Ross Macdonald: Three Novels of the Early 1960s

In 1949 Kenneth Millar, then writing as John Macdonald, published his first novel featuring private detective Lew Archer. By the early 1960s Millar’s nom de plume had changed and the series had evolved steadily toward new levels of emotional depth and structural ingenuity. The name Ross Macdonald had become a byword for a new standard in crime fiction.

The three novels collected in this volume represent for many readers the summit of Macdonald’s art. They remain thrilling for their searing psychological truth-telling, daring flights of narrative invention, and their keenly observed picture of the manners and morals of a particular time and place (Southern California in the early 1960s). The intricate carpentry of their plotting is matched by their passion and imaginative sweep.

Each of these books reflects Macdonald’s enduring concern with the hidden crimes and agonising dysfunctions that haunt families from one generation to the next.