The Far Side of the Dollar

Lew Archer #12

by Ross Macdonald

Has Tom Hillman run away from his exclusive reform school, or has he been kidnapped? Are his wealthy parents protecting him or their own guilty secrets? And why does every clue lead Lew Archer to an abandoned Hollywood hotel, where starlets and sailors once rubbed shoulders with grifters--and where the present clientele includes a brand-new corpse.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Noir, Detective, Hard Boiled, Mystery Thriller

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Ross 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.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this admirable example of the Lew Archie series, a wealthy high school boy's search for his personal history precipitates crimes in the present as it dredges up the sins of the past.

This book is filled with the hunger for fathers and fathering, and its tragedy is a consequence of fatherly failures, for which mothers--and sons and daughters as well--must suffer.

This book has too many flaws to be considered in the category of first-class Archer, that handful of novels which includes perhaps six of the best mystery novels written by anybody anywhere. The plot itself, for once, is not very interesting or complicated, and Archer relies too heavily on his philosophical maxims and characteristic imagery to fill in the gaps in the action. The three grown up female characters are particularly irritating: two middle-aged wives who whine about their fates, and an old flame of Lew's who drops enough middle-brow literary allusions to set your teeth on edge.

But there is one wonderful female character: Stella, a young school girl in love with Tom, the confused young man on a quest. Her conversation with Archer in a tree house is one of Macdonald's most moving scenes. His reverence for the purity and honesty of youth and the awesome responsibility adults have for their future, never far beneath the surface in the Archer novels, reaches a special sweetness and intensity here.

[Still · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've reached a point in the series where the source of most missing persons cases Archer is hired to investigate is mired somewhere back in the missing person's childhood or issues with parents real or imagined.

This one unwinds slowly and MacDonald is cleverly deceitful to the reader leading you down one alley when-ooops- you're suddenly dragged into an unexpected dog-leg. I certainly had no idea where MacDonald was going with this.

Archer is hired by Dr. Sponti, the headmaster of Laguna Perdida -an exclusive pseudo-private school/detention center for troubled youth. One of his recent acquisitions, a Tom Hillman, got into a punching match with Mr. Patch, supervisor of the East Hall dormitories. Patch is a bit of a martinet and a pugilist who enjoys practicing up on racalcitrant "students".

After punching out young Tom Hillman for attempting to organize the teenage delinquents into pitching a riot over physical punishments being handed out, young Hillman escapes later on that same night. His trail can only lead south over the surrounding mountains to San Diego or back towards L. A.

Despite being requested not to do so, Archer leaves the "school" and pays a visit to the home of the parents of the missing teenager. Hillman refuses to be square with Archer, refusing to reveal little of the events that precipitated young Tom's incarceration-by-parent into Laguna Perdida

The past was very strong here, like an odor you couldn't quite place. It seemed to be built into the very shape of the house, with its heavy dark beams and thick walls and deep windows; it would almost force the owner of the house to feel like a feudal lord. But the role of hidalgo hung loosely on Hillman, like something borrowed for a costume party. He and his wife must have rattled around in the great house, even when the boy was there.

Archer will learn only that Tom had stolen the next-door neighbor's car, stayed out all night long, and then wrecked the car in a roll-over, the Hillmans and their neighbors both seem to feel the wreck was intentional. The next-door neighbors, once something approaching close-friends are no longer speaking to the Hillmans. The neighbors have a daughter Tom's age, Stella.
Stella proves to be Tom's only champion.


So the book continues to meander in a talky, soap-opera manner. It turns out that Tom is an accomplished piano player and without his parents' knowledge, he'd been slipping out on Sunday nights and playing with a Jazz combo in a rundown nightclub on the "bad" side of town... Oceanview. One of the members of the combo reveals that Tom's lately been seen with an older babe, an older lady on the glamorous but seedy side. The wise, former-junkie tried to give Tom a little fatherly advice but the kid refuses to discuss this new flame he's been seen with.

And then the anxious parents recieve a phone call. Tom's been kidnapped and the kidnappers want $25,000 ransom.

It's around about page 75 where the going gets hardboiled and the similes begin flying. Archer is sleuthing around a motor court and in one of the cabins discovers the body of the aforementioned blonde, beaten to death. Not a pretty site. Archer hears a car roll up outside the shabby little room the woman is lying in. Archer tries to get a jump on what turns out to be the woman's husband and gets his head stove in during a pistol-whipping.

This is the part where the novel really takes off. By page 87, Archer is back in L. A. searching for leads. Someone back at the sheriff's office in Oceanview (the doctor performing the autopsy>) suggests the dead woman had been strikingly atrractive before she set off on the hard side of life.
Archer has copies of photographs of the woman's battered face taken by the coroner post-mortem he intends to show around Hollywood.

