General Sternwood has four million dollars, and two young daughters, both pretty and both wild. He's an old, sick man, close to death, but he doesn't like being blackmailed. So he asks private detective Philip Marlowe to get the blackmailer off his back.

    Marlowe knows the dark side of life in Los Angeles well, and nothing much surprises him. But the Sternwood girls are a lot wilder than their old father realizes. They like men, dring, drugs-and it's not just a question of blackmail.

Stage 4. Oxford bookworms library. Crime & Mystery Bookworms provide enjoyable reading in English at six language stages, and offer a wide range of fiction, both classic modern.

1. Marlowe meets the Sternwoods
2. Mr Geiger's bookstore
3. A dead man disappears
4. Who killed Owen Taylor?
5. Marlowe meets Eddie Mars
6. Carmen wants her pictures
7. Geiger's friend is a killer
8. Marlowe helps the police
9. Marlowe's job is finished-or is it?
10. Marlowe has woman trouble
etc.

Crime & Mystery
Stage 4 (1400 headwords)