Posts tagged Ross Macdonald

Continuing with literature porn from the book sale, here are two hardboiled greats with similar last names.  Ross Macdonald (born Kenneth Millar) is widely regarded as the third member of the hardboiled trinity, right alongside Hammett and Chandler.  I’m not so sure if he deserves such a lofty perch, but Macdonald is certainly one of the greats.  Here we have Lew Archer novels The Doomsters, The Galton Case and The Wycherly Woman.  Early Lew Archer short stories were collected as My Name is Archer.  And The Ferguson Affair is a rare non-Archer mystery from Macdonald. Ross Macdonald originally wrote under the name John Macdonald (and then John Ross Macdonald) so his writing would be considered on its own merits—and not because of his wife Margaret Millar’s popular mysteries.  Macdonald switched from John to Ross so as not to be confused with established pulp and hardboiled scribe John D. MacDonald. John D. MacDonald does not enjoy quite the critical esteem that Ross Macdonald does.  Nonetheless, his Travis McGee novels are genre classics.  Here we have The Deep Blue Good-by, The Scarlet Ruse, Cinnamon Skin and The Lonely Silver Rain.   John D. MacDonald and Ross Macdonald both wrote hardboiled fiction, but were very different otherwise.  Macdonald’s Freudian Archer is a far cry from the more heroic McGee.  But both are important in the development of hardboiled crime fiction.

Continuing with literature porn from the book sale, here are two hardboiled greats with similar last names.  Ross Macdonald (born Kenneth Millar) is widely regarded as the third member of the hardboiled trinity, right alongside Hammett and Chandler.  I’m not so sure if he deserves such a lofty perch, but Macdonald is certainly one of the greats.  Here we have Lew Archer novels The Doomsters, The Galton Case and The Wycherly Woman.  Early Lew Archer short stories were collected as My Name is Archer.  And The Ferguson Affair is a rare non-Archer mystery from Macdonald.

Ross Macdonald originally wrote under the name John Macdonald (and then John Ross Macdonald) so his writing would be considered on its own merits—and not because of his wife Margaret Millar’s popular mysteries.  Macdonald switched from John to Ross so as not to be confused with established pulp and hardboiled scribe John D. MacDonald.

John D. MacDonald does not enjoy quite the critical esteem that Ross Macdonald does.  Nonetheless, his Travis McGee novels are genre classics.  Here we have The Deep Blue Good-by, The Scarlet Ruse, Cinnamon Skin and The Lonely Silver Rain.  

John D. MacDonald and Ross Macdonald both wrote hardboiled fiction, but were very different otherwise.  Macdonald’s Freudian Archer is a far cry from the more heroic McGee.  But both are important in the development of hardboiled crime fiction.

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In last night’s Sleepyhead, a smug doctor scoffs at DI Tom Thorne’s serve-and-protect mission.  ”That allows you to act like a prick?” the doctor asks.  If you didn’t infer the answer from last night’s installment, Scaredy Cat answers the question tonight.  Yes, it does.  Once again, David Morrissey is winsomely prickly as Mark Billingham’s DI Thorne. In Thorne: Scaredy Cat, our hero is every bit the avenging angel that he was in Sleepyhead.  Like many rogue cops and hardboiled mavericks before him, DI Tom Thorne is dismissive of police regulations, his superiors and even most rules of polite conduct.  But he’s driven to find the bad guys.  Fortunately for London, Thorne is assigned the most perplexing cases—villains a more polite detective might not be able to track down. In Scaredy Cat, the police are once again baffled by a serial killer—or, Thorne suspects, by two.  Pairs of murders are being perpetrated with the same murder weapons, but one is savage and the other more precise and clinical.  Thorne is sure the pairs of murders are connected. Part of what follows is predictable.  Thorne is overbearing, takes risks, is second-guessed by his superiors but eventually solves the case.  But the genius of Scaredy Cat, like Sleepyhead last night, lies in the psychological curveballs that the show throws at viewers.  This episode seems to tip its hand early, but  Scaredy Cat adroitly serves up red herrings while slowly aspects of the eventual conclusion.   Sandra Oh is a good addition to the cast as DS Sara Chen.  As with Thorne, the sometimes grisly job seems to weigh on Chen.  Thorne copes by being a prick.  Chen needs cocaine and spontaneous sex.  While we see the self-destructiveness Chen is now in, she isn’t a very developed character, and we don’t know why she’s using cocaine in the first place.  It would be nice to see more of Aidan Gillen (Tommy Carcetti in The Wire) as medical examiner Phil Hendricks—Thorne’s sounding board and the only character who cal tell him off. Taken together, both Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat rely on the continuing effects of childhood trauma as an explanation for serial killings down the line.  Not being familiar with the Mark Billingham novels upon which the Thorne series are based, I can’t say whether this is unique to the first two, or recurs throughout the series.  But the themes—dysfunctional identity, childhood flashbacks, broken relationships, compulsion to kill—remind me of a more violent (and perhaps less Freudian) Ross Macdonald.   But watch Thorne: Sleepyhead and Thorne: Scaredy Cat, and judge for yourself.  These are excellent procedurals-cum-thrillers.  David Morrissey’s downbeat magnetism will draw you in, and the piercing suspense will keep you watching.