I went from the station to the news room of the Hollywood Reporter. Most of the people at work there resented being shown such pictures. The ones who gave them an honest examination failed to indentify [her].

I tried a number of flesh peddlers along the Strip, with the same lack of success and the same effect. The photographs made me unpopular. These guys and dolls pursuing the rapid buck hated to be reminded of what was waiting on the far side of the last dollar. The violence of the woman's death only made it worse. It could happen to anybody, any time.

The book rolls on in unexpected ways. A beautiful woman from Archer's past makes an appearance. I learned for the first time that although Archer's office is on the Strip, his actual home is somewhere in West L. A. This is my favorite part of the novel, Archer reminiscing on the Hollywood of the just post-War years, parts of his past coming back to him along with an old, aching throb of a lost love making her presence known in the present as he searches for leads on the dead woman. His former love invites him home to have a few drinks and discuss how she came to know the dead woman.

Home was an apartment on Beverly Glen Boulevard. It had a mezzanine and a patio and African masks on the walls. She invited me to make us both a drink, and we sat and talked about Carol and then about Tom Hillman. She seemed to be very interested in Tom Hillman.

I was becoming interested in Sussana. Something about her dark intensity bit into me as deep as memory. Sitting close beside her, looking into her face, I began to ask myself whether, in my present physical and financial and moral condition, I could take on a woman with all those African masks.

I'm tired of writing this review. This is one of my favorite Lew Archer entries. More is revealed about Lew Archer's private life than has been revealed in any of the other entries except for one earlier in the series. It's a hell of a story even if it bogs down in psycho-babble on occasion. It's the most Hitchcockian of all of the previous Archer entries.

"...How can you possibly know so much about the details of other people's lives?"
"Other people's lives are my business."
"And your passion?"
"And my passion. And my obsession, too, I guess. I've never been able to see much in the world besides the people in it."

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

"How can you possibly know so much about the details of other people's lives?"
"Other people's lives are my business."
"And your passion?"
"And my passion. And my obsession, too, I guess. I've never been able to see much in the world besides the people in it."

This exchange seems to take on a particular resonance once you reach the end of the story.

~ and it seems to be among the strongest of the Lew Archer stories. It's the seventh of them that I've read and, at the moment, it's my favorite after 'The Instant Enemy'. The two novels have much in common, esp. in terms of how they are constructed. A lot of similar care was taken in the way relationships interconnect.

But there is one main difference. Whereas 'TIE' always seems to be just one short step away from total confusion, 'TFSOTD' is - how can I say this? - clearer in its obfuscation. By that I mean, naturally a crime thriller cannot show its real hand until the last few pages. But, as it goes on its 'merry' way, 'TFSOTD' progressively defines the pieces of its puzzle; necessary light continuously seeps in and illuminates from different angles.

With this particular entry - #12 in the Archer series - it appears that Macdonald was keeping himself sensitive to his audience, much like one might in a comfortable marriage; the kind of union that one wants to keep fresh in order to keep it interesting.

I assume Macdonald must have known that, with each new cast of characters, the overall game would have to include specially tailored elements of surprise. Personal quirks would have to be different; the kinds of alliances / loyalties would have to take different forms in order to thwart expectations. Since almost every new character becomes a suspect, there would have to be new ways to either earn or circumvent that position.

Macdonald is juggling a whole lot of characters here (it feels like more than usual). It impressed me that he could shoe in a considerable number of peripheral / potential cohorts, only to give many of them the air once their temporary purpose was served. Getting to the root became that much more... ticklish.

The repartee on parade here feels uniquely potent - with Archer calling people on their bullshit almost with wild abandon. I was smiling to myself throughout the many times Archer seemed to be thinking, 'I don't have time for this sideshow crap!' - as though he would want to put his fingers in his ears and give off with a hearty "La-la-la-la-la!" to proclaim his restlessness or frustration.

Where this caper ultmately leads may or may not feel contrived - but, as it tied up, I couldn't help but notice how efficiently tied-up in knots I'd already been.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Far Side of the Dollar (1962) contains a number of the hallmarks of MacDonald’s Lew Archer private eye novels from the kidnapping of a child of a rich couple to the dark family secrets that he has to pry out of his clients to his travels across the state to ferret out witnesses and the fact that his clients are not always that interested in retaining him. Therefore, readers might certainly be excused if they feel as if they have been over a lot of these grounds before with MacDonald. There is, though, a skill that he has in his writing which makes it all seem fresh and new and not simply another recycled plot even though astute readers may put together some of the story earlier on than Archer.

Interestingly, we do get to know a little bit about Archer’s past here in the form of a Hollywood personality, Susanna Drew, he dated ten years earlier and is still interested in, that is, before he finds that she is strangely connected to this case.

