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Lew Archer #18
The Blue Hammer
Vintage paperback
270 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
58 people are currently reading
1237 people want to read
About the author
Ross Macdonald
160 books815 followersRoss Macdonald is the pseudonym of the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar. He is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in southern California and featuring private detective Lew Archer.
Millar was born in Los Gatos, California, and raised in his parents' native Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, where he started college. When his father abandoned his family unexpectedly, Macdonald lived with his mother and various relatives, moving several times by his sixteenth year. The prominence of broken homes and domestic problems in his fiction has its roots in his youth.
In Canada, he met and married Margaret Sturm (Margaret Millar)in 1938. They had a daughter, Linda, who died in 1970.
He began his career writing stories for pulp magazines. Millar attended the University of Michigan, where he earned a Phi Beta Kappa key and a Ph.D. in literature. While doing graduate study, he completed his first novel, The Dark Tunnel, in 1944. At this time, he wrote under the name John Macdonald, in order to avoid confusion with his wife, who was achieving her own success writing as Margaret Millar. He then changed briefly to John Ross Macdonald before settling on Ross Macdonald, in order to avoid mixups with contemporary John D. MacDonald. After serving at sea as a naval communications officer from 1944 to 1946, he returned to Michigan, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree.
Macdonald's popular detective Lew Archer derives his name from Sam Spade's partner, Miles Archer, and from Lew Wallace, author of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Macdonald first introduced the tough but humane private eye in the 1946 short story Find the Woman. A full-length novel, The Moving Target, followed in 1949. This novel (the first in a series of eighteen) would become the basis for the 1966 Paul Newman film Harper. In the early 1950s, he returned to California, settling for some thirty years in Santa Barbara, the area where most of his books were set. The very successful Lew Archer series, including bestsellers The Goodbye Look, The Underground Man, and Sleeping Beauty, concluded with The Blue Hammer in 1976.
Macdonald died of Alzheimer's disease in Santa Barbara, California.
Macdonald is the primary heir to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler as the master of American hardboiled mysteries. His writing built on the pithy style of his predecessors by adding psychological depth and insights into the motivations of his characters. Macdonald's plots were complicated, and often turned on Archer's unearthing family secrets of his clients and of the criminals who victimized them. Lost or wayward sons and daughters were a theme common to many of the novels. Macdonald deftly combined the two sides of the mystery genre, the "whodunit" and the psychological thriller. Even his regular readers seldom saw a Macdonald denouement coming.
Millar was born in Los Gatos, California, and raised in his parents' native Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, where he started college. When his father abandoned his family unexpectedly, Macdonald lived with his mother and various relatives, moving several times by his sixteenth year. The prominence of broken homes and domestic problems in his fiction has its roots in his youth.
In Canada, he met and married Margaret Sturm (Margaret Millar)in 1938. They had a daughter, Linda, who died in 1970.
He began his career writing stories for pulp magazines. Millar attended the University of Michigan, where he earned a Phi Beta Kappa key and a Ph.D. in literature. While doing graduate study, he completed his first novel, The Dark Tunnel, in 1944. At this time, he wrote under the name John Macdonald, in order to avoid confusion with his wife, who was achieving her own success writing as Margaret Millar. He then changed briefly to John Ross Macdonald before settling on Ross Macdonald, in order to avoid mixups with contemporary John D. MacDonald. After serving at sea as a naval communications officer from 1944 to 1946, he returned to Michigan, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree.
Macdonald's popular detective Lew Archer derives his name from Sam Spade's partner, Miles Archer, and from Lew Wallace, author of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Macdonald first introduced the tough but humane private eye in the 1946 short story Find the Woman. A full-length novel, The Moving Target, followed in 1949. This novel (the first in a series of eighteen) would become the basis for the 1966 Paul Newman film Harper. In the early 1950s, he returned to California, settling for some thirty years in Santa Barbara, the area where most of his books were set. The very successful Lew Archer series, including bestsellers The Goodbye Look, The Underground Man, and Sleeping Beauty, concluded with The Blue Hammer in 1976.
Macdonald died of Alzheimer's disease in Santa Barbara, California.
Macdonald is the primary heir to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler as the master of American hardboiled mysteries. His writing built on the pithy style of his predecessors by adding psychological depth and insights into the motivations of his characters. Macdonald's plots were complicated, and often turned on Archer's unearthing family secrets of his clients and of the criminals who victimized them. Lost or wayward sons and daughters were a theme common to many of the novels. Macdonald deftly combined the two sides of the mystery genre, the "whodunit" and the psychological thriller. Even his regular readers seldom saw a Macdonald denouement coming.
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September 9, 2019
This is Ross Macdonald's final novel, and the last in the series of Lew Archer mysteries. It is a very good novel, animated by the usual Macdonald themes, and marks a fitting end to a life of literary achievement.
Detective Lew Archer is hired by Ruth Beimeyer for what seems like a routine job: to find a stolen painting. But Lew soon finds out it is not as simple as it seems. What is the connection between Mrs. Biemeyer and the artist Richard Chantry? Why is Mr. Biemeyer so angry, and why is their daughter Doris so sad and lost? Is her art student boyfriend Fred a thief or merely a troubled boy fascinated by a stolen portrait? Who is the woman in the picture anyway? And what does this have to do with the disappearance of the painter twenty years ago?
The answers to these questions will be uncovered in time, but not before the sins, crimes and deceptions that were buried a generation ago are unearthed as well. And, as usual, Lew does his best to look after the suffering young people: Doris and Fred, lovers too young for the ancient guilt that is destroying their lives.
This book—like all the Archer books—is well written, but it seems to me its style is more discursive, its metaphors less pointed, than usual. Certain readers on The Blue Hammer's first publication saw this as an interesting stylistic development, but in retrospect I am afraid it is rather the first faint signs of the effects of Alzheimer's, a disease that would prevent Macdonald from publishing any more novels.
What a shame! For Macdonald was planning—or perhaps just dreaming—a novel in which Lew Archer would explore the secrets of his own history. What a treat that would have been!
On the other hand, perhaps it's best that this final novel was never written. Archer is a hero, and—as with the heroes of Greek mythology whose ghosts populate Macdonald's landscapes—sometimes the gods decree it is best for a hero's origins not to be revealed.
June 21, 2021
4 stars for a classic hard boiled PI mystery. California PI Lew Archer is hired to find a missing picture. Then someone connected to the missing painting is murdered. Archer tracks down more clues as far afield as Arizona. There is a connection to a murder that took place in 1943 Arizona, more than 30 years ago. Archer slowly puts it all together, peeling back secrets and lies, like peeling an onion.
One quote on Archer's self description: "My chosen study was other men, hunted men in rented rooms, aging boys clutching at manhood, before night fell and they grew suddenly old."
This was a used book purchase, and a short easy 3 day read.
One quote on Archer's self description: "My chosen study was other men, hunted men in rented rooms, aging boys clutching at manhood, before night fell and they grew suddenly old."
This was a used book purchase, and a short easy 3 day read.
July 9, 2020
Η ανθρώπινη κατάσταση, ιλαρή και τραγική ομού, αποτελεί την πρώτη ύλη της μυθιστορηματικής δημιουργίας για τους απανταχού ταλαντούχους χειριστές του γραπτού λόγου. Συνθήκη ικανή -πλην όχι αναγκαία- της αφήγησης αποτελεί και το έγκλημα ήδη από την εποχή του έμμετρου λόγου. Ο φόνος, η εκδίκηση και οι συνακόλουθες ενοχές, το αιματηρό συμβάν ως αφετηρία "πράξεως σπουδαίας και τελείας" συνετέλεσαν στην παραγωγή αριστουργηματικών κειμένων που διαπέρασαν με την εντέλειά τους τον πεπερασμένο κύκλο ζωής του έργου και του συγγραφέα τους.
Δεν είναι διόλου τυχαίο πως οι κορυφαίοι του noir -άμεσοι επίγονοι της δραματικής παράδοσης lato sensu- χρησιμοποιούν αυτό το όχημα. Το noir παραμένει πρώτιστα αφηγηματικό είδος και δεν είναι διόλου τυχαίο που οι μετρ του είδους έχουν αναγορευτεί σε μέγιστους στιλίστες. Ως εκ τούτου δεν είναι η πλοκή, η δράση και οι ανατροπές (όχι πως δεν υπάρχουν κι όλα αυτά) που ορίζουν και οριοθετούν το noir, αλλά ένα συγκεκριμένο ύφος που το καθιστά -στις καλύτερες των περιπτώσεων- λογοτεχνικό είδος, διακριτό και, κατά τη γνώμη μου, υπέρτερο των λοιπών αστυνομικών, θρίλερ κλπ.
Εκεί που οι συγγραφείς των τελευταίων πασχίζουν να περιπλέξουν τις υποθέσεις και τον αναγνώστη τους, φορτώνοντας τις πολυσέλιδες δημιουργίες τους με ετερόκλιτα στοιχεία δημοσιογραφικής έρευνας, ιστορίας, ψυχολογίας, αρχαιολογίας, πολιτικού ακτιβισμού και δεν συμμαζεύεται, το άξιο λόγου noir στέκεται μακριά από όλα τούτα που στόχο τους έχουν να "νερώσουν" το αποτέλεσμα.
