Ed Bishop stars as Philip Marlowe in this powerfully atmospheric BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Raymond Chandler's novel about the cynical, world-weary, wise-cracking shamus whose honesty in a dishonest world sent him down the mean streets again and again in search of some kind of justice.

General Sternwood's daughters came in both the colours of trouble - blonde and brunette - and they had all the usual vices. With four million dollars behind them, blackmail was only a matter of time. And blackmail can be murder.