The story opens with Archer hired by the operator of an exclusive school for troubled and wayward teens, one so exclusive it feels like a prison to the teens. It seems one of their inmates has absconded over the fence. Upon arriving, Archer notes that “Dr. Sponti reminded me of undertakers I had known. Even his office, with its dark mahogany furniture and the gray light at the window, had a funereal look, as if the school and its director were in continuous mourning for its students.” Thomas Hillman is missing and Ralph Hillman, the father, blames the school for the escape, though Archer has an awful time getting accurate information on why Tom was even at the school in the first place except it maybe had something to do with joyriding the neighbor’s car, the neighbors who had not taken kindly to Tom romancing their teenage daughter.

Although the Hillmans are reluctant to hire Archer, he manages to convince them to be his clients, at least for a short while. Ralph Hillman was a large, impressive-looking man with a patrician bony structure “that doesn’t necessarily imply brains or ability, or even decency, but generally goes with money.” Archer also observes as he approaches the El Rancho neighborhood where the Hillmans lived that, “It was one of those rich developments whose inhabitants couldn’t possibly have troubles.” “But like the drizzle, troubles fall in or out of season on everybody.” Elaine Hillman was a beautifully made thin blonde woman in her forties, but “An aura of desolation hung around her, a sense of uselessness, as if she was in fact the faded doll she resembled. Her green dress went poorly with her almost greenish pallor.” Archer is almost always a keen observer of people and MacDonald conveys those observations quickly and forcefully. Of Elaine he writes, “His wife’s face hung like a dead moon over her drink.”

MacDonald sets this one, as per usual, in sunny Southern California with some landmarks obscured a bit by name changes and others such as Santa Monica and the Palisades set out quite clearly. But in Archer’s world, it is not sunny and clear and bright: “We stood on the flagstone steps and watched him drive away into darkness under the trees. In the hole in the dark west a little light persisted, like the last light there was ever going to be.”

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I simply love the way this man writes. Granted, he's glib, and pop, but he's very good at what he does. He nails people:

She smiled, and I caught a glimpse of her life’s meaning. She cared for other people. Nobody cared for her.

He catches those fleeting but profound emotions:

She climbed down the ladder and flitted away through the trees, one of those youngsters who make you feel like apologizing for the world.

He can sum up a personality in one line:

Daly had the habit of serviceability. “Okay. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

He can observe society from a cynical distance:

The crowd of onlookers ... had ... dwindled. There were still a few waiting for something more interesting than their lives to happen.

As a detective story, it checks off all the obligatory boxes. Not for everybody, I guess. But I like it.

[Tony Vacation · Rating 4 out of 5]

The son of a wealthy yachtsman who may or may not have been kidnapped, the masochistic gunman who's the most likely suspect, a dead woman in a cheap motel, another hotel gone from glitz to seed with a house dick who still guards the premise like a vengeful spirit, a Hollywood agent who’d rather forget a lot of the men and women she once knew, a reform school where unwanted children learn that adults are the worst bullies of all, and hundreds of tasty similes to tie the whole mystery together—all in a day’s work for Lew Archer, the roving moral consciousness who navigates each of Ross Macdonald’s superior private eye mysteries.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems that nearly every Ross Macdonald novel involves old family secrets rearing their ugly heads. But then Mozart pretty much used only 7 different notes per octave, so it's the execution that matters, not the tools. And this story of private investigator Lew Archer trying to unravel the apparent kidnapping of a teenaged boy is, as is almost always the case with Macdonald, finely executed.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

In "The Far Side of the Dollar" Mr. Macdonald has created yet another well-written tale of hope, despair, love and self-interest. Doesn't sound much like a hard-boiled detective story, does it? And that is a large part of the genius of Ross Macdonald; the intricate blending of psychology, emotion and ethics (on the part of Lew Archer, mostly) into a difficult mystery that only a Marlowe, Spade or Archer will have the perseverance to solve.

Like many others I have touched on the use of character motivation and insight in the author's books and stories. It is never far away from the plot in any of his works, even the early ones. While most, if not all, of the people he creates are troubled souls, we look forward to learning about their demons because of the excellence of the writing and the story they are in. It seems all to easy and obvious in the finished product, but I'm sure that this isn't something that was easy for him or any author to pull off.

Before talking about this specific novel, I realized that those who have not read any of these books might not understand the creativeness of the author. In as-written-order, I have just read three mid-sixties Lew Archer novels. "The Chill" is one of his best novels (from the standpoint of plot twist) and leads Archer from a missing newly-married bride into a series of connected murders spanning many years and states. "The Far Side Of The Dollar" begins with a young boy escaping from a prison-like private reform school and leads into murder (naturally), extortion, and very tangled family connections. And the book I am now in the middle of, "Black Money" revolves around uncovering the truth about a mysterious and wealthy foreigner who has perturbed the lives of many in a tony community and private club.

