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Lew Archer #15
The Goodbye Look
In The Goodbye Look , Lew Archer is hired to investigate a burglary at the mission-style mansion of Irene and Larry Chalmers. The prime suspect, their son Nick, has a talent for disappearing, and the Chalmerses are a family with money and memories to burn. As Archer zeros in on Nick, he discovers a troubled blonde, a stash of wartime letters, a mysterious hobo. Then a stiff turns up in a car on an empty beach. And Nick turns up with a Colt .45. In The Goodbye Look , Ross Macdonald delves into the world of the rich and the troubled and reveals that the past has a deadly way of catching up to the present.
If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, it is Ross Macdonald. Between the late 1940s and his death in 1983, he gave the American crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity that his pre-decessors had only hinted at. And in the character of Lew Archer, Macdonald redefined the private eye as a roving conscience who walks the treacherous frontier between criminal guilt and human sin.
If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, it is Ross Macdonald. Between the late 1940s and his death in 1983, he gave the American crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity that his pre-decessors had only hinted at. And in the character of Lew Archer, Macdonald redefined the private eye as a roving conscience who walks the treacherous frontier between criminal guilt and human sin.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
54 people are currently reading
989 people want to read
About the author
Ross Macdonald
158 books809 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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 163 reviews
November 29, 2025
“The Archer novels are about various kinds of brokenness. I wanted to write as well as I possibly could to deal with life-and-death problems in contemporary society. And the form of Wilkie Collins and Graham Greene, of Hammett and Chandler, seemed to offer me all the rope I would ever need.”
Returning to this book after many years, the reader can clearly see Macdonald has become a novelist simply using the genre as a means to an end. He wrote about broken people in need of mending, and perhaps mercy. But as he once wrote:
“I have a secret passion for mercy…but justice is what keeps happening to people.”
That is certainly true of The Goodbye Look, a novel released a year before the tragic death of his daughter, whose troubled life is well documented. Young people were often troubled or in trouble in a Lew Archer novel, and that’s the case here. But it is the more mature adults who before all is said and done, appear to have lived their entire lives in interconnected lies and half-truths, with a kidnapping, and at least three murders connecting several families.
If it sounds complicated for a detective novel, it is. About a third of the way through, Macdonald has Archer sit down and write some case notes to help him get a bead on how what he knows ties together. It doesn’t help Archer, and it doesn’t help the reader. And then it becomes even more a labyrinth of old crimes somehow connected to a tiny Florentine box which has been stolen. The theft is simply a trigger, but unfortunately the trigger brings about more death, as Archer weaves his way through pain and regret to get at the truth. Archer has compassion for Betty, and the very damaged young man she loves, Nick, but in order to get to the bottom of the trouble, he’ll have to look at a crime which took place in 1945. What happened then may be the key to everything.
The case begins when lawyer John Truttwell hires Archer, in behalf of the Chalmers, to find a Florentine box which has been stolen. Archer learns that Truttwell is hiring him in behalf of Irene Chalmers only, but the reasons are as yet unclear. So is the reason why the letters inside the box are so important. Later in the case, Archer will get hold of them, and discover the reason. Perhaps this passage as Archer meets the very lovely Irene Chalmers for the first time, says it best:
“Her tone was both assertive and lacking in self-assurance. It was the tone of a handsome woman who had married money and social standing and never could forget that she might just as easily lose these things.”
But if the reader believes he understands things up to this early point in the mystery, they’d be wrong, because nothing is quite as it seems; not Larry and Irene Chalmers’ emotionally troubled and mentally unstable son, Nick; not an old kidnapping; not the murder of an old man decades before; not a missing fortune; not a doctor and his wife, with whom Archer will have an affair; not even the history of the people involved in the case, because it’s all a lie more complicated and far reaching than the reader, or Archer, can get a handle on. Some might wonder why Archer is even bothering, because few of these people are truly likable.