Ο noir συγγραφέας σπανίως πλατειάζει (Ελρόι εξαιρουμένου), σπανίως παρασύρεται σε περιγραφές, σχολιασμούς, άμεσες καταγγελίες. Ο ήρωας μένει σχεδόν πάντα στο παρασκήνιο αφήνοντας τις πληγωμένες ψυχές που βρίσκει στον δρόμο του να αφηγηθούν τις αλήθειες τους που είναι σχεδόν πάντα ψέματα – όχι απαραίτητα εσκεμμένα, κυρίως διότι οι άνθρωποι πρώτιστα ψεύδονται στον εαυτό τους. Είναι ο ιδανικός παρατηρητής (όπως κι ο συγγραφέας εξάλλου), το private eye που επισκοπεί τα ανθρώπινα πάθη, τις αδυναμίες, τα ελαττώματα των παραβατικών, των πενθούντων, των εγκληματιών και των θυμάτων τους, όλων εκείνων που διέρρηξαν τους δεσμούς τους με το κοινωνικό σύνολο.
Ο ντετέκτιβ (εν προκειμένω ο Λιου Άρτσερ) δεν είναι επικριτικός αλλά και δεν αποστασιοποιείται, όντας ο ίδιος μέρος του προβλήματος και της λύσης. Και είναι ετούτη η επαμφοτερίζουσα στάση που διασώζει το noir από την καταγγελία. Ο συγγραφέας μέσω του ήρωά του αποφεύγει τους προβολείς, το κέντρο της σκηνής, εκεί που το τοπίο "καίγεται". Παρατηρεί -μόνιμα παρατηρεί- από την κρυψώνα του και σε στιγμές ανασηκώνει τα στόρια και ρίχνει μια ματιά από τις χαραμάδες στις ανθρώπινες φιγούρες που περνούν από μπροστά του "…πλην χωρίς μίσος για τους ψευδομένους".
Δεν το πράττει όμως ως "δίκης οφθαλμός" που θα αποφανθεί για τα αμαρτήματα των μετεχόντων στην ανθρώπινη κωμωδία που σπαράγματά της (ισόποσα τραγικά/ κωμικά) μεταφέρονται στις σελίδες των κορυφαίων του noir. Αυτή η στάση που συχνά εκλαμβάνεται ως κυνισμός, είναι το ώριμο απόσταγμα της πικρής παραδοχής των ηττημένων της ζωής αυτής, των παριών, των λοξών, όλων εκείνων που σε πείσμα του διαρκούς προτάγματος για επιτυχία αποτυγχάνουν – κάθε φορά και καλύτερα.
Ο Ρος Μακντόναλντ δεν κομπάζει, δεν παραληρεί, δεν κραδαίνει το μαστίγιο του αγκιτάτορα για να κατακρίνει το "Αμερικανικό όνειρο", εστιάζοντας σε όλες εκείνες τις αερολογίες που καθιστούν εύκολο το έργο των απανταχού οκνηρών κριτικών (αν το αρχέγονο κακό είναι η Αμερική, ξεμπέρδεψες σε 2 προτάσεις και ικανοποιημένος επιστρέφεις αλαζονικά στην τακτοποιημένη και σίγουρα προνομιούχα ύπαρξή σου). Το "όνειρο" κι ο εφιάλτης, το γνωρίζει καλά, συναποτελούν την ανθρώπινη συνθήκη. Η κόλαση είναι μεν οι άλλοι αλλά ταυτόχρονα είναι μια εσωτερική κατάσταση, τα όρια του εαυτού, οι συνεχείς διαψεύσεις, οι πικρίες και ο πόνος που συνοδεύει την ύπαρξή μας σε κάθε βήμα.
Η, ευκαιρίας δοθείσης, υπόθεση της "Γαλάζιας φλέβας" είναι συνοπτικά η εξής: Η κλοπή ενός πίνακα από το σπίτι μιας μεγαλοαστικής οικογένειας αποτελεί το έναυσμα της δράσης, οπότε ο ντετέκτιβ Λιου Άρτσερ καλείται να εξιχνιάσει το έγκλημα. Η παρουσία του από μόνη της είναι ο καταλύτης που θα δημιουργήσει αναταράξεις στο καθωσπρέπει περιβάλλον, φέρνοντας στην επιφάνεια θραύσματα του παρελθόντος, χαίνουσες πληγές όπου εξ αποστάσεως χρονικής και τοπικής (ετερο)καθορίζουν τη ζωή των εμπλεκομένων σε ένα ταξίδι πόνου και βίας.
Η «Γαλάζια φλέβα» αποτελεί την επιτομή της κοσμοθεωρίας και -ακόμα σημαντικότερο- της αφηγηματικής τέχνης του Μακντόναλντ, ενσωματώνοντας πινελιές ποίησης στην αστυνομική πλοκή. Η οποία πλοκή, εν προκειμένω, εκτεινόμενη από το παρόν στο παρελθόν είχα την αίσθηση πως παρακολουθούσε τον αφηγηματικό τρόπο του συγγραφέα, αντί να αποτελεί την προτεραιότητά του. Τούτο αποτελεί για μένα τη μέγιστη απόδειξη συγγραφικής δεινότητας σε αυτό που αποκαλούμε genre: η προσχηματική πλοκή αποσύρεται συχνά στο παρασκήνιο και ο προβολέας μας εστιάζεται στον χειρισμό του υλικού, στον μαέστρο που κατευθύνει τη δράση και δίνει τις οδηγίες.
Αν με το πέρας των ετών έχω συχνά αλλάξει πορεία στις αναγνωστικές μου προτιμήσεις, παραμένω εισέτι θαυμαστής του noir. Η σκοτεινή πλευρά του απείρου της αστυνομικής λογοτεχνίας αποτελεί πρώτιστα αισθητική επιλογή και στα χέρια άξιων δημιουργών δεν φοβάται να ανασκαλέψει το χθαμαλό, να φωτίσει το ταπεινό και να δοξάσει το αιώνιο.
https://fotiskblog.home.blog/2020/07/...
Δεν είναι διόλου τυχαίο πως οι κορυφαίοι του noir -άμεσοι επίγονοι της δραματικής παράδοσης lato sensu- χρησιμοποιούν αυτό το όχημα. Το noir παραμένει πρώτιστα αφηγηματικό είδος και δεν είναι διόλου τυχαίο που οι μετρ του είδους έχουν αναγορευτεί σε μέγιστους στιλίστες. Ως εκ τούτου δεν είναι η πλοκή, η δράση και οι ανατροπές (όχι πως δεν υπάρχουν κι όλα αυτά) που ορίζουν και οριοθετούν το noir, αλλά ένα συγκεκριμένο ύφος που το καθιστά -στις καλύτερες των περιπτώσεων- λογοτεχνικό είδος, διακριτό και, κατά τη γνώμη μου, υπέρτερο των λοιπών αστυνομικών, θρίλερ κλπ.
Εκεί που οι συγγραφείς των τελευταίων πασχίζουν να περιπλέξουν τις υποθέσεις και τον αναγνώστη τους, φορτώνοντας τις πολυσέλιδες δημιουργίες τους με ετερόκλιτα στοιχεία δημοσιογραφικής έρευνας, ιστορίας, ψυχολογίας, αρχαιολογίας, πολιτικού ακτιβισμού και δεν συμμαζεύεται, το άξιο λόγου noir στέκεται μακριά από όλα τούτα που στόχο τους έχουν να "νερώσουν" το αποτέλεσμα.
Ο noir συγγραφέας σπανίως πλατειάζει (Ελρόι εξαιρουμένου), σπανίως παρασύρεται σε περιγραφές, σχολιασμούς, άμεσες καταγγελίες. Ο ήρωας μένει σχεδόν πάντα στο παρασκήνιο αφήνοντας τις πληγωμένες ψυχές που βρίσκει στον δρόμο του να αφηγηθούν τις αλήθειες τους που είναι σχεδόν πάντα ψέματα – όχι απαραίτητα εσκεμμένα, κυρίως διότι οι άνθρωποι πρώτιστα ψεύδονται στον εαυτό τους. Είναι ο ιδανικός παρατηρητής (όπως κι ο συγγραφέας εξάλλου), το private eye που επισκοπεί τα ανθρώπινα πάθη, τις αδυναμίες, τα ελαττώματα των παραβατικών, των πενθούντων, των εγκληματιών και των θυμάτων τους, όλων εκείνων που διέρρηξαν τους δεσμούς τους με το κοινωνικό σύνολο.
Ο ντετέκτιβ (εν προκειμένω ο Λιου Άρτσερ) δεν είναι επικριτικός αλλά και δεν αποστασιοποιείται, όντας ο ίδιος μέρος του προβλήματος και της λύσης. Και είναι ετούτη η επαμφοτερίζουσα στάση που διασώζει το noir από την καταγγελία. Ο συγγραφέας μέσω του ήρωά του αποφεύγει τους προβολείς, το κέντρο της σκηνής, εκεί που το τοπίο "καίγεται". Παρατηρεί -μόνιμα παρατηρεί- από την κρυψώνα του και σε στιγμές ανασηκώνει τα στόρια και ρίχνει μια ματιά από τις χαραμάδες στις ανθρώπινες φιγούρες που περνούν από μπροστά του "…πλην χωρίς μίσος για τους ψευδομένους".
