Below is the complete list of Raymond Chandler books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Philip Marlowe Books
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas Books
- The Bronze Door (1939)
The Bronze Door was first published in 1939; within the Short Stories/Novellas series, it is listed as book #5. 
- The Man Who Liked Dogs (1996)
The Man Who Liked Dogs was first published in 1996; within the Short Stories/Novellas series, it is listed as book #10. 
Publication Order of Short Story Collections Books
- Five Murders (1944)
Five Murders was published in 1944 and is listed as book #1 in the Short Story Collections series. 
- Red Wind (1946)
Red Wind is a 1946 release and appears as book #3 in the Short Story Collections series. 
- The Finger Man (1947)
The Finger Man was first published in 1947; within the Short Story Collections series, it is listed as book #5. 
Publication Order of Screenplays Books
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
Publication Order of Akashic Noir Books
About Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler was an American-British novelist and screenwriter whose Philip Marlowe novels helped define modern hard-boiled detective fiction. Writing relatively late in life, he transformed the private-eye story through a distinctive combination of sharp dialogue, elaborate metaphor, moral seriousness, and a deeply ambivalent portrait of Los Angeles. His bibliography is compact compared with those of many crime writers, but books such as The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, and The Long Goodbye became foundational works of twentieth-century crime literature and established Marlowe as one of the genre’s enduring detectives.
Raymond Thornton Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888. After his parents separated, his mother took him to England, where he was educated at Dulwich College in London. He initially pursued writing and journalism, contributing poetry and literary pieces to British publications, but the work provided little financial security. After returning to North America, he served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I and later transferred to the Royal Flying Corps.
Chandler eventually settled in California and entered the oil industry, rising to a well-paid executive position. His corporate career ended during the Great Depression, aggravated by problems with alcohol and his personal conduct. Already in his forties, he turned seriously to fiction and began studying the techniques of pulp crime writers. His first professional crime story, “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot,” appeared in Black Mask in 1933.
Those early stories became a laboratory for Chandler’s mature style. He frequently reused and transformed pieces of them in his novels, a process sometimes described as “cannibalizing” his short fiction. Characters and situations were combined into more elaborate narratives, eventually producing Philip Marlowe.
Marlowe made his novel-length debut in The Big Sleep in 1939. A Los Angeles private investigator with a cynical understanding of corruption but a stubborn personal code, he moved through mansions, gambling operations, nightclubs, police departments, and shabby apartments without fully belonging to any of them. Chandler continued his story through Farewell, My Lovely, The High Window, The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, and Playback.
Although the plots could become deliberately tangled, Chandler’s lasting achievement lies less in puzzle construction than in atmosphere, voice, and character. His Los Angeles is sunny and prosperous on the surface yet riddled with exploitation, loneliness, political influence, and violence underneath. Marlowe survives within that environment by maintaining standards that the people employing him frequently lack.
Hollywood naturally became interested in Chandler’s work, and he entered screenwriting during the 1940s. With director Billy Wilder, he adapted James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity, earning an Academy Award nomination. He received another nomination for his original screenplay The Blue Dahlia. Chandler found the collaborative studio system frustrating, but his work became closely associated with film noir, and several Marlowe novels received major screen adaptations.
His personal life became increasingly difficult after the death of his wife, Cissy, in 1954. Chandler struggled with grief, depression, alcoholism, and declining health. His final completed novel, Playback, appeared in 1958, while the unfinished Poodle Springs was later completed by Robert B. Parker.
Chandler died in La Jolla, California, in 1959 at the age of seventy. His influence extends far beyond the relatively small number of novels he finished. Generations of crime writers inherited his wisecracking detective, morally compromised city, and compressed, image-rich prose, but the strongest Chandler imitators learned the deeper lesson: beneath Marlowe’s toughness is a persistent belief that decency still matters, even when almost everyone around him has discovered reasons to abandon it.