Perchance to Dream (novel) Perchance to Dream (novel) Perchance to Dream is a detective crime novel by Robert B. Parker, written as an authorized sequel to "The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler. Following his post-mortem collaboration with Chandler on "Poodle Springs", this 1991 release is the second and final Philip Marlowe novel written by Parker. Set a few years after the events of "The Big Sleep", the new novel begins with long passages of text lifted from the original to set the scene, establish the characters, and remind readers of the events of the first book. The story is set in motion by the
Raymond Chandler Chandler's treatment of black, female, and homosexual characters, calling him a "rather nasty man at times". Anderson nevertheless praised Chandler as "probably the most lyrical of the major crime writers". Chandler's short stories and novels are evocatively written, conveying the time, place and ambiance of Los Angeles and environs in the 1930s and 1940s. The places are real, if pseudonymous: Bay City is Santa Monica, Gray Lake is Silver Lake, and Idle Valley a synthesis of wealthy San Fernando Valley communities. "Playback" is the only one of his novels not to have been cinematically adapted. Arguably the most notable adaptation