­ing as a law enforce­ment offi­cer, he sub­dued Tay­lor and filched the cam­er­a’s plate hold­er, obliv­i­ous to its con­tents. Upon devel­op­ing the neg­a­tive, Brody iden­ti­fied the victim—Geiger, who was absent from his estab­lish­ment the sub­se­quent day. This dis­clo­sure led Brody to take hold of Geiger’s enter­prise. While Mar­lowe finds Brody’s account plau­si­ble, he per­sists in inter­ro­gat­ing him regard­ing the body’s loca­tion, which Brody dis­avows aware­ness of. Their con­ver­sa­tion is dis­rupt­ed by the door­bell. Brody answers the door, only to be fatal­ly shot. Mar­lowe pur­sues the assailant, rec­og­niz­ing him as Car­ol Lund­gren, Geiger’s store asso­ciate. Lund­gren erro­neous­ly believed Brody was cul­pa­ble for Geiger’s demise and sought vengeance for his beloved.

Chapter 17

Mar­lowe escorts Lund­gren to Geiger’s abode. A scuf­fle ensues as Mar­lowe demands Lund­gren unlock Geiger’s res­i­dence with a key he trusts Lund­gren pos­sess­es. Mar­lowe emerges vic­to­ri­ous, immo­bi­lizes Lund­gren, and ren­ders him uncon­scious. Lund­gren adamant­ly retorts to all of Mar­lowe’s remarks with, “Go —— your­self.” Mar­lowe coerces his entrance into the res­i­dence, pulling Lund­gren along. He pin­points the ori­gin of the incense scent ema­nat­ing from the room oppo­site Geiger’s, the one that’s spar­tan and mas­cu­line. As it tran­spires, Geiger’s motion­less body is sprawled on the bed in that room, draped with two strips of Chi­nese silk arranged like a cross. Can­dles and incense are ignit­ed all around him. Mar­lowe con­tacts Ohls, inquir­ing if a firearm was found on Owen Tay­lor’s cadav­er that morn­ing. Mar­lowe is now con­vinced Tay­lor is the per­pe­tra­tor of Geiger’s demise. He noti­fies Ohls that the gun should con­tain three spent shells, append­ing that if Ohls is inquis­i­tive about his infor­ma­tion source, he should vis­it 7244 Lav­erne Ter­race, Geiger’s abode.

Chapter 18

Ohls appears at the res­i­dence where Mar­lowe unveils the occur­rences, pre­sent­ing Geiger’s life­less body in the bed­room. They pro­ceed to Dis­trict Attor­ney Tag­gart Wilde’s domi­cile. Mar­lowe dis­clos­es the sit­u­a­tion to both the D.A. and Cap­tain Cron­jager, inten­tion­al­ly omit­ting details about Car­men Stern­wood from the account. The inter­ac­tion hints at a dis­tinct rival­ry between Mar­lowe and the author­i­ties. The dia­logue implies poten­tial legal com­pli­ca­tions for Mar­lowe due to his with­hold­ing of infor­ma­tion. Mar­lowe relin­quish­es Lund­gren to the author­i­ties. The D.A. warns him of the antic­i­pat­ed reper­cus­sions from the police regard­ing the con­ceal­ment and insists he must pro­vide state­ments con­cern­ing his nar­ra­tive. The D.A. agrees to attempt to absolve Gen­er­al Stern­wood from the mur­ders and even clas­si­fy them as sep­a­rate inci­dents. The D.A. appears to refrain from assign­ing blame to Mar­lowe, evi­dent­ly valu­ing his inves­tiga­tive efforts despite the pal­try com­pen­sa­tion. The D.A. has con­nec­tions to Stern­wood; his father was a close ally of the Gen­er­al and has fre­quent­ly shield­ed him through his sta­tus. The D.A. sym­pa­thizes with the Gen­er­al due to his trou­ble­some daugh­ters. The sub­ject of Rusty Regan resur­faces, with the D.A. artic­u­lat­ing his sus­pi­cion that the Gen­er­al may sus­pect Regan’s involve­ment in the unfold­ing events.

