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Book Review: The Goodbye Look

Reviewed By: Jon Jordan - Crime Spree Magazine - RAM


The Goodbye Look     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Ross MacDonald
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Classic   Hard Boiled
Series: Lew Archer # 15
1969, Vintage/Black Lizard Books 256 pages / $ 12.00

This is my first Ross MacDonald book and it won’t be my last. It was written over thirty years ago and yet the story and the telling of it hold up extremely well. I think it is proof of a good writer when that happens.

In this particular Lew Archer adventure, Archer is hired by a lawyer to find out who robbed his clients home. Not much was taken, and there is some funny business going on. In due haste Archer discovers that the family’s college age son is missing and might be involved. Archer is drawn into a web that seems to touch everyone near the family.

The beauty of this book was not the plot, which was tight and well done, but the characters in it. MacDonald weaves a background and history that becomes so intertwined that you start to think it may be non-fiction you are reading. And while I was reading, I could picture in my mind perfectly the homes and the offices and other places Archer went. Simply amazing descriptions. The images stay me now even a week later. A great book worthy of being called a classic.

Jon Jordan - Crime Spree Magazine - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jon Jordan - Crime Spree Magazine - RAM


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