Mysterious Mercury and MacDonald

" 'My name is Archer, Lew Archer ... call me trouble, looking for a place to happen in ....' The place turns out to be Southern California, the trouble takes archer in search of a girl who jack-knifed too suddenly from high-diving to high-living and leads him on to an ex-fighter with an unexplained movie contract, a big-time gambler, the ghost of an eighteen-year-old girl whose murder was never solved, and finally to an answer he would rather not have known." [see The Barbarous Coast, cover illustration to left]





Meet Ross MacDonald, pen name for Kenneth Millar (1913-1983), M.A., University of Michigan--Ann Arbor. Although writing in the hard-boiled private eye tradition, MacDonald's protagonist, Lew Archer is a thoughtful inconoclast, a southern California native (like MacDonald), well-read and ready for exploring the seamier sides of the rich and powerful as well as the underclass--whose lives in any case are usually symbiotic.

Anthony Boucher of The New York Times Book Review wrote of one of MacDonald's early Archer novels that it was:

"....the most human and disturbing novel of the hard-boiled school in many years." He was more earthy in his direct praise to author Millar [sic]: "You can write like a son of a bitch...."

A personal favorite, The Galton Case, is MacDonald's most autobiographical work. As MacDonald found his voice, the mysteries began to explore intergenerational family sagas, with the setting always southern California, a locale that, in its MacDonald evocation, exists no more. As such the drama and romanticism of post-war California come alive, a lesson in recent social, cultural, ethnic relations and class history.

Bottom line, however, the Lew Archer novels have taught me that the mystery genre can be held to the highest literary standards while at the same time presenting an engrossing murder mystery.

To learn more about Ross MacDonald try this web site:

http://www.bastulli.com/Macdonald/Macdonald.htm

***Mercury Rating: First rate; all highly recommended***

Remember to check back during the next week as I continue to list and describe other mysteries, current and classic. Each will include the highly prized Mercury Rating evaluation.