Chapter 19

An asso­ciate from Eddie Mars’s estab­lish­ment vis­its Mar­lowe, relay­ing Mars’s request for a meet­ing. Mar­lowe declines. Mars lat­er con­tacts Mar­lowe, cau­tion­ing him against dis­clos­ing any infor­ma­tion about Mars to the author­i­ties. In return, Mars offers pro­tec­tion and poten­tial­ly valu­able infor­ma­tion about Rusty Regan. Mar­lowe makes it clear he isn’t active­ly seek­ing Regan but may con­tem­plate meet­ing Mars. Mar­lowe then con­tacts the Stern­wood res­i­dence to noti­fy Vivian through the but­ler that he has Car­men’s pho­tographs and every­thing is in order. Despite his phone inces­sant­ly ring­ing all night, Mar­lowe dis­re­gards it. Mar­lowe exam­ines the news­pa­per reports on Geiger’s mur­der and finds them sig­nif­i­cant­ly erro­neous. The arti­cles false­ly claim that Owen Tay­lor unequiv­o­cal­ly com­mit­ted sui­cide and entire­ly over­look any link between him and Geiger’s mur­der. The news­pa­pers also dis­re­gard Mar­lowe or Ohls’ role in solv­ing the case, attribut­ing all the acco­lades to Cap­tain Cronjager.

Chapter 20

Mar­lowe vis­its Cap­tain Gre­go­ry at the Miss­ing Per­sons Bureau, seek­ing intel on Regan. He con­firms with the Cap­tain if they’re inves­ti­gat­ing Regan’s dis­ap­pear­ance, express­ing his con­cern to ensure Regan’s detach­ment from any extor­tion scheme. Cap­tain Gre­go­ry shares with Mar­lowe that Regan van­ished on Sep­tem­ber 16, with his auto­mo­bile mys­te­ri­ous­ly appear­ing in a pri­vate garage four days lat­er, bereft of any fin­ger­prints. He val­i­dates Mar­lowe’s acquain­tance with Regan’s alleged depar­ture with Mars’s wife, men­tion­ing that Regan habit­u­al­ly car­ried $15,000 in cash. He fur­nish­es Mar­lowe with a pho­to­graph of Regan, whom Mar­lowe observes lacks the “vis­age of a tough indi­vid­ual” or the “coun­te­nance of some­one eas­i­ly dom­i­nat­ed by oth­ers.” Gre­go­ry dis­miss­es the notion of Mars elim­i­nat­ing Regan out of jeal­ousy, deem­ing it too sim­plis­tic giv­en Mars’s wife depart­ed with Regan. He pro­pos­es that Regan and Mona Mars like­ly used Mon­a’s car to abscond. With lim­it­ed evi­dence, the Miss­ing Per­sons Bureau has mea­ger leads, and Gre­go­ry implies the wait­ing game until Regan and Mrs. Mars deplete their resources and leave a trace. He sur­mis­es that locat­ing Regan could be a pro­tract­ed endeav­or. Gre­go­ry’s appar­ent non­cha­lance haunts Mar­lowe, fear­ing that his client, Gen­er­al Stern­wood, may not per­sist in see­ing Regan locat­ed. Upon exit­ing the office, he spots a gray Ply­mouth sedan tail­ing him, but he skill­ful­ly evades it.

Chapter 21

Nor­ris, the Stern­wood but­ler, calls Mar­lowe and imparts Gen­er­al Stern­wood’s deci­sion. Accord­ing to the Gen­er­al, Mar­lowe should accept a $500 check and regard the inves­ti­ga­tion as final­ized. Nev­er­the­less, Mar­lowe’s reflec­tions linger on Regan, rul­ing out Eddie Mars as his poten­tial assailant, mir­ror­ing the Cap­tain’s con­clu­sion. He revis­its the “resolved” inves­ti­ga­tion, acknowl­edg­ing that the most pru­dent course of action would be to leave it be. Instead, he reach­es out to Mars for a ren­dezvous that night. Mar­lowe arrives at the Cypress Club on a misty evening. Mars divulges that Vivian Regan is engrossed in gam­bling at the casi­no. Mars appre­ci­ates Mar­lowe’s dis­cre­tion about him to the author­i­ties, prof­fer­ing a favor in return. Mar­lowe, how­ev­er, seeks infor­ma­tion on Regan’s where­abouts from Mars on behalf of Gen­er­al Stern­wood. He also broach­es the top­ic of the black­mail and Regan’s pos­si­ble asso­ci­a­tion with it. Their dia­logue advances with Mars not­ing Vivian’s detri­men­tal gam­bling prac­tices caus­ing him trou­ble. Mar­lowe express­es his desire to sur­vey the sur­round­ings, while Mars upholds his pledge of com­pen­sat­ing Mar­lowe’s dis­cre­tion about him to the author­i­ties some­day with “a gen­uine favor.” Before depart­ing, Mar­lowe inquires if Mars has some­one tail­ing him in a gray Ply­mouth sedan. Mars denies it, although his star­tled coun­te­nance sug­gests otherwise.