Δεν το πράττει όμως ως "δίκης οφθαλμός" που θα αποφανθεί για τα αμαρτήματα των μετεχόντων στην ανθρώπινη κωμωδία που σπαράγματά της (ισόποσα τραγικά/ κωμικά) μεταφέρονται στις σελίδες των κορυφαίων του noir. Αυτή η στάση που συχνά εκλαμβάνεται ως κυνισμός, είναι το ώριμο απόσταγμα της πικρής παραδοχής των ηττημένων της ζωής αυτής, των παριών, των λοξών, όλων εκείνων που σε πείσμα του διαρκούς προτάγματος για επιτυχία αποτυγχάνουν – κάθε φορά και καλύτερα.
Ο Ρος Μακντόναλντ δεν κομπάζει, δεν παραληρεί, δεν κραδαίνει το μαστίγιο του αγκιτάτορα για να κατακρίνει το "Αμερικανικό όνειρο", εστιάζοντας σε όλες εκείνες τις αερολογίες που καθιστούν εύκολο το έργο των απανταχού οκνηρών κριτικών (αν το αρχέγονο κακό είναι η Αμερική, ξεμπέρδεψες σε 2 προτάσεις και ικανοποιημένος επιστρέφεις αλαζονικά στην τακτοποιημένη και σίγουρα προνομιούχα ύπαρξή σου). Το "όνειρο" κι ο εφιάλτης, το γνωρίζει καλά, συναποτελούν την ανθρώπινη συνθήκη. Η κόλαση είναι μεν οι άλλοι αλλά ταυτόχρονα είναι μια εσωτερική κατάσταση, τα όρια του εαυτού, οι συνεχείς διαψεύσεις, οι πικρίες και ο πόνος που συνοδεύει την ύπαρξή μας σε κάθε βήμα.
Η, ευκαιρίας δοθείσης, υπόθεση της "Γαλάζιας φλέβας" είναι συνοπτικά η εξής: Η κλοπή ενός πίνακα από το σπίτι μιας μεγαλοαστικής οικογένειας αποτελεί το έναυσμα της δράσης, οπότε ο ντετέκτιβ Λιου Άρτσερ καλείται να εξιχνιάσει το έγκλημα. Η παρουσία του από μόνη της είναι ο καταλύτης που θα δημιουργήσει αναταράξεις στο καθωσπρέπει περιβάλλον, φέρνοντας στην επιφάνεια θραύσματα του παρελθόντος, χαίνουσες πληγές όπου εξ αποστάσεως χρονικής και τοπικής (ετερο)καθορίζουν τη ζωή των εμπλεκομένων σε ένα ταξίδι πόνου και βίας.
Η «Γαλάζια φλέβα» αποτελεί την επιτομή της κοσμοθεωρίας και -ακόμα σημαντικότερο- της αφηγηματικής τέχνης του Μακντόναλντ, ενσωματώνοντας πινελιές ποίησης στην αστυνομική πλοκή. Η οποία πλοκή, εν προκειμένω, εκτεινόμενη από το παρόν στο παρελθόν είχα την αίσθηση πως παρακολουθούσε τον αφηγηματικό τρόπο του συγγραφέα, αντί να αποτελεί την προτεραιότητά του. Τούτο αποτελεί για μένα τη μέγιστη απόδειξη συγγραφικής δεινότητας σε αυτό που αποκαλούμε genre: η προσχηματική πλοκή αποσύρεται συχνά στο παρασκήνιο και ο προβολέας μας εστιάζεται στον χειρισμό του υλικού, στον μαέστρο που κατευθύνει τη δράση και δίνει τις οδηγίες.
Αν με το πέρας των ετών έχω συχνά αλλάξει πορεία στις αναγνωστικές μου προτιμήσεις, παραμένω εισέτι θαυμαστής του noir. Η σκοτεινή πλευρά του απείρου της αστυνομικής λογοτεχνίας αποτελεί πρώτιστα αισθητική επιλογή και στα χέρια άξιων δημιουργών δεν φοβάται να ανασκαλέψει το χθαμαλό, να φωτίσει το ταπεινό και να δοξάσει το αιώνιο.
https://fotiskblog.home.blog/2020/07/...
November 29, 2021
I lived at the intersection of two worlds. One was the actual world where danger was seldom far from people’s lives, where reality threatened them with its cutting edges. The other was the world where [a captain on the police force] had to operate in a maze of tradition and a grid of rules – a world where nothing officially happened until it was reported through channels.
This is the eighteenth and final entry in Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer series.
Lew’s gotten older –he’s somewhere in his fifties in this final entry.
I walked down the block to the Tea Kettle’s red neon sign and went in under it. It was nearly eight o’clock, which was late for cafeteria patrons, and the place looked rather desolate. There was no line at the serving counter, and only a few scattered elderly patrons at the tables.
I remembered that I hadn’t eaten since morning. I picked up a plate, had it filled with roast beef and vegetables, and carried it to a table from which I could watch the whole place. I seemed to have entered another city, a convalescent city where the wars of love were over and I was merely one of the aging survivors.
I didn’t like the feeling. When Mrs. Brighton came in, she did nothing to relieve it. But when she brought her tray into the dining room, I stood up and asked her to share my table.
“Thank you. I hate eating alone. I spend so much time alone as it is, since my husband died.” She gave me an anxious half-smile as if in apology for mentioning her loss. “Do you live alone?”
“I’m afraid I do. My wife and I were divorced some years ago.”
“That’s too bad.”
“I thought so. But she didn’t.”
It’s the most melancholy novel in the series and I don’t know whether to attribute this to Macdonald’s mental decline or his realization of his own mortality.
The plot revolves around a stolen painting and the scales of intrigue surrounding the case are overpowering. Suspects shift and morph into people who are guilty of entirely different crimes spanning a quarter of a century. It’s very easy to get lost in this maze of who did what to whom and when and why.
My chosen study was other men, hunted men in rented rooms, aging boys clutching at manhood before night fell and they grew suddenly old.
All through this book I was moved by Macdonald’s personal frankness. To me it seems that various characters are Macdonald’s views of himself at various times of his life -just another aging boy growing suddenly very old.
This is one of Macdonald’s most personal and haunting novels.
Now I have to go downstairs and pick up Tom Nolan’s highly regarded biography of the man who wrote under the name Ross Macdonald. I’m going to need to start at the end and read it backwards.
I recommend this final Macdonald highly… but read the first seventeen entries in order of publication first.
March 28, 2024
Το κύκνειο άσμα του McDonald είναι από τα πιο ενδιαφέροντα κλασικά αστυνομικά μυθιστορήματα μυστηρίου, το οποίο θυμίζει σε 1-2 λεπτομέρειες το 'Θαμμένα Μυστικά' της Ρουθ Ρέντελ. Οι ήρωες ψυχογραφούνται σε βάθος και, από τη μέση και μετά, η αγωνία μεγαλώνει.
Η ιστορία ξεκινά κάπως αργά και η υπόθεση φαίνεται περίπλοκη λόγω πολλών χαρακτήρων, ωστόσο από το 2ο μέρος και μετά αποζημιώνει τον αναγνώστη. Απλά, θα ήθελα λίγο περισσότερες εξηγήσεις στη λύση του μυστηρίου, γιατί 1-2 στοιχεία έμεναν στη κρίση του αναγνώστη.
Συνολική Βαθμολογία: 3,8/5 ή 7,6/10.
Βαθμολογία λόγω ανατροπών και εμπνευσμένων στοιχείων μυστηρίου: 4,4/5 ή 8,8/10.
Η ιστορία ξεκινά κάπως αργά και η υπόθεση φαίνεται περίπλοκη λόγω πολλών χαρακτήρων, ωστόσο από το 2ο μέρος και μετά αποζημιώνει τον αναγνώστη. Απλά, θα ήθελα λίγο περισσότερες εξηγήσεις στη λύση του μυστηρίου, γιατί 1-2 στοιχεία έμεναν στη κρίση του αναγνώστη.
Συνολική Βαθμολογία: 3,8/5 ή 7,6/10.
Βαθμολογία λόγω ανατροπών και εμπνευσμένων στοιχείων μυστηρίου: 4,4/5 ή 8,8/10.
