The Big Sleep

Having long been based in London, American private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by fellow American expat, ailing, widowed General Sternwood--net worth in the range of £10 million--to handle a blackmail, minor by monetary standards, situation. The purported blackmailer, bookstore owner Arthur Geiger, has seemingly bought a promissory note signed by one of the General's two wild and reckless daughters, younger Camilla Sternwood, it stated as being a gambling debt, the General unsure if it is legitimate or extortion. This situation may or may not be related to an earlier blackmail where the General paid a man by the name of Joe Brody to leave Camilla alone. Marlowe takes the case despite believing that a lawyer could handle it more easily and appropriately. As Marlowe proceeds with the investigation, he ends up being sidetracked by other issues having to do with the General's daughters. When he meets older daughter Charlotte Regan, she seems to be preoccupied about whether her father hired him to locate her missing husband, Irishman Rusty Regan, who left a month ago without a word; the General had mentioned this in passing. And in tracking Geiger, Marlowe discovers a deeper connection between him and Camilla. As the case wraps up in the situation having been resolved in an unexpected way, more and more people in Marlowe's sphere associated to the case end up dead. As such, Marlowe continues to investigate to protect himself, he, in the process, musing if there was more to the blackmail than met the eye, including if the General had something else he wanted him to discover for him in the process.