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constantreader471's review against another edition
4.0
4 stars for a classic hard boiled PI mystery. California PI Lew Archer is hired to find a missing picture. Then someone connected to the missing painting is murdered. Archer tracks down more clues as far afield as Arizona. There is a connection to a murder that took place in 1943 Arizona, more than 30 years ago. Archer slowly puts it all together, peeling back secrets and lies, like peeling an onion.
One quote on Archer's self description: "My chosen study was other men, hunted men in rented rooms, aging boys clutching at manhood, before night fell and they grew suddenly old."
This was a used book purchase, and a short easy 3 day read.
One quote on Archer's self description: "My chosen study was other men, hunted men in rented rooms, aging boys clutching at manhood, before night fell and they grew suddenly old."
This was a used book purchase, and a short easy 3 day read.
ferna's review against another edition
4.0
Thrilling fast-paced story. It is almost everything you'd want in a mystery novel. Just 2 things bothered me: There's no much presentation of the detective narrator at the beginning of the story. It may be on purpose, and I don't even know if this character has other stories, but as a reader, I need to know more about the narrator-character and I just got to almost half the story, and it is not much. Secondly, I thought I was following the detective's thought until the end, when more information kept coming to the surface and I thought I needed to make a thinking map. It bothered me the most, that the last piece of information was revealed in the last page! Maybe it is good technique, but I just thought it was too much, after a havey story wih a lot of information to process, to finish it like that.
thebeardedpoet's review against another edition
3.0
Ross Macdonald always provides a sturdy detective novel with vivid characters and occasionally poetic narration. The Blue Hammer may not be his best but it reads well and keeps you interested throughout and the writing itself is good, as usual. I suppose my main complaint in this installment is the repetition of questioning suspects and witnesses. Sometimes the same person is interrogated three or four times. In a way it seemed Lew Archer's only investigative tool was wearing people down until they let something spill.
lazylarry's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
hpuphd's review against another edition
4.0
The last Lew Archer story, published in 1976. A few authors of book-length studies of Ross Macdonald have written negatively of this novel, but I loved it. It concerns a missing painting and a missing artist, and it allows Ross Macdonald to reflect on creativity. Archer is compassionate and sensitive toward the misery his investigation turns up. Ross Macdonald is a great example of a popular writer who also achieved some literary standing.
tim888's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
jakewritesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Although we've come...to the ennnnnd of the road...still I can't let go...It's unnatural, you belong to me, I belong to youuuuuu
Almost 2.5 years after I read Sleeping Beauty, my journey to finish Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series comes to its conclusion. And while the last few books have begun to finally show the wear and tear of a writer and the habits he develops when writing a series, I'll miss it a lot. Lew Archer might be a mostly blank slate but these books are my favorite in PI literature.
Macdonald writes as if he doesn't know its his swan song. He planned to do another book but soon developed dementia. Nevertheless, like a TV show that doesn't know its getting cancelled but points on a good finale anyway, this one is another fine addition to the canon. Probably in the middle of the pack as far as Archer books go (there's a character too many and the plot meanders) but it wouldn't be an Archer if Macdonald didn't stay true to his character's roots of pouring through the dirty deeds of rich folks who suffer from chances not taken. And like much of his late period oeuvre, it sticks the landing in a beautifully tragic way.
I will miss these books.
Almost 2.5 years after I read Sleeping Beauty, my journey to finish Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series comes to its conclusion. And while the last few books have begun to finally show the wear and tear of a writer and the habits he develops when writing a series, I'll miss it a lot. Lew Archer might be a mostly blank slate but these books are my favorite in PI literature.
Macdonald writes as if he doesn't know its his swan song. He planned to do another book but soon developed dementia. Nevertheless, like a TV show that doesn't know its getting cancelled but points on a good finale anyway, this one is another fine addition to the canon. Probably in the middle of the pack as far as Archer books go (there's a character too many and the plot meanders) but it wouldn't be an Archer if Macdonald didn't stay true to his character's roots of pouring through the dirty deeds of rich folks who suffer from chances not taken. And like much of his late period oeuvre, it sticks the landing in a beautifully tragic way.
I will miss these books.
kyriakiz's review against another edition
4.0
Μια αμερικάνικη αστυνομική ιστορία διαφορετικού στιλ από τα πιο σύγχρονα. Κάτι που μου άρεσε. Ο πρωταγωνιστής ένας ντεντέκτιβ σε μια πόλη που ακόμη και οι ίδιοι του οι εργοδότες τον θεωρούν ανεπιθύμητο και περίεργο. Οι κάτοικοι της πόλης γεμάτοι μυστικά. Και ένας πίνακας κλειδί σε μια υπόθεση όπου εμπλέκονται μυστηριώδεις εξαφανίσεις, κλοπές και φόνοι. Η ιστορία προχωρά, νέα στοιχεία εμφανίζονται στο φως και όλοι κρατούν το στόμα τους κλειστό. Κι όταν αποφασίζουν να μιλήσουν, τα λόγια τους είναι γεμάτα ψέματα και μισές αλήθειες που δυσκολεύουν την κατάσταση. Ένα εκπληκτικό βιβλίο με την αγωνία να υπάρχει σε κάθε σελίδα. Ίσως βέβαια να ήθελα κανα δυο σελίδες μετά στο τέλος.
christinefredrickson's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
psteve's review against another edition
4.0
25 years before the story takes place, renowned painter Richard Chantry disappears without a trace suddenly. Now Lew Archer is called into look into the disappearance of a painting that may have been painted by Chantry. Archer is drawn into the mystery which goes back to that disappearance and earlier. Macdonald is very adept at stringing together all the threads of the story and brining them together at the end, even with the very last sentence of the story. I enjoyed this quite a bit; even though maybe if I'd read a bit more closely I could have seen things coming.
A few weeks ago I watched a Paul Newman movie from a MacDonald novel, probably from around the same time. In both there was a cult involved, which dates things quite a bit now; you don't find mystery stories these days with many cults in them (or do you?). (In that movie, Strutter Martin played the cult leader, and he's always fun.) Also I noticed in this book that nearly without exception when Archer first meets a woman he describes her breasts; I don't notice that much these days, or maybe he was just clumsier about it than writers are now.
A few weeks ago I watched a Paul Newman movie from a MacDonald novel, probably from around the same time. In both there was a cult involved, which dates things quite a bit now; you don't find mystery stories these days with many cults in them (or do you?). (In that movie, Strutter Martin played the cult leader, and he's always fun.) Also I noticed in this book that nearly without exception when Archer first meets a woman he describes her breasts; I don't notice that much these days, or maybe he was just clumsier about it than writers are now.