The barbarous coast | Collections | The Huntington

The barbarous coast | Collections | The Huntington

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Sleeping beauty
Rare Books
"His new Lew Archer novel ... plunges Archer into a fascinating to intricate case connected to a disastrous oil spill on the coast of Southern California. It involves him with three generations of the imposing Lennox family whose offshore oil platform has caused the spill; whose young heiress, glimpsed for a haunting moment on the beach--handsome, angry-eyed, clutching an oil-drenched sea bird in her arms--has disappeared. On her trail, Archer finds himself journeying into a horrendous past, into the hidden lives of a family twisted by money, by power, by a ruthless, almost compulsive instinct for infidelity--infidelity between husbands and wives, parents and children, infidelity to friends, dependents, duty and, in a sense, to the earth itself. As Archer moves among these people, among their lies and contradictions; as episodes distant in time are linked--a derelict stranger found dead, a ship destroyed by fire in World War II, a secret case of extortion, a child's long-ago glimpse of violence; as the novel moves to its climactic and complex resolution, the reader is once more held fast by the unique art of Ross Macdonald: crackling suspense rooted in strong perception of reality"--Page [1].
636045
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The Galton case
Rare Books
"Why, after twenty years, should the dying Mrs. Galton so suddenly begin trying to find her long-lost (and well lost) son? Why--on the same day--should a hit-and-run killer stab Peter Culligan, the odd servant of the old lady's lawyer? These were the questions which Lew Archer, private investigator, asked himself: dangerous questions, which led him to the discovery of a headless skeleton, and a young man who claimed the Galton fortune. They sent Archer flying from one end of the American continent to the other, and back through a generation in time to the lawless twenties and the notorious Lempi gang. Still the questions leapt at him: is the boy's claim genuine, or is he just a brilliant actor playing for high stakes? What happened to the fabulous Galton rubies which disappeared with the runaway son? What did the dead houseman know about these things? Digging for the answers with his characteristic wariness of the obvious, Lew Archer's pertinacity led his investigations to an intriguing and brilliantly worked-out climax"--Half-title page.
636035
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The ivory grin
Rare Books
"'The ivory grin' features private detective Lew Archer again and even Lew finds the job pretty tough, especially since his original assignment petered out early on when the girl he was hired to trail had her throat cut. Lew, however, needed money and he soon discovered enough of the ramifications to make sure of an adequate return if he solved the problem--which, by then, had become a puzzle he couldn't resist anyway. But Death grinned in more ways than one before he got to the root of it all"--Half-title verso.
636030
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The underground man
Rare Books
"'The underground man' brings Macdonald's cool, pragmatic detective, Lew Archer, to a tragic fire that ravages a hillside community in Southern California. It enmeshes him in the lives of a group of troubled people searching for happy endings but fatally entangled in a web of murder and extortion stretching back through fifteen years--an angry father whose whole life has been a kind of breakdown, a mother using her son as a scapegoat, a part of alienated adolescents who believe they are rescuing a child from the adult world, and a sad woman living with a dreadful secret. The result is a novel that mingles unfaltering suspense with that extraordinary perception of an American life-style (West Coast Affluent) that is the hallmark of Ross Macdonald"--Page [1].
636044
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The far side of the dollar
Rare Books
"In this new and moving novel, Lew Archer, Macdonald's celebrated California investigator, is hired by the principal of a private reform school to trace a missing boy. What appears to be an ordinary matter of juvenile delinquency is suddenly magnified, as Archer plunges into a web of murder and extortion. He ranges all over the Far West, tracking down men and women who are pursuing the fast buck, and hating to be reminded of what is waiting on the far side of the last dollar. To the hard-boiled story of violence and death, Ross Macdonald has brought substance and depth of characterisation. His novels have a social range and moral dimension that, in combination with a striking prose style and narrative drive, provide the reader with a rewarding experience"--Half-title page.
636041
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Black money
Rare Books
"In what is perhaps his strangest case Lew Archer, the celebrated private-eye, explores the secret life of a rich Californian residential suburb. A beautiful young woman has jilted her fiancé and taken up with a mysterious character who represents himself as a French political refugee. Hired to investigate this man, Archer becomes involved in several murders and a gigantic swindle. Running through the book, as a central theme, is the corrupting influence of the underworld and its money on modern society. "Black money" is the most individual of the brilliant series of novels that have won Ross Macdonald international recognition"--Half-title verso.
636040