Tuesday, March 27, 2018

The Way Some People Die by Ross MacDonald

(pb; 1951: third book in the Lew Archer series)

From the back cover

"In a rundown house in Santa Monica, Mrs. Samuel Lawrence presses fifty crumpled bills into Lew Archer's hand and asks him to find her wandering daughter, Galatea. Described as ‘crazy for men’ and without discrimination, she was last seen driving off with small-time gangster Joe Tarantine, a hophead hood with a rep for violence. Archer traces the hidden trail from San Francisco slum alleys to the luxury of Palm Springs, traveling through an urban wilderness of drugs and viciousness. As the bodies begin to pile up, he finds that even angel faces can mask the blackest of hearts. Filled with dope, delinquents and murder, this is classic Macdonald and one of his very best in the Lew Archer series."

Review


Way is a superb, cinematic-in-it-descriptions P.I-investigative mystery. Archer, cynical but not heartless, finds himself in a familiar, tightly plotted situation: investigating a cast of mostly sleazy characters with secrets ─ truths that most of them are willing to keep hidden with lies and violence. Its ending, like the cap-lines of the two previous Archer novels, is striking and emotionally-resonant.


If you are looking for a pulp writer who imbues his work with smart, fast-moving storylines, a mix of familiar and fresh pulp elements, and sometimes surprising characters, MacDonald may be a writer for you to seek. Followed by The Ivory Grin.

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