In last night’s Sleepyhead, a smug doctor scoffs at DI Tom Thorne’s serve-and-protect mission.  ”That allows you to act like a prick?” the doctor asks.  If you didn’t infer the answer from last night’s installment, Scaredy Cat answers the question tonight.  Yes, it does.  Once again, David Morrissey is winsomely prickly as Mark Billingham’s DI Thorne.

In Thorne: Scaredy Cat, our hero is every bit the avenging angel that he was in Sleepyhead.  Like many rogue cops and hardboiled mavericks before him, DI Tom Thorne is dismissive of police regulations, his superiors and even most rules of polite conduct.  But he’s driven to find the bad guys.  Fortunately for London, Thorne is assigned the most perplexing cases—villains a more polite detective might not be able to track down.

In Scaredy Cat, the police are once again baffled by a serial killer—or, Thorne suspects, by two.  Pairs of murders are being perpetrated with the same murder weapons, but one is savage and the other more precise and clinical.  Thorne is sure the pairs of murders are connected.

Part of what follows is predictable.  Thorne is overbearing, takes risks, is second-guessed by his superiors but eventually solves the case.  But the genius of Scaredy Cat, like Sleepyhead last night, lies in the psychological curveballs that the show throws at viewers.  This episode seems to tip its hand early, but  Scaredy Cat adroitly serves up red herrings while slowly aspects of the eventual conclusion.  

Sandra Oh is a good addition to the cast as DS Sara Chen.  As with Thorne, the sometimes grisly job seems to weigh on Chen.  Thorne copes by being a prick.  Chen needs cocaine and spontaneous sex.  While we see the self-destructiveness Chen is now in, she isn’t a very developed character, and we don’t know why she’s using cocaine in the first place.  It would be nice to see more of Aidan Gillen (Tommy Carcetti in The Wire) as medical examiner Phil Hendricks—Thorne’s sounding board and the only character who cal tell him off.

Taken together, both Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat rely on the continuing effects of childhood trauma as an explanation for serial killings down the line.  Not being familiar with the Mark Billingham novels upon which the Thorne series are based, I can’t say whether this is unique to the first two, or recurs throughout the series.  But the themes—dysfunctional identity, childhood flashbacks, broken relationships, compulsion to kill—remind me of a more violent (and perhaps less Freudian) Ross Macdonald.  

But watch Thorne: Sleepyhead and Thorne: Scaredy Cat, and judge for yourself.  These are excellent procedurals-cum-thrillers.  David Morrissey’s downbeat magnetism will draw you in, and the piercing suspense will keep you watching.

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chelsea-leber asked: Can I just tell you how excited I am that you followed me? That's really creepy, but I'm okay with that. For years I read these books and people look at me funny because Raymond Chandler is no Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner would scoff at Dashiell Hammett. There are very few people who appreciate hard-boiled fiction and noir and often times I am told it is cheaply done and doesn't count as literature. So, if there was a way to pick you up and spin you around via the internet, I would.