Chapter 22

The Cypress Club exudes an ambiance of under­stat­ed sophis­ti­ca­tion, a sharp depar­ture from the osten­ta­tious venues in Hol­ly­wood. Its his­to­ry as a ball­room remains dis­cernible. Here, Vivian Stern­wood is bet­ting aggres­sive­ly at a roulette game. Her wagers are lofty enough to unset­tle the deal­er. Eddie Mars is sum­moned, and Vivian announces her intent to stake her entire $6,000. Mars calm­ly cov­ers her bet with his own funds. To every­one’s aston­ish­ment, Vivian emerges vic­to­ri­ous, and Mars, unper­turbed, with­draws to his office. Sub­se­quent­ly, as Vivian col­lects her win­nings and pre­pares to depart, Mar­lowe exits the club. Once out­side in the exceed­ing­ly fog­gy weath­er, Mar­lowe detects some­thing pecu­liar. He hears a man cough­ing and deduces that the man is masked. Opt­ing to remain con­cealed behind a tree, Mar­lowe pon­ders his next move and mon­i­tors the masked man’s movements.

Chapter 23

Mar­lowe chances upon a woman, Vivian Stern­wood, being robbed at gun­point by a masked indi­vid­ual. Covert­ly approach­ing the attack­er and dis­arm­ing him, Mar­lowe instructs the man to flee, promis­ing mutu­al silence. Vivian cyn­i­cal­ly express­es appre­ci­a­tion while ques­tion­ing Mar­lowe’s atten­dance at the Cypress Club. Mar­lowe elab­o­rates that he is there to inves­ti­gate why Mars is under the impres­sion that he is look­ing for Regan. They dis­cov­er Lar­ry Cobb, Mrs. Regan’s com­pan­ion for the night, intox­i­cat­ed in the car garage. A club staff mem­ber assures to arrange trans­porta­tion for Cobb, lead­ing Mar­lowe to offer to escort Vivian to her home. Her uneasy behav­ior hints at how the attempt­ed rob­bery has affect­ed her. Mak­ing a stop at a drug­store for some cof­fee, Mar­lowe play­ful­ly remarks on Vivian’s “devi­ous eyes” and inquires about what Mars might be used against her. She sug­gests that the masked assailant was prob­a­bly sent by Mars to recov­er the mon­ey she had won. Their dis­cus­sion con­tin­ues on their way to the beach club, Vivian’s cho­sen des­ti­na­tion, where they share a kiss. Nonethe­less, Mar­lowe remains focused. He per­sists in inter­ro­gat­ing Vivian about Mars, upset­ting her. He the­o­rizes that the rob­bery might have been staged for his “advan­tage.” The con­ver­sa­tion con­cludes neg­a­tive­ly, and Mar­lowe escorts Vivian back home.