January 19, 2021
Στα μάτια μου η noir υπερτερεί των αστυνομικών μυθιστορημάτων για πολλούς λόγους. Πρώτα πρώτα, το ύφος του συγγραφέα της noir λογοτεχνίας είναι συνήθως πολύ κυνικό και ιδιαίτερο. Δημιουργεί με τις ατάκες και την πρόζα μια ατμόσφαιρα που σε ταξιδεύει σε αλλες δεκαετίες προς Αμερική μεριά που προσωπικά με γοητεύει απίστευτα. Δεύτερον, το αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα εστιάζει πάρα πολύ στην πλοκή με αποτέλεσμα ώρες ώρες να καταντάει κουραστικό. Δεκάδες πρόσωπα, δεκάδες λεπτομέρειες δεκάδες ανουσία σκηνικά που μπαίνουν στο βιβλίο μόνο και μόνο για να ικανοποιηθεί μια οχι και τοσο έξυπνη σκέψη του συγγραφέα που πάλι θα δημιουργήσει παρακλάδια στην πλοκή και πάλι κάπου θα με χάσει. Τρίτον, δεν μπορώ να διαβάζω 200 σελίδες για το σκληρό παρελθόν του πρωταγωνιστή, πως αυτός κατάφερε και ξεπέρασε τα προβλήματα του και πόσο σκληρός άντρας είναι.. Δεν με αφορά ο πρωταγωνιστής και τόσο. Προτιμώ ο φακός να εστιάζει στα δευτερεύοντα πρόσωπα που αυτοί με τις αφηγήσεις τους, το παρελθόν τους, τη μνήμη τους, τα ψέματά τους, τις σκοπιμότητες τους θα σε πάνε στο επόμενο βήμα που αν είναι λάθος, ακόμα καλύτερα γιατί το βιβλίο θα πάει απο μόνο του σε άλλο μονοπάτι. Δεν θα σκεφτεί ο συγγραφέας της noir ένα ακόμη ηλίθιο πρόσωπο οπως πχ τον γείτονα που έτυχε πέρασε από δίπλα και παρατήρησε κατι σημαντικό για την εξέλιξη της πλοκής και μετα θα τον καταπιεί το σκοτάδι και δεν το ξαναβλέπουμε ποτέ. Θέλω με λίγα λόγια οι χαρακτήρες να δημιουργούν και να εξελίσσουν την πλοκή και οχι η πλοκή τους χαρακτήρες γιατί με αυτόν τον τρόπο μου φαίνονται όλοι τόσο αδιάφοροι που δεν θα με αγγίξουν και ίσως ξεχάσω και τα ονόματα τους που λεει ο λόγος. Ααα σκέφτηκα και αυτό το έξυπνο, κάτσε να βάλω την πρώην του πρωταγωνιστή να πάρει τηλέφωνο στις 4 το πρωί για να προσθέσω 30 σελίδες και να χώσω μεσα την καινούρια ιδέα μου...
Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο μου άρεσε πάρα πολύ... Χωρίς πολλά πολλά, χωρίς εφετζιλίκια και κουραστικές λεπτομέρειες. Με κράτησε σε αγωνια και με έκανε να νιώθω σημαντικό πρόσωπο της πλοκής μιας και η ιστορία έβλεπα να εκτυλίσσεται μπροστά μου και ήμουν σίγουρος πως θα μπορούσα να βάλω τα στοιχεία και την παρατηρητικότητα μου κάτω και να λύσω και γω το μυστήριο. Το μυστήριο ενος κλεμμένου πίνακα, μιας εξαφάνισης πριν 25 χρόνια που εμπλέκονται 3 οικογένειες και 2-3 ακόμη πρόσωπα. Δηλαδή τα απαραίτητα συστατικά για μια τέλεια ιστορία.
Γίνεται μια τόσο απλή πλοκή όπως αναγράφεται στο οπισθόφυλλο του βιβλίου να φέρει ένα τόσο άρτιο αποτέλεσμα; Οταν γράφει την ιστορία ένας ταλαντούχος συγγραφέας, αδιαμφισβήτητα γίνεται.. Και τι φινάλε πωπω....
5/5
Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο μου άρεσε πάρα πολύ... Χωρίς πολλά πολλά, χωρίς εφετζιλίκια και κουραστικές λεπτομέρειες. Με κράτησε σε αγωνια και με έκανε να νιώθω σημαντικό πρόσωπο της πλοκής μιας και η ιστορία έβλεπα να εκτυλίσσεται μπροστά μου και ήμουν σίγουρος πως θα μπορούσα να βάλω τα στοιχεία και την παρατηρητικότητα μου κάτω και να λύσω και γω το μυστήριο. Το μυστήριο ενος κλεμμένου πίνακα, μιας εξαφάνισης πριν 25 χρόνια που εμπλέκονται 3 οικογένειες και 2-3 ακόμη πρόσωπα. Δηλαδή τα απαραίτητα συστατικά για μια τέλεια ιστορία.
Γίνεται μια τόσο απλή πλοκή όπως αναγράφεται στο οπισθόφυλλο του βιβλίου να φέρει ένα τόσο άρτιο αποτέλεσμα; Οταν γράφει την ιστορία ένας ταλαντούχος συγγραφέας, αδιαμφισβήτητα γίνεται.. Και τι φινάλε πωπω....
5/5
December 29, 2010
Yesterday I got so sick of that stupid Seth Rogen superhero movie trailer that I turned to my ladycakes and said, "I would honestly like to smash that Green Hornet with a Blue Hammer." Inasmuch as I know how unoriginal I am, I was sure that image---the cobalt ballpeen (my high-school nickname, btw)---must be a distant echo of something I absorbed in the long last past. But what was it? Did "The Blue Hammer" refer to:
a) A sad Tom DeLay, former House of Reps Republican recently convicted of campaign-financing shenanigans and now living in limbo until Texas decides where to send him as he trades pinstripes for prison stripes?
b) A Na'vi Mickey Spillane character who roams Pandora delivering justice on a hot platter of ecologically sound lead?
c) A one-hit rapper known for his baggy shiek pants, suddenly asphyxiated and in the throes of rigor after years of yelling "U Can't Touch This" to anyone who still remembered the heady days of 1990?
No! The Blue Hammer, I suddenly remembered, was the final entry in Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series. So I went and downloaded it on my Kindle and read it in an evening. Like most Archer mysteries, the plot involves a missing person and the implications on the family structure. Nobody really springs from the loins of who they thought they did in an Archer book. In this case, there's some fun satire of the painting industry, though nothing as intricate and historically specific as Willeford's killer BURNT ORANGE HERESY. The book is also dialogue-heavy; after reading any number of recent rants by literary writers about how too many people are using too much dialogue in fiction bc of short attention spans, I was mildly asmused. It ain't a new issue, narratological purists.
In the end, I would give the book 3.5 stars---not quite a 4 but still above average. The problem may be that once you read a few Archer novels you learn to predict what the big missing person revelation will be; sure enough, I knew the twist about halfway through (though Macdonald is canny enough to give the twist its own little twist that complicates what might otherwise seem fairly transparent). And mybe this plaot was a might TOO intricate in the number of bodies, kidnappings, and long contemplative walks on the beach it took to unmask a killer.
But ultimately, as the final Archer mystery, "The Blue Hammer" seems to suffer mostly from its time setting. If I'm reading the chronology right, it takes place in 1975 (it was published in 76). At this point Macdonald's California doesn't seem as skeezy as we've come to expect from contemporaneous California mysteries---there's something almost genteel about Macdonald's foray into cults and drugs. I think there were two great periods in the Archer series: roughly 49-52 or so, when Macdonald was creating his own post-Chandler noir, and, say, 66-66, when Archer was dealing with the swinging youthquake (The Zebra-Striped Hearse---awesome title! I only wish he'd written one called Murder A-Go-Go). By the time of the Blue Hammer Archer would be mid-fifties at least, and considering how many generations of illegitimate children and formerly promiscuous women run around the plot, it starts to feel like a homicidal Golden Girls. Indeed, the femme fatale here comes off like a centenarian. "I'd bang you, Archer, but my hip replacement can't take the strain!" Of course, that's age-ism speaking, but the chronology issues call attention to the problems you have when a series runs this long but the character seems frozen at a hardboiled forty.
That said, it's still a fun, quick book. And the revelation of what the title means is boffo, even if it's not directly connected to the plot.
a) A sad Tom DeLay, former House of Reps Republican recently convicted of campaign-financing shenanigans and now living in limbo until Texas decides where to send him as he trades pinstripes for prison stripes?
b) A Na'vi Mickey Spillane character who roams Pandora delivering justice on a hot platter of ecologically sound lead?
c) A one-hit rapper known for his baggy shiek pants, suddenly asphyxiated and in the throes of rigor after years of yelling "U Can't Touch This" to anyone who still remembered the heady days of 1990?
No! The Blue Hammer, I suddenly remembered, was the final entry in Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series. So I went and downloaded it on my Kindle and read it in an evening. Like most Archer mysteries, the plot involves a missing person and the implications on the family structure. Nobody really springs from the loins of who they thought they did in an Archer book. In this case, there's some fun satire of the painting industry, though nothing as intricate and historically specific as Willeford's killer BURNT ORANGE HERESY. The book is also dialogue-heavy; after reading any number of recent rants by literary writers about how too many people are using too much dialogue in fiction bc of short attention spans, I was mildly asmused. It ain't a new issue, narratological purists.
In the end, I would give the book 3.5 stars---not quite a 4 but still above average. The problem may be that once you read a few Archer novels you learn to predict what the big missing person revelation will be; sure enough, I knew the twist about halfway through (though Macdonald is canny enough to give the twist its own little twist that complicates what might otherwise seem fairly transparent). And mybe this plaot was a might TOO intricate in the number of bodies, kidnappings, and long contemplative walks on the beach it took to unmask a killer.
But ultimately, as the final Archer mystery, "The Blue Hammer" seems to suffer mostly from its time setting. If I'm reading the chronology right, it takes place in 1975 (it was published in 76). At this point Macdonald's California doesn't seem as skeezy as we've come to expect from contemporaneous California mysteries---there's something almost genteel about Macdonald's foray into cults and drugs. I think there were two great periods in the Archer series: roughly 49-52 or so, when Macdonald was creating his own post-Chandler noir, and, say, 66-66, when Archer was dealing with the swinging youthquake (The Zebra-Striped Hearse---awesome title! I only wish he'd written one called Murder A-Go-Go). By the time of the Blue Hammer Archer would be mid-fifties at least, and considering how many generations of illegitimate children and formerly promiscuous women run around the plot, it starts to feel like a homicidal Golden Girls. Indeed, the femme fatale here comes off like a centenarian. "I'd bang you, Archer, but my hip replacement can't take the strain!" Of course, that's age-ism speaking, but the chronology issues call attention to the problems you have when a series runs this long but the character seems frozen at a hardboiled forty.