You are far from creepy.  I’m always excited to meet a fellow fan of hardboiled and noir, as well.

Hardboiled literature evolved out of pulp fiction, which was not intended as anything more than popular entertainment.  Often writers like Donald Henderson Clarke or Carroll John Daly were not possessed of great literary talent.  But really, how many novels does Knopf publish each year that are promptly forgotten?  I’m not sure this invalidates the entire enterprise.

But Hammett and Chandler, while clearly writing genre fiction, were wordsmiths who transcended their paid-by-the-word predecessors.  Hammett was arguably utilizing lean, spare prose several years before Hemingway was.   Faulkner evidently did not think The Big Sleep beneath him when he was writing the screenplay for Howard Hawks.  Chandler certainly had noticeable deficiencies when it came to constructing plots.  But as a wordsmith, I think he can take his place with any writer who has ever used the English language.

Furthermore, noir has developed a great deal since Hammett and Chandler.  I defy an critic of hardboiled and noir to tell me that Patricia Highsmith is not literature or is cheaply done.  Likewise with James Ellroy or Dennis Lehane.  While Ross Macdonald is not my favorite hardboiled author, his work was held in high regard by the literary arbiters of his day.

Sure, we still have Michael Connelly and Sue Grafton, whose work may be enjoyable (Connelly is, Grafton may not always be), but is hardly great literature.  But every genre is a mixed bag.  Literary hardboiled/noir fiction is there to be had.  And there’s no need to be ashamed of reading the really fun genre stuff like Richard S. Prather or Jim Thompson, either.

What say you, tumblchums?  Which hardboiled/noir authors do you think are most noteworthy beyond the genre?

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ahandsomestark asked: I remember seeing on your blog a few months ago that you hadn't read much Ross Macdonald but had picked up a few of his books. Have you had time to read anymore of him since then?

I have read more of him since my previous answer.  His novels are good, but I think they veer out of the hardboiled worldview (if I may call it that, instead of a genre).  Macdonald tried to modernize the hardboiled detective and perhaps humanize him.  In doing so he, he moves Lew Archer away from the pulpy, forceful roots of hardboiled fiction.  In so doing, he won critical praise for being more sophisticated than Hammett or Chandler (to say nothing of Spillane or Prather).  Macdonald was also devoted to Freudian explanations of human behavior.  This was all very much in vogue when he was writing, but is less so now.

More to the point, Otto Penzler regards noir and hardboiled as “diametrically opposed.”  I disagree with him.  I think that noir’s deeply pessimistic view of the world is reflected in good hardboiled fiction.  Philip Marlowe may be “not mean himself” (in Chandler’s famous words), but that does not really change the way the world works.  We see abundant noir fatalism in Chandler’s novels.  The “good guy,” such as he is, gets to watch everyone else tumble down.  But it’s the same bleak world.

But it isn’t the same bleak world in Ross Macdonald’s books.  People aren’t bad.  They have hang-ups and daddy issues.  It seems to me that this is actually a rather softboiled view of the world, despite the private eye protagonist.  Lew Archer wouldn’t turn Brigid O’Shaughnessy over to the police (as Sam Spade did), he would try to get her into therapy.  

I think John D. MacDonald dealt with some of the themes of alienation and angst that Ross Macdonald did, but in a far more hardboiled way.  A psychiatrist might not recommend this.  But a private dick shouldn’t do it any other way.

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itswhatpeopledo asked: I absolutely love the Noir genre and hard-boiled detective fiction etc etc. So far, I'm trying to read all of Raymond Chandler's novels with Philip Marlowe because I absolutely looove it. Any suggested authors? You can give me a long list, because I plan on reading as many as I can. Movies/directors too if you can! I would also love to learn about the general time period (Pretty much the 1900s-1950s, more or less), so if you know some good ways to do that, it would also be much appreciated.

The hardboiled/noir trilogy is Hammett, Chandler and Cain.  I would advise reading them to understand the foundations of the genre (if we can it a genre—and this is debated).  But it’s important to know that hardboiled/noir splits into two streams: hardboiled and noir.  I’ve addressed the difference before, but I think it’s important to keep in mind.  