Rather than write slightly different versions of the same story, Mr. Macdonald creates anew the locations, the plots, and even how Archer interacts with his clients and suspects. I think that given the genre, he does this better and with more skill than almost all of those to whom he is compared. Of course there are similarities between novels; after all Archer is the key unifying element in each one - we expect that he thinks and acts in a predictable pattern. But even so, we get glimpses of his inner thoughts and history that add to our image of the man in each novel. Whether is is past feelings for a woman, or another of his various contacts, we learn a bit more in each book.

In the this book, there is a young protagonist who has become seemingly out of control. Placed in a private reform school he escapes and thus requires "finding". Archer is hired to do this, but as the plot develops the boy has been taken, possibly murdered. The parents, the neighbors, the local musicians and town folk all have their opinions and ideas. But none of them can imagine the truth of the situation. As Archer digs, he starts to peel back the layers of falsehoods and accommodations that these people have made over the years. Ultimately, he uncovers a set of nasty little facts that explain the entire sordid mess.

Will the boy, Tommy, survive? Only his classmate and neighbor Stella seems to be an unqualified friend. She defies her own parents to help Archer uncover the truth about Tommy and save him. Does she get rewarded? You'll have to read the book to find out for yourself. I strongly recommend it. And if that's not enough inducement, here is a brief excerpt taken more-or-less at random:

"The suitcase was an old scuffed cowhide one with Rob Brown's initials on it. I pulled it out into the middle of the floor and opened it. Suddenly I was back in Dack's Auto Court opening Carol's other suitcase. The same sour odor of regret rose from the contents of this one and seemed to permeate the room."

It's worth every bit of a "4.0" and possibly a "4.5"!

[Justin Vaccaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great Lew Archer mystery. This was my sixth Archer novel and the sixth great novel I've read by Ross Macdonald. It had the basic Archer story pieces, post-war California coastal towns, apocalyptically dysfunctional families, and hidden/false identities. But it also had something different. Maybe I was just more sensitive to it in this instance, but Archer had a lot more emotional investment in the characters and action in this one. And of course all his emotions are run through with melancholy. A sad, fatalistic weight hung over the proceedings, always appropriate for a hardboiled narrative, but old Lew was caught up in the swirl of loss and failure as much as any of the other characters.
While one can jump in and read the Archer novels out of order, I think I would recommend reading this one after you already have a few under your belt. Archer's typical stance is a little removed and to the side; at times he almost effaces himself. What made FAR SIDE OF THE DOLLAR work so well for me was seeing him be drawn in so emotionally. And if you're not used to him keeping his relative distance that might not land as hard.
Regardless of when you read it, a fantastic book.

[Filip · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wonder if the big American cities of the 1940s and 1950s were really like that. If everyone knew everyone because that's sure the impression I'm getting from Ross Macdonald stories. But that's not something I dislike, just an observation.

So onto the proper review.

Did I mention how I missed reading good noirs? This one was really, really good. It starts a bit slow and meandering, but quickly finds its way. It's got everything: a story of how the crooks became how they were, a study of (multiple) unhappy marriages, VERY well-written and defined characters, a tangled mystery with multiple layers and a couple of reveals and a very, very tense finish. Saying anything more would be spoiling. It was a bit surprising and un-noirlike that the police here was so honest, decent and competent but while the book might have been slightly less cynical than Chandler's works, it is only slightly and it still works very well as a gripping story.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fantastic! I took one star off because a couple of the twists were easy to guess (or maybe I just read too many of these books) however the writing was amazing! This book may have some of the most beautiful writing in all of Macdonald's books. His views on family, love, psychiatry, and identity feel as contemporary now as I'm sure they did in the 60's when this book came out. The book also explores Archer's prior love life and the tragic quality of it will be familiar to anyone who has ever had their heart broken (a.k.a. all of us).

As I previously stated, the largest twist is easy enough to spot but there were a number that I couldn't see coming so it will definitely keep you guessing. With some books, you want to live inside of them. With Macdonald's books, I feel like they live inside of me. Powerful stuff.

Quotable Quotes:

"When I was seventeen I spent a summer working on a dude ranch in the foothills of the Sierra. Toward the end of August, when the air was beginning to sharpen, I found a girl, and before the summer was over we met in the woods. Everything since had been slightly anticlimactic."

"These guys and dolls pursuing the rapid buck hated to be reminded of what was waiting on the far side of the last dollar."

"I liked her face, in spite of the brokenness in and around the eyes. There was humor in it, and suffering half transformed into understanding."

"'You don't have to instruct me in what I ought to do. I get my instructions from a higher power. He gives me my instructions direct in my heart.' He thumped his chest with a gnarled fist.
'That must be convenient.'"

