Best Selling Books by Ross Macdonald

Macdonald fans and others interested in detective fiction will find this worthwhile browsing. In a number of the essays Macdonald, a.k.a. Kenneth Millar, sketches in his basic life history: his Scots-Canadian newspapering ancestors; meeting his wife Margaret; and, above all, his absent, loved/hated father--the source of the Oedipal trauma that led to his "breakthrough" novel, The Galton Case. Three essays are devoted to one of Macdonald''s lifelong passions, ecologic conservation. The rest of the book is devoted to writers and writing. The topics addressed include: the history of the American crime novel starting with Poe, the function crime fiction fulfills to society, the autobiographical elements in his Lew Archer character, an analysis of Hammett''s Sam Spade as he appears in the Maltese Falcon and the critical importance of narrative unity in crime novels. He defends the literary place of the detective novel, declaring his longtime passion for the Gothic tradition. He pays homage to Hammett, Chandler, Greene, Kenneth Fearing, and others.

"The first omnibus of novels by Ross Macdonald presents his famous detective, Lew Archer, in three stylish and explosive cases. They take Archer and the reader through the upper levels and lower depths of California society, casting a sardonic eye on Hollywood and its outposts in Las Vegas and Palm Springs." --

Lew Archer is far from home. A Californian named Wycherly has hired him to find his daughter, and in San Francisco Lew follows the girl''s trail straight to her mother. Then people start dying and before he can make sense of anything, both mother and daughter are missing.

Lew Archer, the hard-nosed detective with a heart of gold, threads his way through a host of mysteries peopled with a slew of nefarious characters

She walked into the West L.A. night with a bottle of sleeping pills in her hand. The problem for Lew Archer was that she had taken the pills from him and was in the mood to use them. Her family was behind a huge oil spill that lapped like blood against the California coast, while a 30-year-old family secret refused to stay buried beneath all that money and power. Now the girl was missing, two men were dead, and there was oil everywhere. Sometimes, it only takes one spark. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

The Sampson family made their money in the Texas oil fields and spent it on the California coast. There was plenty of it left when Ralph Sampson disappeared ... Mrs. Sampson, a paralytic blonde who had bad dreams, called Archer in to find him and his checkbook. The trail that Archer followed took him down through the seven circles of California society. Sampson had mixed with thieves and murderers, a cult of phony sun-worshippers, a silent-movie star in the last stages of degradation, a boogie pianist who had served her time. In company like that you look for trouble, and Archer found plenty of trouble ...