Perchance to Dream (Sequel to Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep) - Hardcover

Parker, Robert B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399135804 ISBN 13: 9780399135804

Publisher: Putnam Adult, 1991

Synopsis

When a sinister doctor pairs up with a sex-crazed eccentric to kidnap the psychotic Carol Sternwood, Marlowe's investigation leads him ever deeper into a decadent southern Californian underworld

About this title

About the Author:

Robert B. Parker was the author of more than fifty books. He died in January 2010.

From Publishers Weekly:

Parker, author of the Spenser novels, has made this "sequel to Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep " a stunning, drop-dead success. Private eye Philip Marlowe spins a yarn of greed, madness and death with the cool-eyed cynicism (and good-guy core) that made him the classic hardboiled dick. The era is post-WW II ("GI mortgages"), possibly early '50s ("cha cha cha"), the L.A. dream beginning to sour. Psychotic Carmen Sternwood is missing from an expensive sanatorium. After sultry Vivian has enlisted suave gangster Eddie Mars to locate her sister, the family butler, Norris, hires Marlowe for the same purpose. Sanatorium head Dr. Bonsentir stonewalls Marlowe's queries by using some heavy political clout, but further probing leads to a kinky billionaire who is practically untouchable. Marlowe is beaten up, a chopped-up body is found and an ex-inmate of the asylum dies "accidentally" before the PI uncovers a water-rights scam involving millions. Parker's effort goes beyond pastiche: he uses flashbacks from The Big Sleep daringly and seamlessly, and his terse style (a cop asks for the time of death: "Any idea when yet?") is flawlessly in Chandler's footsteps. This is dazzling.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0399135804
• ISBN 13: 9780399135804
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 271