"She raised her eyes to the arching sky as if she imagined a literal heaven like a second story above it. Just now it was easier for me to imagine a literal hell, just over the horizon, where the sunset fires were burning."

"Generation after generation had to start from scratch and learn the world over again. It changed so rapidly that children couldn't learn from their parents or parents from their children. The generations were like alien tribes islanded in time."

"I've never been able to see much in the world besides the people in it."

"Their beginnings and ends had become clear enough. The middle still puzzled me, as well as the ultimate end that lay ahead in the darkness."

"People are trying so hard to live through their children. And the children keep trying so hard to live up to their parents, or live them down. Everybody's living through or for or against somebody else. It doesn't make too much sense, and it isn't working too well."

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book comes between The Chill, which is frequently ranked as Macdonald's best work, and Black Money, which is also a highly lauded. Though this book is less frequently mentioned, I would probably place it slightly above those works, and possibly in the top three of the Lew Archer series. It's certainly the best exemplar of the "classic" later period Archer novels. Since they stand as probably the best detective novels ever written, that's saying quite a lot.

After about The Doomsters, all Archer novels follow a basic pattern: Archer is called in on behalf of a wealthy Southern California family to investigate some present disappearance or mishap; his investigation draws him deeper into a tangled web of hidden relationships and suppressed misdeeds that wreak havoc across generations.

You might think the flaw in these books is that repetition. For the most part, it's not: Macdonald manages to make that set-up uniquely compelling nearly every time. What sometimes seems a little far fetched is these books is sheer number of hidden relationships and misdeeds, and the ability of these families to sustain the deception seemingly indefinitely, or at least until Archer shows up to blow the lid of everybody's secrets. However, in this volume the "original sin" behind the mystery is deceptively simple, very plausible, and quite relatable, resulting in a powerful tale of human folly and tragedy.

[Carla Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

From 1964
I thought this was one of Macdonald's lesse mysteries. I think there was one other I gave 4 stars to (as opposed to the usual 5). I had never read this one before. It came out right after The Zebra Striped Hearse and The Chill. I think those two represent his height (along with The Galton Case, which is a couple books before). ...... There is a lot here about their daughter , and the relationship between adults and teenagers. This is about five years after Linda Millar's car accidents (which killed a boy) and six years before her death (well before both parents).

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ross MacDonald at his best. The rest of us can rant about the danger of religious fanaticism, but R M simply creates a fearsome character whose demented beliefs set so much of the story in motion and cause such human suffering. And this character takes up but one page.
As usual, MacDonald suffused his character's outlook with much sympathy regarding everyone caught up in this mess, including his nemeses.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Closer to 3.5/3.75. These novels start to all resemble each other if you read enough of them close together, even though they're all good. Maybe I would've been a little more wowed had I not just before read Meet Me At The Morgue, which almost feels like a dry run for this novel but by Macdonald's narrator as a probation officer rather than Lew Archer.

[Will Errickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best detective/private eye novels I’ve ever read. A perfect example of the form. Shocking ending. Highly recommended!

[Kamakana · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com

280115: full title: Far Side of the Dollar, or The Private Investigator as Psychotherapist and Family Counselor...

220606: six years later reread just had to up the rating. my first review is accurate if glib, but this brings back nostalgia for me as those six years ago I read a lot of noir/crime authors and this is one of the best remembered. the sense of 'return of...' buried past, secrets, twisty plotting, concise, mostly dialog so easy to read, characters all nailed in minimal words, all led by sardonic, very human, very empathetic Lew Archer... have to reread some other ross macdonald again to see how they work now...

[DP Lyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another masterpiece from a master.

Great story well written. This is why every crime writer should read his works. Each is a lesion well worth learning.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

How does Lew wind up in these messes? An excellent, horrifying example of the family nightmares that Archer straightens out, or at least follows through. Less convoluted than later ones; not quite as chilling as the previous one; great characters, including the horrible ones and the minor ones. Great cover, too.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of the Lew Archer mysteries by Ross Macdonald are very good, and all but two or three are excellent.

As always with Lew Archer, it is well plotted, tight, and plausible. There is little violence, at least in the twenty-first century sense. The earlier novels contain descriptions of people who have been beaten, and yes, people get shot. But there is never gore or sensationalism.

But beyond the mystery story aspects, no other mystery novelist that I am aware of has so many insightful observations, compelling similes, and such deep observations on the human condition. These characteristics developed with time and some are not so strong in the earliest novels.

This story is from 1966, in Macdonald's prime period. His main theme, the sins of the parents decades ago will haunt the youth of today, is in full bloom.