That said, it's still a fun, quick book. And the revelation of what the title means is boffo, even if it's not directly connected to the plot.
August 17, 2024
From 1976
I had been saving the very last Lew Archer, which I had never read before. Well now I have read every book in the series. And I can say what I already knew: you do not have to read them in order. I love that….. This is a typically intricate Ross Macdonald mystery about paintings and an artist’s model and 35 years having gone by. Now that, personally, I am getting near as old as Archer here (he does age, but only going from 40 something to 50 something in twenty years), I see that 35 years going by is not as big of a deal as I thought it was when I was young…… “the Blue Hammer” refers to the pulsing veins in the forehead of someone you love.
I had been saving the very last Lew Archer, which I had never read before. Well now I have read every book in the series. And I can say what I already knew: you do not have to read them in order. I love that….. This is a typically intricate Ross Macdonald mystery about paintings and an artist’s model and 35 years having gone by. Now that, personally, I am getting near as old as Archer here (he does age, but only going from 40 something to 50 something in twenty years), I see that 35 years going by is not as big of a deal as I thought it was when I was young…… “the Blue Hammer” refers to the pulsing veins in the forehead of someone you love.
March 10, 2016
Ένα καλό αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα, αλλα δυστυχώς δεν κατάφερε να με ενθουσιάσει. Το βρήκα κάπως αργό και το τέλος ήταν αναμενόμενο. Βέβαια, νομίζω την κρίση μου την επηρέασε αρκετά το βιβλίο που προηγήθηκε. Έχοντας, λοιπόν, διαβάσει το "όταν σκοτώνουν τα κοτσύφια", ένα βιβλίο που με στιγμάτισε, περίμενα πως αυτό το βιβλίο θα με ικανοποιούσε εξίσου.
October 7, 2024
The Blue Hammer (1976) was the final novel in Ross MacDonald’s long-running Lew Archer series, the first novel of which was published in 1949, some 27 years earlier. Archer is feeling his age in this novel and often refers to himself as an older man, particularly in regard to his dating a 30-year-old reporter. If you have been reading this series, you will of course take note that Archer operates solo and, often without the full backing of his clients. Additionally, whatever he is asked to investigate ends up unearthing family secrets that many wanted to remain hidden for all eternity.
What might be a little different about this one is that what Archer is initially asked to investigate is the theft of a painting from his client’s home, a painting that the client’s daughter Doris’ boyfriend, Fred Johnson, who works at the art museum part-time, has taken a fascination with. Generally, Archer, in this series, is searching for a kidnapped child or a missing child or the like. The painting though is an odd mystery, having been possibly painted by a painter who lived across the street, but vanished, leaving a note, twenty-five years earlier. Archer traces the history of the ownership of the painting and that leads him back and forth between the coastal California town of Santa Teresa (a clear stand-in for Santa Barbara) and a dusty mining town in Arizona. It does seem oddly that many people from one of these towns are connected to people in the other and to the painting and the woman who was the model for the painting.
There is a sadness permeating through this book which begins when Archer meets his clients, Jack and Ruth Biemeyer, a thick-bodied man in shorts and a linen hat and an agile blond woman, playing tennis, but there was “[s]omething about the trapped intensity of their game [which] reminded [Archer] of prisoners in an exercise yard.” Indeed, they, like almost everyone in this novel, are prisoners of the past. For the Biemeyers’ it is Jack’s jealous of Ruth’s 25-years-ago relationship with Chantry. Across the street, Francine Chantry’s home is a living memorial to her missing husband. She is the curator of his memory and is stuck in time.
But the past never leaves us and here it seems to crop up all too readily when the trail of the painting’s ownership is severed by the murder of one of its owners. Archer can’t help but think it has something to do with the past and, with Fred and Doris a few miles ahead of him, heads for Arizona where he unearths a rather complicated family history, all connected back to Santa Teresa, as well as a hippie commune.
Although some of the themes here have been explored before in other Archer books, MacDonald seems here to have mastered what he often set out to do in the other books. It is professionally crafted and it is as if with this final novel MacDonald shows us readers that he his mastered his craft.
What might be a little different about this one is that what Archer is initially asked to investigate is the theft of a painting from his client’s home, a painting that the client’s daughter Doris’ boyfriend, Fred Johnson, who works at the art museum part-time, has taken a fascination with. Generally, Archer, in this series, is searching for a kidnapped child or a missing child or the like. The painting though is an odd mystery, having been possibly painted by a painter who lived across the street, but vanished, leaving a note, twenty-five years earlier. Archer traces the history of the ownership of the painting and that leads him back and forth between the coastal California town of Santa Teresa (a clear stand-in for Santa Barbara) and a dusty mining town in Arizona. It does seem oddly that many people from one of these towns are connected to people in the other and to the painting and the woman who was the model for the painting.
There is a sadness permeating through this book which begins when Archer meets his clients, Jack and Ruth Biemeyer, a thick-bodied man in shorts and a linen hat and an agile blond woman, playing tennis, but there was “[s]omething about the trapped intensity of their game [which] reminded [Archer] of prisoners in an exercise yard.” Indeed, they, like almost everyone in this novel, are prisoners of the past. For the Biemeyers’ it is Jack’s jealous of Ruth’s 25-years-ago relationship with Chantry. Across the street, Francine Chantry’s home is a living memorial to her missing husband. She is the curator of his memory and is stuck in time.
But the past never leaves us and here it seems to crop up all too readily when the trail of the painting’s ownership is severed by the murder of one of its owners. Archer can’t help but think it has something to do with the past and, with Fred and Doris a few miles ahead of him, heads for Arizona where he unearths a rather complicated family history, all connected back to Santa Teresa, as well as a hippie commune.
Although some of the themes here have been explored before in other Archer books, MacDonald seems here to have mastered what he often set out to do in the other books. It is professionally crafted and it is as if with this final novel MacDonald shows us readers that he his mastered his craft.
December 6, 2017
In many ways this last of Ross MacDonald's Archer novels feels like a culmination of all that went before.
Here, MacDonald has refined his normal trick - a case which has echoes back to the past and reveals a covered up crime from decades before - and taken it to the point of tragedy. Tragic is how this story feels by the end, that we’re in the midst of some almost Shakespearean calamity. And even though the plot mechanics are a little obvious and the average mystery loving reader will guess where a lot of it is going, such is the empathy MacDonald manages to create and his understanding of the complex flaws of people, the ending still feels emotionally like a kick in the stomach.
Although not for Archer himself. There's almost a happy ending for him, with a new girlfriend on the horizon. That’s interesting in itself as Archer is the instigator, the one who pulls everything apart. But with so much sadness going around, Archer seems to avoid his share of it. He’s a dour jester who might finally be getting his reward.
(It’s curious how the two lonely hard-boiled detectives of California, Lew Archer and Philip Marlowe, both end their final novels in an embryonic relationship. Although MacDonald makes a much better fist of it than Chandler did).
The book does hamper itself by starting with Archer being hired to find a missing painting before, in that first meeting with the client, taking it immediately upon himself to look for a missing person instead. Much to his client's objections. Any way you try to spin it, that seems an odd way of running a business. But once you've got over MacDonald's clumsiness in crow-barring his detective into this mystery, there's a hell of a lot here to admire.
Here, MacDonald has refined his normal trick - a case which has echoes back to the past and reveals a covered up crime from decades before - and taken it to the point of tragedy. Tragic is how this story feels by the end, that we’re in the midst of some almost Shakespearean calamity. And even though the plot mechanics are a little obvious and the average mystery loving reader will guess where a lot of it is going, such is the empathy MacDonald manages to create and his understanding of the complex flaws of people, the ending still feels emotionally like a kick in the stomach.
Although not for Archer himself. There's almost a happy ending for him, with a new girlfriend on the horizon. That’s interesting in itself as Archer is the instigator, the one who pulls everything apart. But with so much sadness going around, Archer seems to avoid his share of it. He’s a dour jester who might finally be getting his reward.
(It’s curious how the two lonely hard-boiled detectives of California, Lew Archer and Philip Marlowe, both end their final novels in an embryonic relationship. Although MacDonald makes a much better fist of it than Chandler did).
The book does hamper itself by starting with Archer being hired to find a missing painting before, in that first meeting with the client, taking it immediately upon himself to look for a missing person instead. Much to his client's objections. Any way you try to spin it, that seems an odd way of running a business. But once you've got over MacDonald's clumsiness in crow-barring his detective into this mystery, there's a hell of a lot here to admire.
September 28, 2018
This is the 18th and last adventure of LA private-eye Lew Archer. Lew is the “first generation progeny” of Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade and The Continental Op. (Lew’s surname from Spade’s partner Miles Archer.) The series is classic “hard-boiled”, but much more than a cheap imitation of its predecessors - Lew and his cases standing on their own and the series spanning almost thirty years.