Chapter 24

Return­ing to his place, Mar­lowe detects a fem­i­nine scent. He dis­cov­ers Car­men Stern­wood, undressed, in his bed, hav­ing gained entry through the care­tak­er. She had tak­en Mar­lowe’s card from Vivian and con­vinced the care­tak­er that Mar­lowe had asked her to wait in his apart­ment. Upon see­ing Car­men, Mar­lowe goes to a chess­board and adjusts his knight piece while Car­men gig­gles from the bed. Her laugh­ter brings to mind “rodents behind the wain­scot­ing” for him. Despite Car­men’s attempts at seduc­tion, Mar­lowe rejects her advances and demands that she get dressed. Despite his instruc­tions, she con­tin­ues to gig­gle. Glanc­ing at the chess­board, he real­izes his knight’s move was mis­tak­en. Reflect­ing, he mut­ters, “Knights were irrel­e­vant in this sce­nario. It was­n’t a game suit­ed for knights.” As Car­men grows irri­tat­ed, Mar­lowe remains stead­fast in his refusal and insists that she clothes her­self and leaves. Dis­re­gard­ing his words, she per­sists in her gig­gles. Mar­lowe observes his chess­board, acknowl­edg­ing his error. Car­men becomes increas­ing­ly agi­tat­ed as Mar­lowe main­tains his stance, lead­ing to her even­tu­al departure.

Chapter 25

Feel­ing a dis­dain for women, Mar­lowe com­mences his day amid rain­fall and notices the famil­iar gray Ply­mouth sedan. The vehi­cle, which has been tail­ing him, is parked near­by. He spec­u­lates about its occu­pant. Upon reach­ing his office, he con­fronts the indi­vid­ual from the car who had fol­lowed him the entire way. He pro­pos­es to dis­cuss the mat­ter in his office. After leav­ing the man out­side, Mar­lowe enters his office to find a $500 check from Gen­er­al Stern­wood. Soon after, his office buzzer rings, and the man from the car, revealed as Har­ry Jones arrives. Jones pos­sess­es vital infor­ma­tion that he is will­ing to trade for $200. Mar­lowe sus­pects Agnes Lozelle’s involve­ment. Jones dis­clos­es that Mona Grant did not elope with Regan. Instead, Eddie Mars is con­ceal­ing her to per­pet­u­ate the idea that she did. Jones intro­duces Lash Cani­no, Mars’s hired gun­man. He obtained this infor­ma­tion from Joe Brody, who was delv­ing into the Regan-Mona case for prof­it. Brody once spot­ted Mrs. Regan in a car with Cani­no. Due to Cani­no’s links with Mrs. Regan and Mars, Brody deduced that Cani­no pos­sessed Regan-relat­ed details. Mar­lowe learns that Agnes coin­ci­den­tal­ly crossed paths with Mona Grant. Accord­ing to Jones, once she receives the pay­ment, Agnes will divulge the hide­out loca­tion. Mar­lowe fails to com­pre­hend Agnes and Har­ry’s involve­ment in the sit­u­a­tion. Jones retorts, “[Agnes is] a swindler, detec­tive. I’m a swindler too. We all deceive one anoth­er for a pit­tance.” Jones instructs Mar­lowe to bring the mon­ey to Puss Wal­green’s office—a front for an insur­ance busi­ness pre­vi­ous­ly men­tioned through Brody. Upon receipt, Jones promis­es to guide Mar­lowe to Agnes, who will share the information.

Chapter 26

That night, Mar­lowe stealth­ily enters Puss Wal­green’s office, over­hear­ing Cani­no inter­ro­gat­ing Jones about his sur­veil­lance activ­i­ties. Cani­no is curi­ous about Jones’s trail­ing of Mar­lowe’s car. Mars is informed and demands an expla­na­tion. Jones clar­i­fies that his motive was to extort Mar­lowe with infor­ma­tion about Car­men Stern­wood’s where­abouts on the night Brody was mur­dered. Jones dis­clos­es that Car­men was present at Geiger’s and attempt­ed to shoot Brody over a com­pro­mis­ing pho­to­graph. He insists that his mon­i­tor­ing of Mar­lowe has no con­nec­tion to Mars. When Cani­no probes about Agnes, Jones ini­tial­ly with­holds details. Con­front­ed by Cani­no’s firearm, Jones even­tu­al­ly pro­vides an address. Cani­no seems sat­is­fied. How­ev­er, before depart­ing, he offers Jones a poi­soned drink, result­ing in Jones’s demise. Remain­ing con­cealed until Cani­no leaves, Mar­lowe then dis­cov­ers Jones’s life­less body. Attempt­ing to ver­i­fy Agnes’s where­abouts using the address shared with Cani­no, Mar­lowe finds no trace of Agnes there; Jones had deceived to pro­tect her. Mar­lowe respects Jones’s loy­al­ty. Short­ly after, Agnes con­tacts him. Mar­lowe informs her about Cani­no’s vis­it to the office, prompt­ing Jones’s escape out of fear. Mar­lowe and Agnes arrange to meet for the exchange of mon­ey for Mona Grant’s intel.