But then Archer meets John Truttwell’s young daughter, who loves the deeply troubled Nick. Already hurting because she’s been thrown over for an older woman, she might be the only innocent person here, and Archer likes her. Though Archer has compassion, and desires, as is proven by his affair with Moira, the wife of the doctor treating Nick, it is obvious that once Archer meets young Betty, his involvement in the case is assured. More murders, more secrets, and a bullet in the shoulder await Archer, and the story hasn’t yet come near to reaching a conclusion. The last third of the book makes the frustration of not understanding what’s going on any more than Archer does worth the literary ride.
This is a terrific novel, but Macdonald isn’t for every taste. He had his own literate approach to the form, using it as a platform to write about broken people, shattered dreams, and familial betrayal. Archer is at the center, yet Macdonald writes him almost as an observer, trying to help without letting the ugliness change him. Archer often feels a quiet, unspoken compassion for someone in the case, trying to facilitate some kind of emotional peace for them. The catalyst for Archer's interest is often a young person, as is the case here. It was a mirror to Kenneth Millar himself. A fixture in Santa Barbara in the ’70s, singer Warren Zevon made no distinctions between the fictional Archer and the flesh and blood Macdonald. He credited Macdonald for saving his life when he had a physical and emotional breakdown, and dedicated an album to him. To quote Zevon about his neighbor:
“At the lowest point in my life, the doorbell rang. And there, quite literally, was Lew Archer, on a compassionate mission, come to save my life.”
This certainly coincides with something Macdonald himself wrote about the craft:
“We writers, as we work our way deeper into our craft, learn to drop more and more personal clues. Like burglars who secretly wish to be caught, we leave our fingerprints on broken locks, our voiceprints in bugged rooms, our footprints in the wet concrete.”
Yes, the clues to the man are all here, left by the writer of the stories. Macdonald was very much the detective in his stories, if we are to believe Zevon and others.
Macdonald’s early work when he was closer in style to Chandler is very entertaining, but it’s his later work that is his best, once he’d moved away from Chandler and Hammett. Macdonald's approach isn’t better than their approach, it is simply different. A marvelous, literate read in a genre too often substituting gore and violence and unpleasantness, for understanding and story. Macdonald isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but for those who like the human equation in their detective fiction, he’s unbeatable. This one, The Chill, The Drowning Pool, The Underground Man, and Sleeping Beauty are some of the best in the genre.
On a technical note, I read this on Kindle downloaded from Amazon Australia this time, and I was truly disappointed in Penguin. At the back, there is a whole section about the quality of the modern classics series of which Macdonald’s books are a part. And yet, the text was unjustified, leaving a ragged, annoying right-hand margin. Shame on Penguin…
Returning to this book after many years, the reader can clearly see Macdonald has become a novelist simply using the genre as a means to an end. He wrote about broken people in need of mending, and perhaps mercy. But as he once wrote:
“I have a secret passion for mercy…but justice is what keeps happening to people.”
That is certainly true of The Goodbye Look, a novel released a year before the tragic death of his daughter, whose troubled life is well documented. Young people were often troubled or in trouble in a Lew Archer novel, and that’s the case here. But it is the more mature adults who before all is said and done, appear to have lived their entire lives in interconnected lies and half-truths, with a kidnapping, and at least three murders connecting several families.
If it sounds complicated for a detective novel, it is. About a third of the way through, Macdonald has Archer sit down and write some case notes to help him get a bead on how what he knows ties together. It doesn’t help Archer, and it doesn’t help the reader. And then it becomes even more a labyrinth of old crimes somehow connected to a tiny Florentine box which has been stolen. The theft is simply a trigger, but unfortunately the trigger brings about more death, as Archer weaves his way through pain and regret to get at the truth. Archer has compassion for Betty, and the very damaged young man she loves, Nick, but in order to get to the bottom of the trouble, he’ll have to look at a crime which took place in 1945. What happened then may be the key to everything.