The story begins when Archer is called to a private boarding school ("Laguna Perdida" - ya gotta love it) for troubled youth to chase down an escaped seventeen year old boy, Tom Hillman. The head of the school is worried that the boy's father will sue them if they don't find the boy quickly. Archer soon meets the father, a handsome gray haired man named Ralph Hillman. He tells a shocking story, that he has just received a phone call demanding money for Tom's return. Apparently Tom has been kidnapped.

Archer switches to mostly helping Ralph and his wife Elaine. But they are oddly reticent about telling Archer much about Tom. Why exactly did they place him in Laguna Perdida? Apparently he stole a neighbor's car. Or is there more to it?

Soon Archer learns that Tom had been frequenting a jazz club, where he often met with an attractive no-longer-young woman named Carol, and her husband. It would seem that these two kidnapped Tom -- or is he actually part of the plot? Soon one of these people is murdered.

We meet quite a few people as Archer travels from Tom's home to the school to some hotels to local businesses to some parents living in Idaho. There are many characters, all, as usual for Ross Macdonald, introduced with sensitivity and insight into the human condition. Some of the more interesting ones are barely mentioned again and not developed, which is a bit disappointing. Still, I suppose this is inevitable in a book of less than 500 pages. And as always with a Lew Archer novel, the wonderful writing keeps you involved.

One thing I didn't like was a coincidence that an old flame of Archer's turns out to be involved. I did not think this was realistic.

Typical of the later works in the saga, there are no gangsters.

Recurring themes: private school; two brothers, one mild-mannered, the other mercurial; the navy; a doctor. And of course, the actions of the long-ago past haunting the youth of today.

The last fifteen pages or so start to drag. Also, by that point there really are not many reasonable suspects.

Extremely good, but not one of my three or four favorites. Definitely recommended.

Dr. Sponti, head of Laguna Perdida school.
Mr. Patch, supervisor and enforcer at Laguna Perdida.
Mrs. Mallow, housemother at Laguna Perdida.

Ralph Hillman, former navy captain, wealthy father of
Tom Hillman, who has escaped from Laguna Perdida.
Elaine Hillman, mother of Tom and also wealthy.

Mrs. (Rhea) Carlson, neighbor of the Hillmans and mother of
Stella Carlson, girl friend of Tom.

Sam Jackman, musician and friend of Tom.

Dick Leandro, acolyte follower and pseudo-son of Ralph Hillman.
Mrs. Perez, housekeeper for the Hillmans.

Lieutenant Bastian, local policeman.
Susanna Drew, old flame of Archer who knows lots of people.

Mike Harley, old shipmate of Ralph Hillman, grew up in Idaho.
Harold Harley, photographer and brother of Mike.
Carol Harley, wife of Mike, nee Brown.

Otto Sipe, old former policeman from Idaho, now watches the closed Barcelona Hotel.
Ben Daly, runs a gas station near the Barcelona Hotel.

Robert Brown, teacher and guidance counselor from Idaho, father of Carol Harley.
Mrs. Brown, his wife.

Mr. Harley, old stern father of Mike and Harold.
Mrs. Harley, his wife.

Dr. Weintraub, another old shipmate of Ralph Hillman, helped him out seventeen years earlier.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 2 out of 5]

"People are trying so hard to live through their children. And the children keep trying so hard to live up to their parents, or live them down. Everybody's living through or for or against somebody else. It doesn't make too much sense, and it isn't working too well."

Having completed the "Nicolas Freeling project" (re-reading and reviewing all his 41 books) a few months ago, I am now working on Ross Macdonald (Kenneth Millar in private life), a "Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America" and, to me, an author much more important than Raymond Chandler. I read all Macdonald's books between 1960s and 1990s, and The Far Side of The Dollar, published in 1964, is the sixth re-read in my project. Well, it could be one of the better books by Ross Macdonald if not for the awkwardly labored ending.

Lew Archer arrives at a school for "delinquent and disturbed" minors to help the principal find an escapee, seventeen-year-old Tom Hillman, who sneaked out over the fence in the middle of the night. Tom's rich parents put him in the school trying to "straighten the boy up" after he had taken a neighbor's car and totaled it. Eventually, the plot gets immensely complicated, involving many characters and spanning the years from 1944 to the early 1960s, yet a synopsis is hardly needed. This is a quintessential Macdonald plot, where sins of fathers and mothers cast deep shadows on the lives of their children, shadows that hurt and kill. Family secrets and lies, ugly and painful, are uncovered to wreak havoc with people's lives.

There are many things that I like about the novel. The quote shown in the epigraph offers a sharp diagnosis of a human tendency that causes many a ruined lives. The romantic thread, between Lew Archer and Susanna Drew, is touching, realistic, and well written and - as a bonus - the reader gets a rare glimpse into Archer's past. The Hotel Barcelona motif and Archer's trip to Pocatello, Idaho, are the highlights of the novel. And while the secrets from the past begin to get revealed rather early, the mystery of "what happened on Sunday morning" remains almost until the end of the novel.