The Blue Hammer opens with our hero traveling to the fictional California town of Santa Teresa to hunt down a portrait - which may be missing or stolen, a forgery or the real thing, painted by an artist who may be dead or alive. And that’s just the beginning, for as Lew pursues his case and the picture, everyone is giving him the “bum’s rush” and there is plenty of dirt to sift through. By the time the case is wrapped up - Lew has solved a handful of murders, uncovered a very complicated ancestral tree, resolved an historical conundrum and fallen in love. All of this tying together literally in the last pages of the book. All in day’s work for Lew though.
If you are fan of this genre you will not be disappointed with Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer series. The mysteries themselves are well worth the read and re-read, but what I find just as fascinating is the evolution of the times – our hero solving cases through the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and 1970’s - Each entry a little “time capsule” with Lew adapting to the changing mores, while staying true to his own core code.
The Blue Hammer opens with our hero traveling to the fictional California town of Santa Teresa to hunt down a portrait - which may be missing or stolen, a forgery or the real thing, painted by an artist who may be dead or alive. And that’s just the beginning, for as Lew pursues his case and the picture, everyone is giving him the “bum’s rush” and there is plenty of dirt to sift through. By the time the case is wrapped up - Lew has solved a handful of murders, uncovered a very complicated ancestral tree, resolved an historical conundrum and fallen in love. All of this tying together literally in the last pages of the book. All in day’s work for Lew though.
If you are fan of this genre you will not be disappointed with Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer series. The mysteries themselves are well worth the read and re-read, but what I find just as fascinating is the evolution of the times – our hero solving cases through the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and 1970’s - Each entry a little “time capsule” with Lew adapting to the changing mores, while staying true to his own core code.
May 5, 2018
کتاب فوقالعاده ای بود.
واقعا، سوای وجه خوب و قابل قبول جناییش، قطعه ای ادبی نیز بود.
بسیار بسیار از سبک نوآر داستان که با هر قدم پیش رفتن، خود را درگیر هزارتوهایی غرقاب مانند میبینیم؛ خوشم آمد.
کتاب، کلاسی آموزشی برای فراگیری زبان بدن است.
تقریبا هر فصل، یک غافلگیری جنایی یا درام دارد که خیلی خوانش آن را لذتبخش میکند.
چرایی اسم این کتاب هم، داستان جالبی دارد که تقریبا از چندلر وام گرفته شده و کانلی بصرت کاملا امانت دارانه این سبک از انتخاب اسامی را در کارهای خود بکار برده است.
به تمام اینها، یک ترجمه بسیار خوب هم اضافه کنید.
توصیه صد در صد.
واقعا، سوای وجه خوب و قابل قبول جناییش، قطعه ای ادبی نیز بود.
بسیار بسیار از سبک نوآر داستان که با هر قدم پیش رفتن، خود را درگیر هزارتوهایی غرقاب مانند میبینیم؛ خوشم آمد.
کتاب، کلاسی آموزشی برای فراگیری زبان بدن است.
تقریبا هر فصل، یک غافلگیری جنایی یا درام دارد که خیلی خوانش آن را لذتبخش میکند.
چرایی اسم این کتاب هم، داستان جالبی دارد که تقریبا از چندلر وام گرفته شده و کانلی بصرت کاملا امانت دارانه این سبک از انتخاب اسامی را در کارهای خود بکار برده است.
به تمام اینها، یک ترجمه بسیار خوب هم اضافه کنید.
توصیه صد در صد.
November 5, 2015
The last Lew Archer detective novel by Ross Macdonald is a splendid one. Macdonald's humanistic sleuth is his tough self, but the tender side shows through even more clearly here. The story, like most of Macdonald's work, is about family secrets. This one is innovative and complex, starting with a missing painting and ending up with melancholy and deep regrets. The most melancholy thing for me was the fact that there are no more Archer novels. The entire series is among the best American crime writing, and The Blue Hammer is a fine and fitting conclusion to it.
April 9, 2018
Το τελευταίο βιβλίο του MacDonald είναι ένα καλό αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα για να περάσεις όμορφα. Τελεία. Αν και έχει αρκετούς ήρωες, καταφέρνει να φτιάξει ολοκληρωμένους χαρακτήρες προσιτούς και απρόσιτους, συμπαθείς αλλά και από εκείνους που αν τους συναντούσες τυχαία μπορεί να άλλαζες και πεζοδρόμιο. Όπως στη ζωή.
Ωστόσο, για βιβλίο με τίτλο Γαλάζια φλέβα, θα περίμενα περισσότερο νεύρο.
Ωστόσο, για βιβλίο με τίτλο Γαλάζια φλέβα, θα περίμενα περισσότερο νεύρο.
December 19, 2016
As always, I was enthralled by Macdonald's prose and his Lew Archer series. This one certainly kept up the standard. A great story, plenty of psychological depth, and no shortage of social commentary. MacDonald is such a pleasure to read: always a great story line, but more importantly he draws characters so wonderfully.
This is exactly what hard-boiled should be - gritty, realistic, and characters you either want to meet or you want to kill!
This is exactly what hard-boiled should be - gritty, realistic, and characters you either want to meet or you want to kill!
October 4, 2017
Una muy buena novela detectivesca :)
September 4, 2009
It's been something of a desperate, Archer-like, 48-hour lurch through Macdonald's Archer books for me, and I can't say I enjoyed every bit of it. But when you can cap it off with a book like The Blue Hammer, you're willing to forgive some dull moments.
And there are a few dull moments here. Too much Archer, for one thing. But damned if this isn't the most Macdonaldian plot yet, and that's saying something.
Look, at this point in his life, Macdonald had been living with Alzheimer's for a couple of years, and was just three very short years from an almost total separation from his memory. Writing this book would have been a major achievement for the young Macdonald-- how much more of an achievement it must have been for Macdonald at 61.
But forget about handicapping. This is THE Archer book, ne plus ultra. Along with The Chill, this is the best there is in the series, and stands up to most any mystery/detective novel out there. It isn't the seeming inevitability of the surprise at the end, proof of Macdonald's mastery of the form, and it isn't necessarily the surprise itself, because I don't doubt there are bigger and better surprises out there, but Macdonald's real achievement is the way that that surprise reveals something about the rest of the book, about his characters and about the human condition. There is something of the Oedipal there, but the remarkable thing is that, even though Macdonald came to it through Freud, it owes a great deal more to Sophocles than to Freud.
Macdonald said that he became interested in Freudian psychoanalysis because it made the mythical real, that it gave myth an immediate, palpable impact on the everyday. But, with his writing, he tried to take reality and make it into something mythical, reversing the formula. In his best work, he succeeded.
And there are a few dull moments here. Too much Archer, for one thing. But damned if this isn't the most Macdonaldian plot yet, and that's saying something.
Look, at this point in his life, Macdonald had been living with Alzheimer's for a couple of years, and was just three very short years from an almost total separation from his memory. Writing this book would have been a major achievement for the young Macdonald-- how much more of an achievement it must have been for Macdonald at 61.
But forget about handicapping. This is THE Archer book, ne plus ultra. Along with The Chill, this is the best there is in the series, and stands up to most any mystery/detective novel out there. It isn't the seeming inevitability of the surprise at the end, proof of Macdonald's mastery of the form, and it isn't necessarily the surprise itself, because I don't doubt there are bigger and better surprises out there, but Macdonald's real achievement is the way that that surprise reveals something about the rest of the book, about his characters and about the human condition. There is something of the Oedipal there, but the remarkable thing is that, even though Macdonald came to it through Freud, it owes a great deal more to Sophocles than to Freud.
Macdonald said that he became interested in Freudian psychoanalysis because it made the mythical real, that it gave myth an immediate, palpable impact on the everyday. But, with his writing, he tried to take reality and make it into something mythical, reversing the formula. In his best work, he succeeded.
June 16, 2017
Μια αμερικάνικη αστυνομική ιστορία διαφορετικού στιλ από τα πιο σύγχρονα. Κάτι που μου άρεσε. Ο πρωταγωνιστής ένας ντεντέκτιβ σε μια πόλη που ακόμη και οι ίδιοι του οι εργοδότες τον θεωρούν ανεπιθύμητο και περίεργο. Οι κάτοικοι της πόλης γεμάτοι μυστικά. Και ένας πίνακας κλειδί σε μια υπόθεση όπου εμπλέκονται μυστηριώδεις εξαφανίσεις, κλοπές και φόνοι. Η ιστορία προχωρά, νέα στοιχεία εμφανίζονται στο φως και όλοι κρατούν το στόμα τους κλειστό. Κι όταν αποφασίζουν να μιλήσουν, τα λόγια τους είναι γεμάτα ψέματα και μισές αλήθειες που δυσκολεύουν την κατάσταση. Ένα εκπληκτικό βιβλίο με την αγωνία να υπάρχει σε κάθε σελίδα. Ίσως βέβαια να ήθελα κανα δυο σελίδες μετά στο τέλος.
October 31, 2014
Though published in 1976, this doesn't feel like the type of crime/PI novel of the seventies. It's not remotely hard-boiled, for a start, though it's certainly noirish. If anything, MacDonald's Lew Archer novels are downright soft-boiled, there's always a terrible sadness at their core, and Archer is not immune to that sadness, in fact he seems drawn to it and braced for the inevitable pain he's determined to uncover.