The case begins when lawyer John Truttwell hires Archer, in behalf of the Chalmers, to find a Florentine box which has been stolen. Archer learns that Truttwell is hiring him in behalf of Irene Chalmers only, but the reasons are as yet unclear. So is the reason why the letters inside the box are so important. Later in the case, Archer will get hold of them, and discover the reason. Perhaps this passage as Archer meets the very lovely Irene Chalmers for the first time, says it best:
“Her tone was both assertive and lacking in self-assurance. It was the tone of a handsome woman who had married money and social standing and never could forget that she might just as easily lose these things.”
But if the reader believes he understands things up to this early point in the mystery, they’d be wrong, because nothing is quite as it seems; not Larry and Irene Chalmers’ emotionally troubled and mentally unstable son, Nick; not an old kidnapping; not the murder of an old man decades before; not a missing fortune; not a doctor and his wife, with whom Archer will have an affair; not even the history of the people involved in the case, because it’s all a lie more complicated and far reaching than the reader, or Archer, can get a handle on. Some might wonder why Archer is even bothering, because few of these people are truly likable.
But then Archer meets John Truttwell’s young daughter, who loves the deeply troubled Nick. Already hurting because she’s been thrown over for an older woman, she might be the only innocent person here, and Archer likes her. Though Archer has compassion, and desires, as is proven by his affair with Moira, the wife of the doctor treating Nick, it is obvious that once Archer meets young Betty, his involvement in the case is assured. More murders, more secrets, and a bullet in the shoulder await Archer, and the story hasn’t yet come near to reaching a conclusion. The last third of the book makes the frustration of not understanding what’s going on any more than Archer does worth the literary ride.
This is a terrific novel, but Macdonald isn’t for every taste. He had his own literate approach to the form, using it as a platform to write about broken people, shattered dreams, and familial betrayal. Archer is at the center, yet Macdonald writes him almost as an observer, trying to help without letting the ugliness change him. Archer often feels a quiet, unspoken compassion for someone in the case, trying to facilitate some kind of emotional peace for them. The catalyst for Archer's interest is often a young person, as is the case here. It was a mirror to Kenneth Millar himself. A fixture in Santa Barbara in the ’70s, singer Warren Zevon made no distinctions between the fictional Archer and the flesh and blood Macdonald. He credited Macdonald for saving his life when he had a physical and emotional breakdown, and dedicated an album to him. To quote Zevon about his neighbor:
“At the lowest point in my life, the doorbell rang. And there, quite literally, was Lew Archer, on a compassionate mission, come to save my life.”
This certainly coincides with something Macdonald himself wrote about the craft:
“We writers, as we work our way deeper into our craft, learn to drop more and more personal clues. Like burglars who secretly wish to be caught, we leave our fingerprints on broken locks, our voiceprints in bugged rooms, our footprints in the wet concrete.”
Yes, the clues to the man are all here, left by the writer of the stories. Macdonald was very much the detective in his stories, if we are to believe Zevon and others.
Macdonald’s early work when he was closer in style to Chandler is very entertaining, but it’s his later work that is his best, once he’d moved away from Chandler and Hammett. Macdonald's approach isn’t better than their approach, it is simply different. A marvelous, literate read in a genre too often substituting gore and violence and unpleasantness, for understanding and story. Macdonald isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but for those who like the human equation in their detective fiction, he’s unbeatable. This one, The Chill, The Drowning Pool, The Underground Man, and Sleeping Beauty are some of the best in the genre.
On a technical note, I read this on Kindle downloaded from Amazon Australia this time, and I was truly disappointed in Penguin. At the back, there is a whole section about the quality of the modern classics series of which Macdonald’s books are a part. And yet, the text was unjustified, leaving a ragged, annoying right-hand margin. Shame on Penguin…
July 5, 2020
The classic Ross MacDonald plot: a revolver used in a recent murder is found to be connected to a fifteen-year old homicide, and suspicions swirl around a young person so emotionally scarred by the past that he is convinced he must be guilty of something. (As one of the characters says, "My whole time here, it's been like living in a haunted house." In the Ross McDonald world, she could be speaking about all of us, every single human life.)
