Chandler & West: A Story of Los Angeles

Los Angeles, 1939. Two writers struggle to finish books destined to become American masterpieces: Raymond Chandler and his debut novel, The Big Sleep, and Nathanael West with his tour de force, The Day of the Locust.

What Chandler and West don’t know is that their work, and their lives, will draw together around the Hollywood murder of a gorgeous aspiring actress. The pair find themselves entangled with a sex magick cult, gambling rackets, rocket scientists, pornographers, Big Oil, bad cops, and Nazis vying for control of the movie industry-all while war in Europe looms.

Fighting writer’s block and alcoholism, the two novelists come together to piece together the true story obscured behind Tinseltown’s shimmering facade. Chandler & West is a roller-coaster ride across a corrupt and idealistic Los Angeles at the glamorous heights of the Golden Age of Hollywood.