This thriller is about an oil spill off the coast of California and its impact on the family owning the drilling concession. Within hours of the news breaking, PI Lew Archer accidentally meets one of its members, Lauren whose rescued seabird dies in her hands.
Lew Archer is trying to track down Laurel Russo, a troubled young woman and granddaughter of oil owners. She has apparently been abducted and held for a ransom of $100,000.
*possible spoilers* When I was a young man in the seventies, I was a devoted reader of Ross MacDonald. Since then, I have moved on to Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman and Lawrence Block.
One of the obvious observations about Ross MacDonald's series of Lew Archer detective novels is that they are essentially the same story. Eerily MacDonald's plot lines reflect his own troubled and unsettled childhood.
Decent read. I can see the influence of Raymond Chandler.
Those old Archer - I'm sorry, 'Harper' - movies are a curious pair. The first is your standard, shiny Sixties thriller with lots of good looking people involved in a vastly complicated plot, whilst the other is very much grungy Seventies and actually quite dull.
More of the hard-boiled LA detective Lew Archer. Most of the characters in this are pretty forgettable, but Archer is not.
Is there ANY MacDonald novel that doesn't satisfy the reader? I don't think so and this ain't the first either.
The more I read him, the more I wonder why Ross Mac Donald is such a well kept secret.
MacDonald picked up the hardboiled mantle from Chandler & Co. and wielded it with lethal grace.
The Lew Archer novels are mildly addictive even if rather disappointing (which may be the essence of any addiction). Always the murder 15 years in the past that turns out to be at the root of the present nastiness.
With the Lew Archer novels, Macdonald picked up where Hammett and Chandler left off. Great stuff!.
I've read most of the Archer books, and will probably read a bunch of them again. Lew Archer is one of the fictional characters I most identify with, blessed or cursed with the gift of seeing too well into other people's souls.
This is my 4th Ross MacDonald read in a row. I've been having a good time with his Lew Archer PI.