Chapter 27

Mar­lowe meets Agnes at a pre-des­ig­nat­ed park­ing lot, where she reveals Mon­a’s hide­out. It is sit­u­at­ed east of Real­i­to, close to a cyanide fac­to­ry next to a garage man­aged by Art Huck. Agnes stum­bled upon this infor­ma­tion while dri­ving with Joe Brody, spot­ting Cani­no with Eddie Mars’s spouse. After part­ing ways, Mar­lowe heads towards the dis­closed loca­tion. En route, his tires are punc­tured by tacks strewn on the road. From his halt­ed posi­tion, he dis­cerns a light in the dis­tance, poten­tial­ly ema­nat­ing from Art Huck­’s garage. Armed with a hand­gun tak­en from Vivian’s assailant, he approach­es the garage under the guise of need­ing tire repair. Knock­ing on the garage door, Mar­lowe notices Cani­no’s car parked out­side. Ini­tial­ly hes­i­tant, Art even­tu­al­ly yields to Cani­no’s insis­tence to assist Mar­lowe with his tire predica­ment. Fol­low­ing a silent com­mu­ni­ca­tion between Cani­no and Art, Art reluc­tant­ly agrees to fix the tires. Sub­se­quent­ly, Cani­no offers Mar­lowe a beverage—a drink that Mar­lowe observes is free of poi­son. How­ev­er, before he can react, he is ambushed by Cani­no and Art, lead­ing to a phys­i­cal altercation.

Chapter 28

Regain­ing con­scious­ness after the scuf­fle, Mar­lowe finds him­self bound, hand­cuffed, and in a house adja­cent to a garage. Mona Grant, Eddie Mars’s wife, is present with him. Despite the sore­ness from his injuries, Mar­lowe engages in his cus­tom­ary sharp ban­ter. Mar­lowe is drawn to Mona, whom he nick­names “Sil­ver-Wig” due to her plat­inum hair­piece. Mona, fierce­ly pro­tec­tive of her hus­band Mars, dis­putes Mar­lowe’s asser­tions of him being a killer or worse, an indi­rect mur­der­er. Although she defends Mars, Sil­ver-Wig releas­es Mar­lowe from his restraints. Unable to unlock the hand­cuffs left by Cani­no, who charged Sil­ver-Wig with keep­ing an eye on Mar­lowe, Mar­lowe urges her to accom­pa­ny him for safe­ty, an offer she declines. Before his depar­ture, Mar­lowe and Sil­ver-Wig share a ten­der moment with a kiss.

Chapter 29

Mar­lowe dash­es out of the dwelling into the heavy rain, com­plete­ly pre­oc­cu­pied with Cani­no and his part­ner’s dead­ly plot against him. Reach­ing the high­way, he notices that his pre­vi­ous­ly dam­aged vehi­cle has been repaired, pre­sum­ably to be used for their nefar­i­ous deed. Retriev­ing his gun from the car, he makes his way back to the res­i­dence, nar­row­ly avoid­ing detec­tion by Cani­no. Upon entry, Mar­lowe’s agi­ta­tion pre­vents him from allow­ing events to unfold nat­u­ral­ly and wait­ing for Sil­ver-Wig to pro­vide an expla­na­tion. Instead, he throws stones at the win­dow in an attempt to lure Cani­no out­side. When this tac­tic fails, he starts the car engine, antic­i­pat­ing that Cani­no will shoot at the vehi­cle, mis­tak­ing Mar­lowe to be inside. As pre­dict­ed, Cani­no falls for the trick, and Mar­lowe pre­tends to scream in pain. Amused, Cani­no sends Sil­ver-Wig to inspect the sit­u­a­tion. She takes Mar­lowe’s side, claim­ing to see his life­less body at the wheel. Deceived by Sil­ver-Wig, Cani­no low­ers his guard, allow­ing Mar­lowe to seize the oppor­tu­ni­ty and shoot him down.

