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A review by cartoonmicah
The Drowning Pool by Ross MacDonald
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.