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"Revered by such contemporary masters as Sue Grafton, George Pelecanos, and James Ellroy, praised by Eudora Welty as "a more serious and complex writer than Chandler and Hammett ever were," Ross Macdonald (the pseudonym of Kenneth Millar) brought to the crime novel a new realism and psychological depth and a unique gift for intricately involving mystery narratives. For his centennial, The Library of America inaugurates its Macdonald edition with four classic novels from the 1950s, all featuring his incomparable protagonist, private investigator Lew Archer. Set against the background of a glittering yet darkly enigmatic Southern California, Macdonald's books are both unsurpassed entertainments and emotionally powerful evocations of an outwardly prosperous, inwardly turbulent America. Macdonald mastered the hard-boiled detective form early on and brought to it a prose style of extraordinary beauty. The four novels collected in the volume reveal him broadening the genre into an intensely personal means of expression, transforming the tragedies and dislocations of his own life into haunting fiction. "My interest," he wrote to his publisher, "is the exploration of lives."… (more)
User reviews
LOA publishes the Lew Archer novels chronologically, across three volumes, but not all novels are included in the set. The Way Some People Die is the third novel published, but the first in LOA's collection and the first I've read. Primarily I let myself enjoy
The setting in California, both northern and southern coasts and some inland areas, fits in with the film noir tradition. Heroin trade, organised crime, racial and class tensions: all provide glimpses into the seedy side of the U.S. 1950s postwar boom.
Archer traits are scattered throughout the text, few and brief, but leaving the impression Macdonald has a clear portrait in mind. Archer is said to have served in the Pacific under Colton in WWII, in Intelligence. Colton is now on staff with the L.A. District attorney. At some point after the war, Archer was muscled off the Long Beach PD, unwilling to kick in with one Sam Schneider's graft / payoff racket. There's a wary respect between Archer and Lieutenant Gary of the LAPD, though some fireworks and wrestling for show. Archer's middle-aged, and divorced. All of this fits well into the tarnished image of 1950s America.
Macdonald includes as much psychological description as physical when sketching characters, even minor ones: a landlord's chatter reminds Archer of a shark-hunting general in the war; Archer considers his options in terms of character profiles and motivations as much as from positions of strength or guile.
The story here begins with a missing persons case, and quickly strays into murder and the drug trade. Let's see how many of the later cases follow that trend.
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To be read:
THE BARBAROUS COAST
THE DOOMSTERS
THE GALTON CASE
essays / letters