Once again the sins of the fathers are visited upon the sons, and detective Lew Archer is there not only to unravel the intricate tangle of facts that binds the characters together but also to serve as a laconic Greek chorus for the modern tragedy that his unraveling will inevitably reveal.
This time the cast of characters is a little too large and the skein of facts a little too tangled, but the resolution is both surprising and plausible, the conclusion both haunting and satisfying.
March 24, 2021
3.5 stars
"Life is its own reward. I like to move into people's lives and then move out again. Living with one set of people in one place used to bore me." -- Lew Archer, private investigator
"That isn't your real motivation. I know your type. You have a secret passion for justice. Why don't you just admit it?" -- Moira Smitheram, unhappily married psychiatric nurse
"I have a secret passion for mercy . . . but justice is what keeps happening to people." -- Archer
Author Macdonald's The Goodbye Look - the fifteenth in the series, and published twenty years after the 1949 debut novel featuring 'La-La Land' P.I. Lew Archer - is supposedly the book that finally brought the scribe some long-awaited mainstream success. I find that sort of curious - this seemed like a good but typical Archer story, and others in the series (like The Moving Target and The Chill) had better or more interesting plots. However, it's probably that the talented Macdonald made it all look easy, and even a second-tier effort like this is still a joy to read. This time around Archer heads to a ritzy beach town between Los Angeles and San Diego and quickly gets deluged in an increasingly complicated mystery - involving murder, embezzlement, family secrets, duplicitous spouses, a fatal hit-and-run, mental illness, and just some generally unhappy people - that has just a few too many characters to be a tightly plotted home run. (I frankly found it a little difficult to remember all the familial connections and/or aliases in the latter half.) Still, some interesting things happen - Archer is wounded in the line of duty, and also has an extramarital affair that's handled in an understated manner - that showed the series was maturing and able to adapt to America's changing landscape.
"Life is its own reward. I like to move into people's lives and then move out again. Living with one set of people in one place used to bore me." -- Lew Archer, private investigator
"That isn't your real motivation. I know your type. You have a secret passion for justice. Why don't you just admit it?" -- Moira Smitheram, unhappily married psychiatric nurse
"I have a secret passion for mercy . . . but justice is what keeps happening to people." -- Archer
Author Macdonald's The Goodbye Look - the fifteenth in the series, and published twenty years after the 1949 debut novel featuring 'La-La Land' P.I. Lew Archer - is supposedly the book that finally brought the scribe some long-awaited mainstream success. I find that sort of curious - this seemed like a good but typical Archer story, and others in the series (like The Moving Target and The Chill) had better or more interesting plots. However, it's probably that the talented Macdonald made it all look easy, and even a second-tier effort like this is still a joy to read. This time around Archer heads to a ritzy beach town between Los Angeles and San Diego and quickly gets deluged in an increasingly complicated mystery - involving murder, embezzlement, family secrets, duplicitous spouses, a fatal hit-and-run, mental illness, and just some generally unhappy people - that has just a few too many characters to be a tightly plotted home run. (I frankly found it a little difficult to remember all the familial connections and/or aliases in the latter half.) Still, some interesting things happen - Archer is wounded in the line of duty, and also has an extramarital affair that's handled in an understated manner - that showed the series was maturing and able to adapt to America's changing landscape.
August 22, 2024
The incomparable Lew Archer is trying to untangle the case involving the members of four families until he finds out what he was not supposed to find out. But Lew is not the kind of person one can easily ged rid of. He never stops and never gives up, that's why he gets beaten up regularly (in all the Lew Archer novels I have read so far). This novel, however, is an exception. He gets shot instead. This does not prevent him from continuing with his investigation.