In The Blue Hammer, Archer is asked to recover a stolen painting. Almost at once it becomes apparent that this isn't about an art heist but about deep dark family secrets, and Archer follows the clues and the threads, with a murder or two along the way, until the whole thing finally unravels.
This isn't exactly action-packed. Archer moves like a secular priests from person to person, extracting their confessions and putting the outlines of the larger story together from the details. There's lots of driving from one place to another, walks on beaches, long conversations and short ones. The urgency mounts when someone goes missing, though, and outcome depends on Archer working out who the hell is who.
In The Blue Hammer, Archer is asked to recover a stolen painting. Almost at once it becomes apparent that this isn't about an art heist but about deep dark family secrets, and Archer follows the clues and the threads, with a murder or two along the way, until the whole thing finally unravels.
This isn't exactly action-packed. Archer moves like a secular priests from person to person, extracting their confessions and putting the outlines of the larger story together from the details. There's lots of driving from one place to another, walks on beaches, long conversations and short ones. The urgency mounts when someone goes missing, though, and outcome depends on Archer working out who the hell is who.
August 29, 2019
Φοβερός τύπος ο ιδιωτικός ντετέκτιβ Αρτσερ! Το βιβλίο,δε,χωρίς να έχει εντάσεις στη γραφή, ασκεί μια μυστηριώδη γοητεία....ωραία κάδρα της Αριζόνα στο φόντο κ ήρωες που τους λυπάσαι μα κ σε διασκεδάζουν....η πλοκή της υπόθεσης ενώ φαίνεται απλή,με ιδιαίτερη μαεστρία κλιμακώνεται κ μπλέκεται οδηγώντας σε ένα εντυπωσιακό φινάλε.
Σε μια εποχή που το σκανδιναβικό νουάρ έχει κυριαρχήσει στην αστυνομική λογοτεχνία, αυτό εδώ,ατόφιο αμερικανικό νουάρ είναι εξαιρετικά καλοδεχουμενο για να θυμόμαστε κ τα κλασικά,αξεπέραστα, του είδους που καθηλώνουν χωρίς στάλα στάλα αίμα στις περιγραφές....
Παρεμπιπτόντως έμαθα πως αυτή ήταν η τελευταία ιστορία του Αρτσερ,καθώς ο συγγραφέας νόσησε με Αλτσχάιμερ....
Σε μια εποχή που το σκανδιναβικό νουάρ έχει κυριαρχήσει στην αστυνομική λογοτεχνία, αυτό εδώ,ατόφιο αμερικανικό νουάρ είναι εξαιρετικά καλοδεχουμενο για να θυμόμαστε κ τα κλασικά,αξεπέραστα, του είδους που καθηλώνουν χωρίς στάλα στάλα αίμα στις περιγραφές....
Παρεμπιπτόντως έμαθα πως αυτή ήταν η τελευταία ιστορία του Αρτσερ,καθώς ο συγγραφέας νόσησε με Αλτσχάιμερ....
May 15, 2018
The final Archer novel is better than its reputation. The inconsistencies - usually spoken of as sloppiness or possibly signs the onset of his dementia - are really small potatoes, like Archer saying he hasn't eaten when he has. I'd love for him to have been able to write the proposed next - and final - novel, where the past wrapped up in the mystery is Archer's own. But as it is, this is a nice send-off, with Archer beginning a potentially deep relationship with the journalist Betty Siddon. The mystery in The Blue Hammer is probably the easiest of all the books for the reader to solve before Archer, but the finale is moving enough that I can't claim to be particularly bothered by that.
December 30, 2020
AROUND THE WORLD OF CRIME AND MYSTERY
1976 - I've read over a dozen in this series, how does this one compare?
HOOK - 2 stars: "I drove up to the house on a private road that widened at the summit into a parking apron." Yes, Archer is visiting rich folks (typical opening in this series) who are seemingly concerned over a stolen painting (but of course we know the family is covering something up besides canvas on a wooden frame). If you've read any books in this series, this opening might feel rather bland to you, as it did with me. And much too familiar.
PACE -2: MacDonald can be counted on to keep the pages turning, to ramp up the mystery. And it's pretty good, really if you haven't read "The Chill" or any other novels by this author. Otherwise, it's a kind of a drag. Much too familiar.
CRIME/PLOT - 3: Ostensibly there is a stolen painting. But we learn early it isn't worth very much, and there are a couple of layers of mystery here. One element, a young lady in school taking up with a seriously questionable guy, is an oft-used tool by MacDonald. And of course she goes missing. And of course the painting is stolen again. And of course we are thinking, early in the book, what exactly IS the mystery? And, again, MacDonald uses his favorite tool: who is related to who anyway. This novel did not feel original to me. Have I mentioned that?
CAST - 2: Fred Johnson is 30ish but still in college, he has red hair, is slim, and his nose is too long. Then we are told '...Fred is dead..." (figurative only) on page 27. He's figuratively dead because his nurse/mom might be stealing meds from the hospital to keep her son and husband doped up and at home. It's rather a toss-off for Fred: let's-not-like-this-person, his mom, nor his dad. But neither Archer or the reader has had a chance to decide. Of course, there is the co-ed who takes red pills, and that has nothing to do with anything. Paul Grimes might be gay (nothing to do with the story), but he is soon murdered and Archer conveniently steals a painting from him. Paola is partially Native American (the author uses 'Indian' then later 'spade'!!!) and that might have something to do with bloodlines but good grief, why not just say 'dark complexion' and avoid such comments? Early in the story, at a party, a Mrs. Chantry is wearing a blue evening dress and yea that is a darn good red herring. Ralph Sandman and Larry Fallon attend the same party in black silk jackets and ruffled shirts and appear to be a couple. But everyone was wearing ruffled shirts in the 70s anyway, so why not have them BE a couple. Unless all gay characters have to be dead by the end of the book. There are a lot of people at this party, mentioned here but never again. People that sound interesting, like Colonel Aspinwall (oh, that name, he must be from England, right?) who is "an elderly man with an English accent, and English suit, and a young English wife," but we never hear from him again. And how do we know the wife is English? Okay, I'm being picky, but the writing here is lazy in general. Many of these characters feel like post-it notes from the author's writing room walls.
ATMOSPHERE - 2: Big isolated mansion, rich folks, all here like usual. But when Archer is asked, "Had you ever seen any of his paintings before? They seemed to take you by surprise," and Archer answers, "They did. They do," I wanted to know why the paintings would take Archer, or anyone, by surprise. That's never explained. Is it an odd use of colors, a new take on cubism, a different kind of impressionistic work, post-post-modern, sexually explicit but inhibited, violent but lovely, a new medium, Hockneyish but without all the blue pools? I could write pages myself, come up with something. ANYTHING. Macdonald is oddly lazy here, and it's irritating. If you're going to write a story about paintings, and styles, shouldn't you talk about things like this?
SUMMARY - 2.2. This novel feels like a lot of other novels by this author. And it is the only one, for me, that feels that way. Often, I thought, "I've read this before." And, I'm pretty sure the author was thinking, "Well, "The Chill" is 13-years-old now so I can use the same ending again." In the past, I've thought "The Chill" his best, but "Zebra Striped Hearse", "Ivory Grin" and "Instant Enemy" seem more original now. All in all, this is pretty much a summation of the author's previous works. This isn't a bad detective novel. It's just rather derivative, a "throw the last one out and my contract is over" type novel the author pulled from a basement box.
1976 - I've read over a dozen in this series, how does this one compare?
HOOK - 2 stars: "I drove up to the house on a private road that widened at the summit into a parking apron." Yes, Archer is visiting rich folks (typical opening in this series) who are seemingly concerned over a stolen painting (but of course we know the family is covering something up besides canvas on a wooden frame). If you've read any books in this series, this opening might feel rather bland to you, as it did with me. And much too familiar.
PACE -2: MacDonald can be counted on to keep the pages turning, to ramp up the mystery. And it's pretty good, really if you haven't read "The Chill" or any other novels by this author. Otherwise, it's a kind of a drag. Much too familiar.
CRIME/PLOT - 3: Ostensibly there is a stolen painting. But we learn early it isn't worth very much, and there are a couple of layers of mystery here. One element, a young lady in school taking up with a seriously questionable guy, is an oft-used tool by MacDonald. And of course she goes missing. And of course the painting is stolen again. And of course we are thinking, early in the book, what exactly IS the mystery? And, again, MacDonald uses his favorite tool: who is related to who anyway. This novel did not feel original to me. Have I mentioned that?
CAST - 2: Fred Johnson is 30ish but still in college, he has red hair, is slim, and his nose is too long. Then we are told '...Fred is dead..." (figurative only) on page 27. He's figuratively dead because his nurse/mom might be stealing meds from the hospital to keep her son and husband doped up and at home. It's rather a toss-off for Fred: let's-not-like-this-person, his mom, nor his dad. But neither Archer or the reader has had a chance to decide. Of course, there is the co-ed who takes red pills, and that has nothing to do with anything. Paul Grimes might be gay (nothing to do with the story), but he is soon murdered and Archer conveniently steals a painting from him. Paola is partially Native American (the author uses 'Indian' then later 'spade'!!!) and that might have something to do with bloodlines but good grief, why not just say 'dark complexion' and avoid such comments? Early in the story, at a party, a Mrs. Chantry is wearing a blue evening dress and yea that is a darn good red herring. Ralph Sandman and Larry Fallon attend the same party in black silk jackets and ruffled shirts and appear to be a couple. But everyone was wearing ruffled shirts in the 70s anyway, so why not have them BE a couple. Unless all gay characters have to be dead by the end of the book. There are a lot of people at this party, mentioned here but never again. People that sound interesting, like Colonel Aspinwall (oh, that name, he must be from England, right?) who is "an elderly man with an English accent, and English suit, and a young English wife," but we never hear from him again. And how do we know the wife is English? Okay, I'm being picky, but the writing here is lazy in general. Many of these characters feel like post-it notes from the author's writing room walls.