Until the last twenty or so pages this reads as an at least three-star book, but then the author offers an overlong, theatrical, artificial ending, which ruins the novel for me.

Two and a half stars.

[James Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dysfunctional family, money at stake, detective Formula that ticked all the boxes except maybe the box for originality. I’ll read more from the author, but I wouldn’t go so far as some to say he’s up there with Hammet or Chandler in terms of style. Closer to Mickey Spillane or Chase in that regard, excellent plot with some sweet twists toward the finale. Good old-fashioned formulaic fun. Enjoyed it.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the very best of Ross Macdonald's novels, which makes it one of the very best of the best detective novels ever penned.

[Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not Ross Macdonald's best but still very good. Nice to read a mystery peopled with believable characters and not just a romp of serial killers.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

review of
Ross MacDonald's The Far Side of the Dollar
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - November 28-29, 2018

MacDonald was recommended to me by a Goodreads reader & I'm glad that I've started reading him. The 1st bk by him I read was The Chill ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). I've commented on the obvious that he seems to continue the lineage of Hammett & Chandler somewhat & that he's good at it. Maybe it just seems a little bit less original so it's harder for me to get excited. Maybe I'm too jaded. Anyway, I cd easily read everything by him & enjoy it. Maybe I will. MacDonald's detective, Lew Archer, is hired to find a troubled missing boy:

""I'll be frank with you, Mr. Archer," he said, and hesitated. "This is rather a prickly situation for the school. I accepted Tom Hillman against my better judgement, actually without full knowledge of his history, simply because his father insisted upon it. And now Ralph Hillman blames us for his son's esca— that is, his surreptitious leavetaking. Hillman has threatened to sue if any harm comes to the boy. The suit wouldn't stand up in court—we've had such lawsuits before—but it could do us a great deal of public harm."" - p 5

I like the touch of the schoolmaster stopping himself in the midst of saying "escape" in favor of using a euphemism. That's realistic & indicates that there're already cover-up obstacles to be surmounted.

"The grass looked disipirited even in the rain.

"So did the line of boys who were marching in the front door as I came up. Boys of all ages from twelve to twenty, boys of all shapes and sizes, with only one thing in common: they marched like members of a defeated army. They reminded me of very young soldiers we captured on the Rhine in the last stages of the last war." - p 8

Oh, the language, the language. "The grass looked disipirited even in the rain." What a great line. A cynic distinguishes himself:

""Are you the new supervisor?"

""No. I thought Mr. Patch was the supervisor."

""He won't last." A few of the younger boys giggled. The hairy one responded like a successful comedian. "This is the violent ward. They never last."

""It doesn't look so violent to me. Where is Mr. Patch?"

""Over at dining commons. He'll be here in a minute. Then we have organized fun."

""You sound pretty cynical for your age. How old are you?"

""Ninety-nine." His audience murmured encouragingly. "Mr. Patch is only forty-nine. It makes it hard for him to be my father-image."

""Maybe I could talk to Mrs. Mallow."

""She's in her room drinking her lunch. Mrs Mallow always drinks her lunch." The bright malice in his eyes alternated with a darker feeling. "Are you a father?"" - p 8

Of course, the plot thickens (b/c blood is thicker than water?):

""I'm very sorry, Mr. Hillman," she intoned. "Dr. Sponti is in conference. I can't possibly interrupt him."

""I think you'd better," Hillman said in a rough voice.

""I'm sorry. You'll have to wait."

""But I can't wait. My son is in the hands of criminals. They're trying to extort money from me."

""Is that true?" Her voice was unprofessional and sharp." - p 18

Wwwweeeelllllll, we're not exactly surprised that there's money involved, are we? Archer visits the missing boy's bedroom at his home in the company of his parents:

""I was just wondering if he hung around the harbor much."

""No. He didn't."

""Was he interested in birds?"

""I don't think so."

""Who chose the pictures?"

""I did, " Elaine Hillman said from the hallway. "I decorated the room for Tom. He liekd it, didn't he, Ralph?"

"Hillman muttered something." - p 30

MacDonald's a 'genius for understatement'. As w/ the detective, the reader has to see thru superficial appearances & claims. The missing boy's bedroom has been decorated by his mother & the decorations don't reflect his actual interests. Does that feel claustrophobic to you? The missing boy had a girlfriend, her life's claustrophobic too. She talks:

""Where is he, Mister—?"

""I don't know, Stella. My name is Lew Archer. I'm a private detective working on Tommy's side. And you were going to tell me the truth about the accident."