'They had a funny look on both their faces. As if they really wanted to kill each other and be killed.
I knew that goodbye look. I had seen it in the war, and too many times since the war.'
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'I have a secret passion for mercy. But justice is what keeps happening to people.'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'We merged our lonelinesses once again, in something less than love but sweeter than self. I didn’t get home to West Los Angeles after all.'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'What did the old man want?’ ‘Your husband’s money, just like everyone else.’ ‘But not you, eh?’ Her voice was sardonic. ‘Not me,’ I said. ‘Money costs too much.'
'They had a funny look on both their faces. As if they really wanted to kill each other and be killed.
I knew that goodbye look. I had seen it in the war, and too many times since the war.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'I have a secret passion for mercy. But justice is what keeps happening to people.'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'We merged our lonelinesses once again, in something less than love but sweeter than self. I didn’t get home to West Los Angeles after all.'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'What did the old man want?’ ‘Your husband’s money, just like everyone else.’ ‘But not you, eh?’ Her voice was sardonic. ‘Not me,’ I said. ‘Money costs too much.'
July 20, 2024
A classic noir set up of tangled relations, dark pasts and a complicated web of intrigue, with Lew Archer in the middle of the storm trying to figure out who is lying (clue: everyone). Enjoyable entry in the genre and series.
September 28, 2021
Doesn’t get much better than this.
Nobody in this Lew Archer entry is innocent.
Almost every major character is selfish & deceitful.
Still the surprise revelations come at the reader with such a velocity that it practically explodes in your face. Repeatedly.
I guess Ross Macdonald is now my favorite author in the private eye genre.
Of course Hammett rules.
Nobody in this Lew Archer entry is innocent.
Almost every major character is selfish & deceitful.
Still the surprise revelations come at the reader with such a velocity that it practically explodes in your face. Repeatedly.
I guess Ross Macdonald is now my favorite author in the private eye genre.
Of course Hammett rules.
March 21, 2022
Μυστήριο, δράση και ίντριγκες, καλά κρυμμένα μυστικά και ανατροπές συνθέτουν Το βλέμμα του αποχαιρετισμού και η πρώτη μου επαφή με τη γραφή του Ross Macdonald αρκετά ευχάριστη!
Στο τέλος θα ήθελα να μάθω κάτι παραπάνω για την τύχη κάποιων ατόμων που κατά τη διάρκεια της ιστορίας κέρδισαν τη συμπάθεια μου!
Στο τέλος θα ήθελα να μάθω κάτι παραπάνω για την τύχη κάποιων ατόμων που κατά τη διάρκεια της ιστορίας κέρδισαν τη συμπάθεια μου!
August 19, 2009
Picture Chandler built with much rougher gin, and not one drop of a vermouth -- not even a vapor.
And no ice.
Picture a room temperature glass of middling gin when what you're after's a martini, and that's sort of what reading this book was like for me.
I don't know, if I could give it an extra half-star I would. MAN, I hate the star system! It just makes me NUTS! To be fair, I'll disclose, I did tear through this book all in a day. I spent an hour with it last night in the heat on my fire escape, which invested The Goodbye Look with a certain romance I found lacking from the book itself. I just didn't experience that cool smoothness or style I feel makes this genre slide down so nicely at its best; I did like MacDonald's descriptions of the Southern California landscape, and I almost gave it an extra star for having a character who's A PSYCHIATRIC SOCIAL WORKER, and for its surprisingly (and relatively) decent portrayal of mental illness and mental health treatment -- very notable for this genre.
Aw, hell, maybe I'll give it three stars. I did enjoy it, I just found the characters, including the detective, so flat and bland, and mostly interchangeable. I didn't want to slap, sleep with, or kill anyone in this novel, which I feel is a failing in this type of story. I felt like he was very consciously being all Moody and Very Psychological, which was fine, and I got it, but not in my bones. Also, it was so plot-driven -- which was why I read it so fast -- but the plot was simultaneously predictable and confusing, confusing because there were so many characters and not quite enough to distinguish them, so I kept having to stop and remind myself which name went with who.