ATMOSPHERE - 2: Big isolated mansion, rich folks, all here like usual. But when Archer is asked, "Had you ever seen any of his paintings before? They seemed to take you by surprise," and Archer answers, "They did. They do," I wanted to know why the paintings would take Archer, or anyone, by surprise. That's never explained. Is it an odd use of colors, a new take on cubism, a different kind of impressionistic work, post-post-modern, sexually explicit but inhibited, violent but lovely, a new medium, Hockneyish but without all the blue pools? I could write pages myself, come up with something. ANYTHING. Macdonald is oddly lazy here, and it's irritating. If you're going to write a story about paintings, and styles, shouldn't you talk about things like this?
SUMMARY - 2.2. This novel feels like a lot of other novels by this author. And it is the only one, for me, that feels that way. Often, I thought, "I've read this before." And, I'm pretty sure the author was thinking, "Well, "The Chill" is 13-years-old now so I can use the same ending again." In the past, I've thought "The Chill" his best, but "Zebra Striped Hearse", "Ivory Grin" and "Instant Enemy" seem more original now. All in all, this is pretty much a summation of the author's previous works. This isn't a bad detective novel. It's just rather derivative, a "throw the last one out and my contract is over" type novel the author pulled from a basement box.
August 22, 2022
I had read all of MacDonald's novels, pretty much chronologically. This is the first one I DNF. I wasn't interested in the art world plot (just a personal preference) and I didn't feel a connection with any of the characters. I finally gave up about a third of the way in. In general I think I preferred the earlier novels and the slightly more hard-boiled Archer. I'm looking forward to reading "The Archer Files" with most of the stories from the 40's and 50's although I'm sure I read many of them already.
December 7, 2018
The Blue Hammer was the last of Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer novels. It seems as if Macdonald could well have continued the series for several more years, as there was no diminution of his writing ability between The Moving Target (1949) to The Blue Hammer (1976).
In one of the last chapters of this novel, Archer muses, "I felt the weight of the past like an extra atmosphere constricting my breathing." Considering that it begins with tracking down a missing painting, and ends up with several murders, one kidnapping, numerous broken marriages, and several children left adrift in their lives, I can well understand Archer's observation. The events in the books span a period of up to thirty years and includes scenes set in Santa Barbara (Santa Teresa in the Archer novels) and Copper City, Arizona. In fact many interrelated characters started out in Copper City and then moved to Santa Teresa, where there was no lessening in the craziness of their lives.
In the Thrilling Detective website, the following appears:
In one of the last chapters of this novel, Archer muses, "I felt the weight of the past like an extra atmosphere constricting my breathing." Considering that it begins with tracking down a missing painting, and ends up with several murders, one kidnapping, numerous broken marriages, and several children left adrift in their lives, I can well understand Archer's observation. The events in the books span a period of up to thirty years and includes scenes set in Santa Barbara (Santa Teresa in the Archer novels) and Copper City, Arizona. In fact many interrelated characters started out in Copper City and then moved to Santa Teresa, where there was no lessening in the craziness of their lives.
In the Thrilling Detective website, the following appears:
Although the early Archer's [sic] were well-written and tightly plotted, The Galton Case really got down to business. From that point on, it has been noted, Macdonald wrote the same story over and over, endless variations on the same themes of lost and abandoned children, absent parents, family secrets denied. In the hands of a lesser writer, this would amount to hack work, perhaps. But not in Macdonald's hands.To date, I have read seven of Macdonald's Archer novels, and I am nowhere near finished. Thankfully, he left a body of work that is a delight to explore.
November 14, 2017
Although we've come...to the ennnnnd of the road...still I can't let go...It's unnatural, you belong to me, I belong to youuuuuu
Almost 2.5 years after I read Sleeping Beauty, my journey to finish Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series comes to its conclusion. And while the last few books have begun to finally show the wear and tear of a writer and the habits he develops when writing a series, I'll miss it a lot. Lew Archer might be a mostly blank slate but these books are my favorite in PI literature.
Macdonald writes as if he doesn't know its his swan song. He planned to do another book but soon developed dementia. Nevertheless, like a TV show that doesn't know its getting cancelled but points on a good finale anyway, this one is another fine addition to the canon. Probably in the middle of the pack as far as Archer books go (there's a character too many and the plot meanders) but it wouldn't be an Archer if Macdonald didn't stay true to his character's roots of pouring through the dirty deeds of rich folks who suffer from chances not taken. And like much of his late period oeuvre, it sticks the landing in a beautifully tragic way.
I will miss these books.
Almost 2.5 years after I read Sleeping Beauty, my journey to finish Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series comes to its conclusion. And while the last few books have begun to finally show the wear and tear of a writer and the habits he develops when writing a series, I'll miss it a lot. Lew Archer might be a mostly blank slate but these books are my favorite in PI literature.
Macdonald writes as if he doesn't know its his swan song. He planned to do another book but soon developed dementia. Nevertheless, like a TV show that doesn't know its getting cancelled but points on a good finale anyway, this one is another fine addition to the canon. Probably in the middle of the pack as far as Archer books go (there's a character too many and the plot meanders) but it wouldn't be an Archer if Macdonald didn't stay true to his character's roots of pouring through the dirty deeds of rich folks who suffer from chances not taken. And like much of his late period oeuvre, it sticks the landing in a beautifully tragic way.
I will miss these books.
September 6, 2024
The eighteenth and final Lew Archer novel. I'm finished: a project I started back in February to read the Archer novels in order, although it wasn't necessary as the books all stand alone, except for providing some insight into how Macdonald grew as a writer. An excellent and often amazing series, as good as any in the detective genre. Probably even better when not read so close together so that the techniques and repetitions become more apparent. With The Blue Hammer, Macdonald had just turned 60 and there's a lot of meditation on age and mortality as Archer contemplates a serious commitment with a woman. He takes a look at his life as he recognizes the cliché of the hardboiled detective: he's constantly striving to solve everyone else's problems when he can't even fix his own. The book had the Macdonald-familiar usual twisted families and adrift young people, as a stolen painting leads to old secrets and new murders. Ross Macdonald has long been a tripartite mix of the hardboiled Chandler detective (more intelligent than Spillane, less brutal than Hammett), combined with the plot-twisting mystery of Agatha Christie, and the rounded character development of literary fiction. The Blue Hammer is a worthy and appropriate end to the series. [4½★]
March 24, 2020
"The Blue Hammer" is the final book in the Lew Archer detective series I began oh so many years ago. What a fantastic series! I appreciate how Lew aged throughout the series and that the books took place in the time period they were released. It was never just frozen in the 1940's when the first book came out.
TBH dropped the natural disaster motif the last two books had but didn't drop the sense of urgency. Here, Archer was simply tracking down a lost painting. But (as always) it was much more complicated than that. There were more family member twists and turns than an episode of Jerry Springer.
This was also the best handled love story of the series. Archer is a sad, old and lonely man and the reporter that he connects with was a solid fit. I don't think Macdonald realized this was the final book but it serves as a fitting ending all the same.
TBH dropped the natural disaster motif the last two books had but didn't drop the sense of urgency. Here, Archer was simply tracking down a lost painting. But (as always) it was much more complicated than that. There were more family member twists and turns than an episode of Jerry Springer.
This was also the best handled love story of the series. Archer is a sad, old and lonely man and the reporter that he connects with was a solid fit. I don't think Macdonald realized this was the final book but it serves as a fitting ending all the same.
November 20, 2024
Hace un rato actualice que era predecible lo que estaba sucediendo pero QUE ACABO DE LEER??? QUE BUEN FINAL LPM
( el único bajón es la cantidad de personajes así que recomiendo hacerse una lista mientras se avanza en la lectura )
( el único bajón es la cantidad de personajes así que recomiendo hacerse una lista mientras se avanza en la lectura )
February 6, 2017
The blue hammer turns out to be a pulsing vein at the temple of a sleeping woman who is the love interest of private detective Lew Archer, the so called "hard boiled" PI and hero sleuth of this typical genre piece novel that, well, does what I suppose it sets out to do, [mildly] entertain. More like poached or a cheap diner variety eggs benedict if hard boiled represents pinnacle writing. Betty (that hard pushing newspaper reporter love interest blue hammer woman) for instance haranguing Lew towards the climax of events says, "God and Archer," she said bitterly, "they know everything. Don't you and God ever make a mistake?" To which he replies, "God did. He left off Eve's testicles." WTF!? This even in the context of the situation and preceding interaction makes zero sense nor does it achieve some sardonic sexual putdown plausibly fit for a laugh. The tough guy noir parlance never gets off the ground, the characters are all gravity-booted as well, the evil is staid and cartoonish, there is no compelling reason to care a wit for comeuppance; in short this fairly stinks compared to Hammett or Chandler. More like the blue yammer.
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