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This page lists novels, short story collections and omnibus editions that feature the private investigator Philip Marlowe.

Philip Marlowe was created by Raymond Chandler but has subsequently been used as a character by other writers.

The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler

1939

A Philip Marlowe novel.

"Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is working for the Sternwood family. Old man Sternwood, crippled and wheelchair-bound, is being given the squeeze by a blackmailer and he wants Marlowe to make the problem go away. But with Sternwood's two wild, devil-may-care daughters prowling LA's seedy backstreets, Marlowe's got his work cut out - and that's before he stumbles over the first corpse."

Farewell, My Lovely

Raymond Chandler

1940

A Philip Marlowe novel.

"Cynical Los Angeles Private Investigator Philip Marlowe always falls for a sob story. Eight years ago Moose Malloy and cute little redhead Velma were getting married - until Malloy was framed for armed robbery. Now he's out and he wants Velma back. Marlowe meets Malloy one hot day in Hollywood and, out of the generosity of his jaded heart, agrees to help. Dragged from one smoky bar to another, Marlowe's search for Velma turns up plenty of gangsters with a nasty habit of shooting first and talking later. And soon what started as a search for a missing person becomes a matter of life and death."

The High Window

Raymond Chandler

1942

A Philip Marlowe novel.

"Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe's on a case: his client, a dried-up husk of a woman, wants him to recover a rare gold coin called a Brasher Doubloon, missing from her late husband's collection. That's the simple part. It becomes more complicated when Marlowe finds that everyone who handles the coin suffers a run of very bad luck: they always end up dead. That's also unlucky for a private investigator, because leaving a trail of corpses around LA puts cops' noses seriously out of joint. If Marlowe doesn't wrap this one up fast, he's going to end up either in jail or in a wooden box in the ground."

The Lady in the Lake

Raymond Chandler

1943

A Philip Marlowe novel.

"Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired to find a missing woman. Derace Kingsley's wife ran away to Mexico to get a divorce and marry a hunk named Chris Lavery. Or so the note she left her husband says. Trouble is, when Philip Marlowe asks Lavery about it he denies everything. But when Marlowe next encounters Lavery, he's denying nothing - on account of the two bullet holes in his heart. Now Marlowe's on the trail of a killer, who leads him out of smoggy Los Angeles all the way to a murky mountain lake."

The Little Sister

Raymond Chandler

1949

The UK publication was 3 months earlier than the US publication.

A Philip Marlowe novel.

"Her name is Orfamay Quest and she's come all the way from Manhattan, Kansas, to find her missing brother Orrin. Or leastways that's what she tells PI Philip Marlowe, offering him a measly twenty bucks for the privilege. But Marlowe's feeling charitable - though it's not long before he wishes he wasn't so sweet. You see, Orrin's trail leads Marlowe to luscious movie starlets, uppity gangsters, suspicious cops and corpses with ice picks jammed in their necks. When trouble comes calling, sometimes it's best to pretend to be out."

The Long Good-bye

Raymond Chandler

1953

The UK publication was earlier than the US publication. The original UK edition had the title "The Long Good-bye". The US edition and most subsequent editions had "The Long Goodbye".

A Philip Marlowe novel.

"Down-and-out drunk Terry Lennox has a problem: his millionaire wife is dead and he needs to get out of LA fast. So he turns to his only friend in the world: Philip Marlowe, Private Investigator. He's willing to help a man down on his luck, but later, Lennox commits suicide in Mexico and things start to turn nasty. Marlowe finds himself drawn into a sordid crowd of adulterers and alcoholics in LA's Idle Valley, where the rich are suffering one big suntanned hangover. Marlowe is sure Lennox didn't kill his wife, but how many more stiffs will turn up before he gets to the truth?"

Playback

Raymond Chandler

1958

The UK publication was 4 months earlier than the US publication.

A Philip Marlowe novel.

"Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is mixing business with pleasure - he's getting paid to follow a lovely mysterious redhead called Eleanor King. And wherever Miss King goes, trouble is sure to follow. But she's easy on the eye and Marlowe's happy to do as he's told. But one dead body later and what started out as a lazy afternoon's snooping soon becomes a deadly cocktail of blackmail, lies, mistaken identity - and murder."

Ten Percent of Life

Hiber Conteris

1987

"In California of 1956, private eye Philip Marlowe launches an investigation into the alleged suicide of the literary agent of his creator, novelist Raymond Chandler."

Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe: A Centennial Celebration

Editor: Byron Preiss

1988

"Authorized by the estate of the late Raymond Chandler, this volume reveals the missing life history and detective adventures of Philip Marlowe, one of the 20th century's most enduring and beloved characters. Marlowe is the quintessential American detective: cynical yet idealistic; romantic yet full of despair; a gentleman capable of rough violence. The stories are written by some of the detective-mystery genre's leading lights. The final story in the volume is Raymond Chandler's last Marlowe adventure: The Pencil. The stories run chronologically through the career of Marlowe, from 1935 through 1960. These are classic Marlowe tales of betrayal, mistrust, and double-dealing on the seamy side of Los Angeles."

