I’ve apparently decided to read all of Ross Macdonald’s works this year (stay tuned) which means diving into his non-Archer novels. The Ferguson Affair hardly misses the pugnacious Lew Archer, with attorney Bill Gunnarson making for a suitable investigator. If Gunnarson seems to go an awfully long way for his client it’s an acceptable stretching of artistic license. Gunnarson is a private attorney asked to represent a young nurse caught trying to sell stolen jewelry. When he tries to verify her story about being given […]
A Dame to Kill For
My general rule of thumb is that “lost” novels should stay that way, but I’m glad I made an exception for the final novel of James M. Cain, published many years after the author’s death. Like the best of Cain’s novels it features people who find themselves in desperate circumstances. Cain’s characters are trapped by lust or greed and willing to go beyond the bounds of traditional morality to satisfy their desires. The Cocktail Waitress is narrated by Joan Medford, the title character. Left impoverished […]
Cold-blooded and hard-boiled
In this intricately mapped detective novel, Macdonald’s ex-cop P.I. Lew Archer finds himself investigating three murders, committed at ten-year intervals and in multiple states. The interconnected nature of the killings and of the cast of characters speak to an expert at plotting out a story, while the nearly endless series of reversals and revelations speak to the imagination and wit of Macdonald, an author who deserves the same status as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Accosted right outside a courtroom where his testimony has just helped […]
Going South
This is a novel about whaling. You have to hand it to an author so willing to set out on a new book knowing with absolute certainty that they are definitely not going to write the best book on their chosen subject. Patrick Sumner is an Irish surgeon court-martialed from the British army and forced to settle for a position as the doctor aboard a whaling vessel. Hiding his secret shame from his employers and fellow crew-members, Sumner copes with his fall from grace through […]
Lost and Found?
When you decide to read a book that is already a popular phenomenon, such as a book with a lengthy stay on the best-seller lists and a Hollywood film adaptation, you often find yourself liking the book or, if not particularly enjoying the work itself at least understanding the aspects that allowed it to become so popular in the first place. For me though, The Lost City of Z falls into a rarer category wherein I at least sort of liked it but have no […]
All Tied Up
This novel, the first in a long-running and popular mystery series, introduces the reader to John Rebus, the most reserved and cantankerous inspector on the Edinburgh police force. Like seemingly all fictional cops Rebus has an ex-wife and a growing daughter he rarely sees. He lives in a crummy flat where the hallway smells like cat piss and the pilot light keeps going out. He also has a past that haunts him, having left military service without discussing the reason with anyone. At the start of […]
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