""Yes. It was my fault. Mother and Dad seem to think they have to cover up for me, but it only makes things worse for Tommy. I was the one responsible, really." Her direct upward look, her earnest cander, reminded me of a child saying her prayers.

""Were you driving the car?"

""No. I don't mean I was with him. But I told him he could take it and I got the key for him out of Mother's room. It's really my car, too—I mean to use."" - p 41

When I was a teenager I put my friends on the spot by asking them if they wd break a friend out of jail if they were arrested. I'll bet Stella wd've produced a YES w/ sensible qualifiers. Stella hits Archer on the head w/ a gun she always carried, surprising everyone:

"Next thing I was a V.I.P. traveling with a police guard in the back of a chauffered car. The turban I could feel on my head suggested to the joggled brain under it that I was a rajah or a maharajah. We turned into a driveway under a red light, which excited me. Perhaps I was being taken to see one of my various concubines." - p 75

Nah, I was jest joshin', STELLA wdn't do nuthin' like that — but you knew that didn't you?! I mean, you aren't that bad of a judge of character, are you?! WTF, after a while, it's more fun to construct my own narrative from these fragments. You shd just read the damned bk.

"I told the driver to let me off at the telephone company.

""You said the courthouse."

""The telephone company. We've had a change of plan."

""You should have said so in the first place."

""Forgive my failure of leadership."

"I was feeling bitter and bright. It had to do with the weather, which had turned sunny, but more to do with my decision to spend my own time on a boy I'd never seen. I didn't tip the driver." - p 82

He saved his change for the coin slots in the auto-concubines in the secret telephone booth changing room. Then he was accused of male fraud:

"I closed the venetian blind, to foil snipers, and turned on the desk lamp and went through the day's mail. It consisted of three bills, and a proposition from the Motel Institute of St. Louis. The Institute offered me, in effect, a job at twenty-thousand a year managing a million-dollar convention motel. All I had to do was fill out a registration form for the Institute's mail-order course in motel management and send it to the Institute's registrar. If I had a wife, we could register as a couple." - p 97

Does it make you feel all warm & fuzzy inside to know that con artists have had a long unbroken history of trying to get money out of naive people? No? Me either. Archer gets around & meets quite a few folks. One of them is a rather, ahem, severe Christian farmer:

""Go in the house, Martha. This man is a cohort of the Devil. I won't allow you to talk to him."

""Don't hurt him. Please."

""Go in the house," he repeated.

"She went, with her gray head down and her feet dragging.

""As for you, cohort," he said, "you get off my farm or I'll call down the punishment on you."" - p 135

You see, this farmer was raising 3 daughters & he was afraid of his wife's libertine effect on them. He was very concerned about their well being and always did his best to guard their virginities. As they entered their late teens the girls dated, and on the evening that Lew Archer arrived to question the farmer all three of the girls were waiting to go out.

The doorbell rang and the farmer mistook the detective for one of the dates. The protective father answered the door and the detective said, "Hi, my name's Lew, & I'm here to scr-" & the farmer tried to shoot him. But Archer, being a cohort of the devil, was too fast for him & managed to screw all 3 daughters while delivering a sermon to the father who he'd convinced to go kneel in a corner w/ his eyes closed & to pray.

Everyone was happy, except for the mother, who wasn't getting any, & we resumed w/ the bk review:

"She moved her eyelashes up and down a few times, to indicate shocked surprise. Her eyelashes were long and thick and phony, and they waved clumsily in the air like tarantula legs." - p 188

There was a traveling salesman who was tired & needed a place to stay. He stopped & asked a farmer if he cd sleep in his barn. The farmer sd, "Sure, but don't stick yr willy in the 3 holes." Well, men will be men & the farmer was awoken by a horrible scream. He rushed into the barn & saw the salesman w/ his dickie stuck in the 3rd hole. "What's in these holes?" the salesman cried. "Well, the 1st one's my daughter, the 2nd one's my cow, & the 3rd one's a nest of radioactive tarantulas." Do you see what I mean about bitter eloquence?:

""There never is a time or place," she said. "If there's time, you change the clocks—this is known as crossing the International Ralph Line—and suddenly it's six o'clock in the morning, in Tokyo. If there's a place, you find an escape hatch. I see your wriggling legs and then you're off and away, into the wild Ralph yonder. You never faced up to anything in your life."

"He winced under her bitter broken eolquence." - p 236

Face it, it's always 6 o'clock.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of twists at the end!

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Macdonald once again explores the dark underbelly of 1960s suburbia. You could say that Macdonald wrote the same story s number of times, but he is so god at characters that the reader doesn't really notice.

[Bjorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

***1/2

[Bob Peru · Rating 4 out of 5]

yet another twisted tale from a true master.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad I came back to MacDonald. Lew Archer is good stuff for when you need more Philip Marlowe but you haven’t any more Marlowe.