• Foreword (Byron Preiss)
• Introduction (Frank MacShane)
• The Perfect Crime (Max Allan Collins)
• The Black-Eyed Blonde (Benjamin M. Schutz)
• Gun Music (Loren D. Estleman)
• Saving Grace (Joyce Harrington)
• Malibu Tag Team (Jonathan Valin)
• Sad-Eyed Blonde (Dick Lochte)
• The Empty Sleeve (W. R. Philbrick)
• Dealer's Choice (Sara Paretsky)
• Red Rock (Julie Smith)
• The Deepest South (Paco Ignacio Taibo)
• Consultation in the Dark (Francis M. Nevins)
• In the Jungle of Cities (Roger L. Simon)
• Star Bright (John Lutz)
• Stardust Kill (Simon Brett)
• Locker 246 (Robert J. Randisi)
• Bitter Lemons (Stuart M. Kamisky)
• The Man Who Knew Dick Bong (Robert Crais)
• Essence D'Orient (Edward D. Hoch)
• In the Line of Duty (Jeremiah Healy)
• The Alibi (Ed Gorman)
• The Devil's Playground (James Grady)
• Asia (Eric Van Lustbader)
• Mice (Robert Campbell)
• The Pencil (Raymond Chandler)

Poodle Springs

Raymond Chandler & Robert B. Parker

1989

A Philip Marlowe novel. Four chapters of this novel were completed by Chandler prior to his death in 1959. Completed by Parker and published in 1989 to mark the centenary of Chandler's birth.

"Marlowe is back...and he's married to a rich, beautiful society lady who want him to settle down in the posh desert community of Poodle Springs. Marlowe may have married rich, but old habits die hard: he's hired to recover a gambling debt and soon finds himself in a case involving bigamy, pornography and murder."

Perchance To Dream

Robert B. Parker

1991

A Philip Marlowe novel. A sequel to The Big Sleep.

"The Sternwood Family, immortalized in" The Big Sleep," is in trouble again...Vivian's psychotic sister Carmen had disappeared from the sanatorium, and Vivian herself has once again fallen into the clutches of Eddie Mars, the shady underworld character. Enter Philip Marlowe, the original tough-but-tender private eye. He saved the Sternwoods once before, and the butler believes he can do it again."

The Black Eyed Blonde: A Philip Marlowe Novel

Benjamin Black

2014

"It is the early 1950s. In Los Angeles, Private Detective Philip Marlowe is as restless and lonely as ever, and business is a little slow. Then a new client arrives: young, beautiful, and expensively dressed, Clare Cavendish wants Marlowe to find her former lover, a man named Nico Peterson. Soon Marlowe will find himself not only under the spell of the Black-Eyed Blonde; but tangling with one of Bay City’s richest families – and developing a singular appreciation for how far they will go to protect their fortune . . . In this gripping and deeply evocative crime novel, Benjamin Black returns us to the dark, mesmerising world of Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye and his singular detective Philip Marlowe; one of the most iconic and enduringly popular detectives in crime fiction."

Only To Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel

Lawrence Osborne

2018

"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?"

Raymond Chandler's Mystery Omnibus

Raymond Chandler

1944

An omnibus edition that brings together The Big Sleep and Farwell My Lovely.

The Raymond Chandler Omnibus

Raymond Chandler

1953

An omnibus edition that brings together The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, The High Window, and The Lady in the Lake.

The Second Raymond Chandler Omnibus

Raymond Chandler

1962

An omnibus edition that brings together the novels The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, and Playback, plus the essay The Simple Art of Murder.

The Raymond Chandler Omnibus

Raymond Chandler

1964

An omnibus edition that brings together The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, The High Window, and The Lady in the Lake.

Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler

1977

An omnibus edition that brings together The Big Sleep, The High Window, The Lady in the Lake, The Long Goodbye, Playback, and Farewell My Lovely.

The Raymond Chandler Omnibus

Raymond Chandler

1980

An omnibus edition that brings together The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, The High Window, and The Lady in the Lake.

The Best Of Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler

1985

An omnibus edition that brings together The Big Sleep, The High Window, The Lady in the Lake, The Long Goodbye, Playback, and Farewell My Lovely.

Four Complete Philip Marlowe Novels

Raymond Chandler

1986

An omnibus edition that brings together The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, The High Window, and The Lady in the Lake.

The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely

Raymond Chandler

1995

An omnibus edition that brings together The Big Sleep and Farwell My Lovely.

Stories and Early Novels

Raymond Chandler

1995

An omnibus edition that brings together 13 short stories that were originally published in pulp magazines and the three early novels The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and The High Window.

Later Novels and Other Writings

Raymond Chandler

1995

An omnibus edition that brings together the three later novels The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, and Playback, plus the screenplay Double Indemnity and a number of essays and letters.

The Big Sleep and Other Novels

Raymond Chandler

2000

An omnibus edition that brings together the three novels The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and The Long Goodbye.

The Lady In The Lake and Other Novels

Raymond Chandler

2001

An omnibus edition that brings together the three novels The Lady In The Lake, The High Window, and The Little Sister.

The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window

Raymond Chandler

2002

An omnibus edition that brings together the three early novels The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and The High Window.

The Lady in the Lake / The Little Sister / The Long Goodbye / Playback

Raymond Chandler

2002

An omnibus edition that brings together the four novels The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, and Playback.