The Big Sleep

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The Big Sleep introduces one of the finest crime detectives in literary history, Philip Marlowe. When a dying millionaire hires Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, 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.

Here’s a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of The Big Sleep (Raymond Chandler). Most modern study guides treat the novel as 32 short chapters (some print editions format/numbering can vary slightly).

Chapter breakdown (1–32)

1. Marlowe at the Sternwood mansion: Philip Marlowe arrives to meet wealthy, ailing General Sternwood; Carmen (the younger daughter) appears and flirts erratically.
2. The hothouse meeting: In the greenhouse, Sternwood hires Marlowe to handle a blackmail problem tied to Arthur Geiger.
3. Vivian enters: Marlowe meets Vivian (older daughter), who probes what the job “really” is and tests Marlowe’s discretion.
4. Marlowe starts the legwork: He heads into L.A., frames the case, and begins tracing Geiger’s operation and contacts.
5. Geiger’s bookstore: Marlowe visits Geiger’s shop, senses a front, and starts watching the place.
6. Following the trail: Surveillance and street-level probing reveal Geiger’s business is shadier than it looks.
7. Geiger’s house—violence: Marlowe tails Geiger home; gunfire erupts, and the scene points to porn, blackmail, and a setup.
8. Aftermath management: Marlowe deals with the immediate fallout and tries to control what the Sternwoods (and police) learn.
9. A second death emerges: Evidence leads to another body and deepens the sense that someone is cleaning up loose ends.
10. Police pressure: The LAPD (and their own angles) begin leaning on Marlowe as the case becomes more than “simple blackmail.”
11. More threads, more lies: Marlowe traces who profits from Geiger’s work and who’s terrified of what’s on film.
12. The blackmail economy: He learns how the racket functions—who supplies, who buys, who threatens, who pays.
13. The net tightens: Marlowe closes in on who removed the evidence from Geiger’s house and why.
14. Joe Brody confrontation: Marlowe pressures Joe Brody, who has leverage connected to Geiger’s materials and is playing his own game.
15. Double-cross territory: Marlowe works through competing stories about who stole what and who is being framed.
16. A murder in motion: The chase around Brody escalates; the case turns openly murderous as witnesses start dropping.
17. Gangster gravity: Eddie Mars’s world pulls the story into organized muscle, intimidation, and controlled narratives.
18. Buying silence: Marlowe navigates bribes, threats, and partial confessions—always trying to keep the Sternwood scandal capped.
19. A new lead, a new danger: Information about Mars and hidden people/locations surfaces, but it comes at lethal cost.
20. Rusty Regan angle: Marlowe pivots harder toward the “missing man” thread (Rusty Regan), connecting it to Mars’s orbit.
21. Marlowe closes on the hideout: He tracks down where Mars’s missing wife and/or key witnesses might be concealed.
22. Set up and captured: Marlowe is ambushed; the investigation shifts from asking questions to surviving confinement.
23. Face-to-face with the hidden woman: He meets the person being protected/hidden and hears a version of the truth that complicates the official story.
24. Escape and retaliation: Marlowe gets loose and turns the tables; violence resolves one immediate threat.
25. Return to Sternwood: He updates the client side while holding back the most poisonous family implications.
26. Carmen’s instability becomes central: Marlowe focuses on Carmen as a catalyst—reckless, dangerous, and protected by wealth.
27. The “real” secret crystallizes: Marlowe’s private conclusions about Rusty Regan and the Sternwood family firm up.
28. Setting the trap: He maneuvers to force a confession—not from cops, but from the people invested in silence.
29. Confrontation with power: Marlowe corners the situation so the remaining players can’t keep floating half-truths.
30. The attempted killing: Carmen lures Marlowe out and tries to shoot him; it ends in a medical episode that confirms how volatile she is.
31. Marlowe confronts Vivian: He lays out what he has deduced about Carmen, Rusty Regan, and Eddie Mars’s role in covering things up.
32. The final explanation and “deal”: Vivian reveals the decisive details; Marlowe forces a grim resolution (protect the General, institutionalize Carmen, keep the truth buried).