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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
christinemomo's review against another edition
5.0
Finished November 17th. “There was nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure.”
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#NoirvemberBooks
stevegoble's review against another edition
3.0
A pretty good, old-fashioned hard-boiled detective story. Shades of Hammett and Chandler. Mystery, some action, nice terse prose.
cartoonmicah's review against another edition
4.0
Don’t let four stars fool you, I really enjoyed this read and I’m eagerly looking forward to more Lew Archer stories in the near future. I’m glad to say that MacDonald feels like he’s coming into his own in this second novel, the narration and the detective feel much less derivative of Hammett or Chandler.
When a women walks through Archer’s door with a mysterious blackmail letter who’s contents she refuses to enlighten him on, he gets dragged into a spiraling family drama among penniless California aristocrats. An almost nonsensical murder turns quickly into a snowball of widening and increasing complex circles of corruption. Bodies start stacking up, but how much do they really have to do with one another? As in any good detective novel of this sort, Archer is perpetually off balance, two steps ahead of the official police but unsure of what scent it is exactly that he’s chasing.
In many good ways, this novel felt like a wild goose chase. In some negative ways, the plot as a whole feels more like a high speed car chase than a thinker. All the right elements are there, but the final puzzle pieces aren’t wholly satisfying.
When a women walks through Archer’s door with a mysterious blackmail letter who’s contents she refuses to enlighten him on, he gets dragged into a spiraling family drama among penniless California aristocrats. An almost nonsensical murder turns quickly into a snowball of widening and increasing complex circles of corruption. Bodies start stacking up, but how much do they really have to do with one another? As in any good detective novel of this sort, Archer is perpetually off balance, two steps ahead of the official police but unsure of what scent it is exactly that he’s chasing.
In many good ways, this novel felt like a wild goose chase. In some negative ways, the plot as a whole feels more like a high speed car chase than a thinker. All the right elements are there, but the final puzzle pieces aren’t wholly satisfying.
downloadnapster's review against another edition
4.0
at this point I'm trying to read these in order so I went back to #2. this one is fucking crazy. it felt like there was dramatically more action than the others I've read and way more disjointed near the end. starts off normal, archer is really passive aggressive with some closeted gay playwright and his wife because he suddenly has strong onions about theater as an artform and how this guy's play sucks then another guy starts using Italian racial slurs and is doused in gasoline and lit on fire in an unrelated incident and then archers out on a boat talking to a james bond villain and then he's getting tortured at a hydrotherapy clinic by harley quinn who I don't really think is really introduced as a character at all before that scene and then archer solves the crime he was hired to, that was almost entirely unrelated from the vast criminal conspiracy he's been unraveling over the last 3/4ths of the book, and says, "The happy endings and the biggest oranges were the ones that California saved for export" in a 1950s guy voice and its over.
books_and_sea_salt's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Complicated
4.0
jbstaniforth's review against another edition
4.0
My favourite of MacDonald's Lew Archer novels so far. Exceedingly well written, especially for something that aspires to be pulp, it retreads hard boiled conventions with such a goose in its step that the whole thing seems somehow fresh. It has all the existential malaise and tortured plot twists of Chandler, but a surprising humanity as well-- something Chandler, though I loved him, often seemed sadly lacking.
tlaloq's review against another edition
3.0
These mysteries are well done and an engaging form of escapism, but after a while, they all seem to run together.
Recommended for those who enjoy the genre.
Recommended for those who enjoy the genre.
kmecholsky's review against another edition
4.0
If, like me, you had hardly given mystery a second glance while you were forming your literary taste, you should read this book (or any of MacDonald's Lew Archer novels - this is actually the second). There are so many incredible books out there to be digested, I didn't feel I had the time or mental space to waste on detective fiction. But if you know me, you'll know I've changed my tune in recent years. And if you want to change your tune, too, you could do a lot worse than start with Ross MacDonald. He's the most literary of all crime writers I've read. Raymond Chandler did a great job of elevating the P.I. to errant-knight status, but Ross MacDonald's novels play out in a much more subtle way. The stories themselves extend outward thematically, touching upon a wide array of life. Archer's a much more human detective figure than Hammett's Continental Op and Spade (though Hammett's creations are frightening and in need of more attention) or Chandler's Marlowe (though he's impressively heroic). You're never really sure how much Archer knows, how much he feels. You're not sure he's sure.
A good way to get an understanding of MacDonald's (and Archer's) approach to mystery is to listen to Archer himself in the novel (I'm paraphrasing): "I'm interested in the truth. Not big truth, whatever that is. But little truths. Who, what, where, when, why." Archer's the first postmodern detective. And for all of the problems with Harper (based on the first Archer novel, The Moving Target) as an adaptation, its ending (though different from the novel), succinctly embodies how MacDonald helped change the genre. But you'll have to see it to know what I'm talking about.
A good way to get an understanding of MacDonald's (and Archer's) approach to mystery is to listen to Archer himself in the novel (I'm paraphrasing): "I'm interested in the truth. Not big truth, whatever that is. But little truths. Who, what, where, when, why." Archer's the first postmodern detective. And for all of the problems with Harper (based on the first Archer novel, The Moving Target) as an adaptation, its ending (though different from the novel), succinctly embodies how MacDonald helped change the genre. But you'll have to see it to know what I'm talking about.
dr_dick's review against another edition
5.0
brilliant! the masters of mid-century noir, like Ross Macdonald, are the best. a lot of the new stuff i've been reading pales in comparison.