You seem more interested in hardboiled P.I. fiction than noir, so I’ll focus on that.  But I think Cain (noir) is important reading for any fan of crime fiction, as are Cornell Woolrich, Jim Thompson.  My personal favorite is Dorothy B. Hughes, who blends hardboiled dialogue with noir plots and writes thrillers that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page.

There is so much hardboiled fiction.  I’ve stacks and stacks of it in my living room (I now have seven stacks instead of five—and all of them are taller than they were two months ago).  Hammet and Chandler are essential starting points.  The hardboiled trinity is Hammett, Chandler and Ross Macdonald (of whom more shortly).  But from there it just branches out.  John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series (most of the novels are set in South Florida) is a favorite of mine.  Walter Moseley’s Easy Rawlins novels are top-notch mysteries.  What’s more, they are brilliant explorations of race and the American experience.  Early Spenser novels by Robert B. Parker have some of the best tough-guy dialogue ever put on paper.  Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer makes a lot of other hardboiled dicks look like sissies.

I can go on and on and on recommending hardboiled literature.  Not all hardboiled heroes are private detectives.  Michael Connelly’s Harry Busch is a cop, as are the characters in Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series.  

I think that would be a good start, and you can always peruse the Currently Reading tag.  I’m always reading new books, so keep an eye out for my recommendations.  If you want a detective from a specific place (Denver, Miami, etc.) or with a distinguishing feature (African American, gay, female, etc.), I’d be happy to give some specific recommendations.  

There is infinite variety in hardboiled literature.  I would advise wading in and just read as widely as possible.  

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Here’s some literature porn to brighten your Monday morning.  I found some pretty neat hardboiled paperbacks last week.  Included in the haul were some great fictional PIs: Kenzie and Gennaro, Travis McGee, Shell Scott and V.I. Warshawski.  

But the real prizes were a couple rare finds.  I ran across a movie tie-in edition of Ross Macdonald’s The Moving Target, renamed Harper to match the 1966 Paul Newman film.  Even better was a slim pulp anthology from 1957.  Dolls are Murder not only has a great ring to it, it also has a great pulp cover.  It not only features some of my favorite pulp/hardboiled scribes in Raymond Chandler and John D. MacDonald, it has some stories from authors I’ve been wanting to read, like Brett Halliday.  

They just don’t make ‘em like the used to—the authors or the books.

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I love noir and hardboiled crime fiction of all varieties.  But there’s a special place in my trench coat-wearin’ heart for the little pulpy paperbacks.  They’re the perfect size to tuck in a jacket or coat pocket and read during any otherwise unoccupied moments.  I’m most apt to run across these in used bookstores, because they just don’t make ‘em like they used to.  

This little gem is John D. MacDonald’s One Fearful Yellow Eye, a Travis McGee novel.  South Florida is McGee’s usual haunt, but One Fearful Yellow Eye (all of the McGee novels had colors in the title) finds him in Chicago.  I know the hardboiled trinity is generally believed to be Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, but I think John D. MacDonald is far better than the similarly-named Ross (a pseudonym for Kenneth Millar).

McDonald (whether in the Travis McGee series, or his numerous non-series novels) has an unruffled, hardboiled, observational style of writing that I really dig.  I’ll be sharing snippets from the book over the coming days.

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What would The Big Sleep be like if Philip Marlowe tried to get the Sternwoods into therapy?  Read The Underground Man and find out!

What would The Big Sleep be like if Philip Marlowe tried to get the Sternwoods into therapy?  Read The Underground Man and find out!

