Do you revel in intrigue, deception and conspiracy? Have you been searching endlessly for elusive first edition of your favorite mystery thriller? Do you worship authors like Dashiell Hammet and Carroll John Daly? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions then, quite possibly, Big Sleep Books is the place for you.

Nestled cozily on the corner of Maryland and Euclid Avenues in the Central West End, Big Sleep Books deals with everything cops, spies and private eyes.

The establishment derives its name from the 1939 novel The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.

This novel is considered to be one of the cornerstones of “hard-boiled” crime fiction, a subgenre of detective stories regarded for its cold and stoic depictions of wrongdoing and violence. The private investigator tackling cases that law enforcement cannot is a primary staple of hardboiled fiction in general.

Chris King and Pete Simpson founded Big Sleep Books in 1988. Retired and wanting to devote their time to something they loved and appreciated, they opened the bookstore completely devoted to mystery writing.

Both have since passed away, but Simpson’s widow, Helen Simpson, and Chris King’s son, Ed King, have assumed the mantle and are now the proprietors of the store.

As for merchandise, Big Sleep Books concentrates on mystery, detection and espionage-related literature. The store also carries a vast assortment of new, used, hardback and soft-cover books.

One quality the owners take pride in is their incentive to keep the catalog accurate from the beginning of a series to the latest chapter of the saga.

“It’s something you don’t find too often at your Borders or Barnes & Noble,” said King.

Another area of expertise for Big Sleep Books is its extensive array of crime and detective novels set in foreign cultures.

Series are set in an eclectic number of countries such as Thailand, China, Russia, France and North Korea.

“These novels are totally entertaining and over-the-top,” King said. “They add an international bend to mystery. To read about a Buddhist detective carrying a gun is quite bizarre in terms of, say, a ‘western’ outlook.”

Many of the books have also found their way onto the silver screen.

Films such as L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia and, more recently, Street Kings all revolve around the fundamental tenets of film noir and mystery fiction.

“Basically, the streets are mean and evil and to make things right in the world, you’ve got to be mean and evil,” King said.

Visit www.bigsleepbooks.com for more information.