Private investigator Philip Marlowe lives in 1930s Hollywood, a site where wealth reigns—the novel portrays its version of LA as a new kind of Wild West frontier with limited rule of law. While the rich bring opulence that looks wonderful, beneath this gilded surface lurk dark ambitions, unsavory characters, and easy murder.

The super-rich Sternwood family enjoys prestige and pleasure and lives in a luxurious Hollywood Hills estate. But the dirt that has made this lifestyle possible is never far away: Even from the grounds of the mansion, Marlowe can spot the dangerous, polluting oil wells that have made Sternwood his fortune. Similarly, although the Sternwood daughters appear beautiful and patrician—Vivian going so far as to dress and decorate in head-to-toe white to symbolize purity and innocence—they are entrenched in the region’s criminal underground. When Sternwood hires Marlowe to negotiate with a blackmailer, Marlowe’s investigation reveals a chain of lawless avarice and duplicity that leads back to the Sternwoods. Carmen Sternwood, a seemingly scatterbrained playgirl, hides two secrets: She is in truth a murderer with a very serious neurological illness. Rather than arrange for doctors to treat Carmen’s epilepsy or turn her in to the

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