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The instant enemy
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The Galton case
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"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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Experience with evil
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"John Ross Macdonald has four thrillers to his credit, and the word is used advisedly. Between his first, "The moving target," and his fourth, "The ivory grin," he has been called a new Dashiell Hammett, a new Raymond Chandler--take your choice. His latest story shows that he is no one's shadow; a new detective, a new style prove his vigorous individuality. The 'evil' looked like a simple, if unpleasant, case of kidnapping. But the kidnapping was only the outward manifestation of evil, like the eruption of a boil on a fair skin. And Howard Cross, who was morally responsible for the man who drove the boy away, spent the most crowded twenty-four hours of his life digging deeper and deeper to get at the root of the trouble, to justify his faith in the man. The true cause of it all lay buried in the past, overshadowed by the corruption it spawned, like a microscopic germ poisoning the whole body. Howard's hectic search for it seemed to lead to the one course he did not want to travel but he followed it through to a solution which, though completely logical, will surprise the experienced thriller reader"--Dust jacket.
636031
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The Ferguson affair
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"The young nurse charged with selling stolen property was to be defended by Bill Gunnarson, a lawyer who had yet to make a name for himself. Bill believed her to be innocent, despite her secretiveness and her lies. Before the case came to trail a murder was committed--a murder obviously linked with the multiple burglaries which had led to the girl's arrest. The young lawyer found himself embarked on a tough, complicated and dangerous investigation; there were to be several more murders, and some bewildering developments, before Bill Gunnarson could make sense of the Fergunson case. Very few readers will be head of Gunnarson in unravelling the story, or in penetrating the secrets of the character of the film star, Holly May, who was married to the oil magnate called Ferguson"--Half-title verso.
636036
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The chill
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"Hired to trace a runaway bride, Lew Archer uncovers a trail of murder that leads half-way across America and twenty years into the past. Beyond that, it need only be said that the story is every bit as exciting, baffling, and ultimately satisfying as would be expected from the author of "The zebra-striped hearse." In the direct line of succession that reaches from Dashiell Hammett to Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald adds, to the crackling dialogue and narrative tightness of his illustrious predecessors, impressive qualities of his own: a depth of psychological understanding, a sureness in handling a wide variety of social milieus, and a dazzling, unpredictable plot"--Half-title verso.
636039
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The zebra-striped hearse
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"Lew Archer was hired by the bride's father to stop a wedding; he was to investigate the mysterious and romantic-looking young painter with whom Harriet was infatuated, and show him up as a good-for-nothing. Colonel Blackwell was very proprietary about his daughter although she was twenty-four years old. Inquiring into the young man's past, Archer soon finds not mere dissipation or minor delinquency--but murder. As his investigation proceeds, this first murder leads to others. The story moves with speed and steadily mounting excitement across the map of California and through its society from Los Angeles to the floating population of gamblers and their girls at Lake Tahoe. This is the tenth in this series of celebrated crime novels by Ross Macdonald. Brilliantly written and plotted, its climax comes as a triple shock and an all-too-credible revelation"--Half-title verso.
636038
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Self-portrait : ceaselessly into the past
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Macdonald fans and others interested in detective fiction will find this worthwhile browsing. In a number of the essays Macdonald, a.k.a. Kenneth Millar, sketches in his basic life history: his Scots-Canadian newspapering ancestors; meeting his wife Margaret; and, above all, his absent, loved/hated father--the source of the Oedipal trauma that led to his "breakthrough" novel, The Galton Case. Three essays are devoted to one of Macdonald's lifelong passions, ecologic conservation. The rest of the book is devoted to writers and writing. The topics addressed include: the history of the American crime novel starting with Poe, the function crime fiction fulfills to society, the autobiographical elements in his Lew Archer character, an analysis of Hammett's Sam Spade as he appears in the Maltese Falcon and the critical importance of narrative unity in crime novels. He defends the literary place of the detective novel, declaring his longtime passion for the Gothic tradition. He pays homage to Hammett, Chandler, Greene, Kenneth Fearing, and others.
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