Chapter 30

Mar­lowe is in con­ver­sa­tion with Cap­tain Gre­go­ry at the Miss­ing Per­sons Bureau. The author­i­ties, includ­ing the homi­cide team, have rep­ri­mand­ed him for his inde­pen­dent actions. He informs the Cap­tain that he’s with­draw­ing from the case, despite Rusty Regan still being miss­ing. Although aware that this may be an emp­ty pledge, Cap­tain Gre­go­ry per­mits Mar­lowe to leave, leav­ing Mar­lowe sus­pi­cious of the Cap­tain har­bor­ing secrets. Lat­er that night, Mar­lowe strug­gles to sleep as he reflects on the events of the pre­vi­ous night. He con­tem­plates Sil­ver-Wig, who was ulti­mate­ly released by the police, and his own con­fes­sion regard­ing Cani­no’s shoot­ing. Amidst his mus­ings, Nor­ris, the Stern­woods’ atten­dant, phones him and requests Mar­lowe’s pres­ence with Gen­er­al Stern­wood in the morn­ing. Upon his arrival at the Stern­wood res­i­dence, he finds the Gen­er­al grave­ly ill. The Gen­er­al seems to accuse Mar­lowe of betray­al, claim­ing that he nev­er for­mal­ly tasked him with find­ing Regan. How­ev­er, once Mar­lowe declares his depar­ture from the case, the Gen­er­al reveals his true inten­tions. He offers Mar­lowe an addi­tion­al $1,000 to locate Regan. The Gen­er­al explains that it’s not about his daugh­ter being aban­doned by Regan, but rather his own fond­ness for Regan and his desire to ensure Regan’s well-being. Addi­tion­al­ly, he seeks to reaf­firm his abil­i­ty to judge people.

Chapter 31

Mar­lowe encoun­ters Car­men Stern­wood out­side and returns her firearm. Play­ful­ly, she asks for his assis­tance in learn­ing to shoot. He holds onto the gun until they reach the des­ig­nat­ed shoot­ing loca­tion as per Car­men’s instruc­tions. The area is a des­o­late expanse, dot­ted with aging, aban­doned oil pumps. Set­ting up tin cans as tar­gets, Mar­lowe hands the gun back to Car­men. How­ev­er, instead of aim­ing at the cans, Car­men points them at Mar­lowe, instruct­ing him not to budge. She pulls the trig­ger, but to her sur­prise, no bul­lets are fired. Unfazed, Mar­lowe smiles at her—he has loaded the gun with blanks. As Car­men grap­ples with the con­fu­sion and shock, she begins trem­bling and even­tu­al­ly faints. On their way back home, she regains con­scious­ness and asks, “What happened?”

Chapter 32

Mar­lowe escorts Car­men back home and lays out the entire crim­i­nal web for her sis­ter, Vivian. He con­nects all the dots relat­ed to black­mail, mur­der, Geiger, Brody, their pho­tographs, Eddie Mars, Cani­no, and Mona. Ini­tial­ly indif­fer­ent, Vivian’s inter­est grows when Mar­lowe delves into the Rusty Regan sit­u­a­tion. He dis­clos­es to Vivian that Car­men, fueled by anger over rejec­tion, tried to kill him in the same man­ner she alleged­ly dis­patched Regan. Mar­lowe sug­gests that Vivian used Regan’s own mon­ey to pay Cani­no to dis­pose of Regan’s body. He insists that due to Car­men’s evi­dent men­tal insta­bil­i­ty, she should be insti­tu­tion­al­ized. Vivian acknowl­edges Mar­lowe’s deduc­tions and reveals Regan’s final rest­ing place—an oil sump. She had cho­sen to con­ceal her sis­ter’s crime out of fear of legal reper­cus­sions, lack of gen­uine affec­tion for Regan, and to shield their father, the Gen­er­al, from the harsh truth in his twi­light days. Mar­lowe once more urges Vivian to seek help for Car­men, grant­i­ng her a three-day respite before he dis­clos­es the mur­der pub­licly. As the tale draws to a close, Mar­lowe con­tem­plates the con­cept of death—the “big sleep”—and pon­ders Silver-wig.