The Big Sleep

It is no Maltese Falcon, but I liked it, especially since it is set in LA where I grew up. The writing is also engaging. 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

Dashiell Hammett may have invented the hardboiled detective story, but nobody wrote it better than Raymond Chandler. With his stylized prose and flair for similes, he gave his detective Philip Marlowe a voice that would become the hallmark of the genre. Marlowe is the protagonist in all of Chandler’s novels, and the movies drawn from these fictions proved to be a heavy influence on American film noir, just as the books influenced generations of detective novelists.