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It’s been a while since I posted some literature porn, so I thought I’d post these books that I found yesterday afternoon.  (I have no shortage of books for your viewing pleasure; I just have to take pictures of them so you can objectify their covers.)  I must say, the local library discards some excellent books.  But I’ve no objection; this allows me to accumulate them without having to return them to the library. Here I have Ruth Rendell’s From Doon With Death.  Rendell is often credited as an author of noirish psychological novels.  From Doon With Death, however is part of her procedural Inspector Wexford series of novels.  I’m not sure how noirish Wexford is.  And I’m not sure how Rendell is categorized as both noir and cozy mystery.  The terms are arbitrary, folks.  I’ll read it and find out.  But I’ll probably start with Rendell’s non-Wexford novel One Across, Two Down.  Vendetta for the Saint just ain’t noir, and that’s all there is to it.  But I like The Saint, so that’s that.  Leslie Charteris’ creation is certainly one an important part of twentieth century crime fiction.  What’s more, The Saint evolved from the same pulpy ancestors as Dashiell Hammett and subsequent hardboiled authors. It is no surprise that Vincent Price was playing Simon Templar (the beatific nickname derived from Templar’s initials) on the radio about the same time that Gerald Mohr was playing Philip Marlowe.  Leslie Charteris and subsequent authors writing under his name (this volume was ghostwritten by Harry Harrison, with significant editorial input from Charteris) created breezy, highbrow pulp.  “As the actress said to the bishop.” Despite my fondness for the Saint, the undisputed gem of this haul is Ross Macdonald’s The Far Side of the Dollar.  Lew Archer mysteries aren’t always easy to come by.  Whenever I see one, I pick it up.  I very much look forward to reading it, as I am currently re-examining my opinion of Macdonald.  Stay tuned, I’ll certainly have more to say about The Far Side of the Dollar once I read it.

It’s been a while since I posted some literature porn, so I thought I’d post these books that I found yesterday afternoon.  (I have no shortage of books for your viewing pleasure; I just have to take pictures of them so you can objectify their covers.)  I must say, the local library discards some excellent books.  But I’ve no objection; this allows me to accumulate them without having to return them to the library.

Here I have Ruth Rendell’s From Doon With Death.  Rendell is often credited as an author of noirish psychological novels.  From Doon With Death, however is part of her procedural Inspector Wexford series of novels.  I’m not sure how noirish Wexford is.  And I’m not sure how Rendell is categorized as both noir and cozy mystery.  The terms are arbitrary, folks.  I’ll read it and find out.  But I’ll probably start with Rendell’s non-Wexford novel One Across, Two Down. 

Vendetta for the Saint just ain’t noir, and that’s all there is to it.  But I like The Saint, so that’s that.  Leslie Charteris’ creation is certainly one an important part of twentieth century crime fiction.  What’s more, The Saint evolved from the same pulpy ancestors as Dashiell Hammett and subsequent hardboiled authors. It is no surprise that Vincent Price was playing Simon Templar (the beatific nickname derived from Templar’s initials) on the radio about the same time that Gerald Mohr was playing Philip Marlowe.  Leslie Charteris and subsequent authors writing under his name (this volume was ghostwritten by Harry Harrison, with significant editorial input from Charteris) created breezy, highbrow pulp.  “As the actress said to the bishop.”

Despite my fondness for the Saint, the undisputed gem of this haul is Ross Macdonald’s The Far Side of the Dollar.  Lew Archer mysteries aren’t always easy to come by.  Whenever I see one, I pick it up.  I very much look forward to reading it, as I am currently re-examining my opinion of Macdonald.  Stay tuned, I’ll certainly have more to say about The Far Side of the Dollar once I read it.

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The Top Ten Greatest Fictional Detectives

6 of the 10 detectives (the term is used loosely) are from the hard-boiled tradition.  This includes:

  • Elvis Cole (Robert Crais)
  • Philip Marlowe (Raymond Chandler)
  • Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch (Michael Connelly)
  • Lisbeth Salander (Stieg Larsson)
  • Kinsey Milhone (Sue Grafton)
  • Lew Archer (Ross Macdonald)

I find the inclusion of Grafton’s Milhone rather unfortunate.  But I’ll concede my intake of Grafton has been rather limited.  Perhaps other books in the alphabet soup are better.

It should be noted that the detectives listed are the favorites from David Baldacci.  Baldacci isn’t necessarily my lodestar in matters literary.  Still, I’d rather they say “these are his favorites” (as they do), rather than give us a list of “the best”—which no one alive is probably qualified to compile.  I’ve always been rather dismissive of Baldacci’s books.  I wonder how much he is influenced by the hardboiled authors he reads.  Has anyone read any of Baldacci’s thrillers? 

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