OH! I just remembered the most annoying thing about this book, which is that while Lew Archer's going around talking to people to try to find out secret information to solve the crime, that thing KEEPS happening where he'll be all, "Do you know a woman named Susan Chambers?" and the person will be like, "Oh yes me and Sue go way b -- er, I mean, NO! Susan who? I have no idea what you're talking about!!! None! Who is that person??" This seriously happened in this book like seven or eight times, that he'd ask someone something, and then instead of just flinching or looking suspicious or whatever, which is fine, they would ACTUALLY START ANSWERING HIS QUESTION, and then suddenly realize they were inadvertently revealing one of their deepest, darkest secrets and would clam up and deny whatever it was that they'd just given away. THIS IS NOT A REAL PHENOMENON FROM ACTUAL LIFE, and it is NOT A FAIR WAY for the detective to collect information. TWO STARS FOR YOU, Ross MacDonald!
Okay, so I'm a tough grader, but I do think this guy's got potential and I'm not going to give up on him just yet. I have another MacDonald coming at me from the library, so I'll hold off for now and hopefully I'll like that one better.
And no ice.
Picture a room temperature glass of middling gin when what you're after's a martini, and that's sort of what reading this book was like for me.
I don't know, if I could give it an extra half-star I would. MAN, I hate the star system! It just makes me NUTS! To be fair, I'll disclose, I did tear through this book all in a day. I spent an hour with it last night in the heat on my fire escape, which invested The Goodbye Look with a certain romance I found lacking from the book itself. I just didn't experience that cool smoothness or style I feel makes this genre slide down so nicely at its best; I did like MacDonald's descriptions of the Southern California landscape, and I almost gave it an extra star for having a character who's A PSYCHIATRIC SOCIAL WORKER, and for its surprisingly (and relatively) decent portrayal of mental illness and mental health treatment -- very notable for this genre.
Aw, hell, maybe I'll give it three stars. I did enjoy it, I just found the characters, including the detective, so flat and bland, and mostly interchangeable. I didn't want to slap, sleep with, or kill anyone in this novel, which I feel is a failing in this type of story. I felt like he was very consciously being all Moody and Very Psychological, which was fine, and I got it, but not in my bones. Also, it was so plot-driven -- which was why I read it so fast -- but the plot was simultaneously predictable and confusing, confusing because there were so many characters and not quite enough to distinguish them, so I kept having to stop and remind myself which name went with who.
OH! I just remembered the most annoying thing about this book, which is that while Lew Archer's going around talking to people to try to find out secret information to solve the crime, that thing KEEPS happening where he'll be all, "Do you know a woman named Susan Chambers?" and the person will be like, "Oh yes me and Sue go way b -- er, I mean, NO! Susan who? I have no idea what you're talking about!!! None! Who is that person??" This seriously happened in this book like seven or eight times, that he'd ask someone something, and then instead of just flinching or looking suspicious or whatever, which is fine, they would ACTUALLY START ANSWERING HIS QUESTION, and then suddenly realize they were inadvertently revealing one of their deepest, darkest secrets and would clam up and deny whatever it was that they'd just given away. THIS IS NOT A REAL PHENOMENON FROM ACTUAL LIFE, and it is NOT A FAIR WAY for the detective to collect information. TWO STARS FOR YOU, Ross MacDonald!
Okay, so I'm a tough grader, but I do think this guy's got potential and I'm not going to give up on him just yet. I have another MacDonald coming at me from the library, so I'll hold off for now and hopefully I'll like that one better.
June 8, 2023
07/2012
I didn't love this as much as I love the other Ross Macdonald books I've read, which is utterly and completely. I found this harder to follow, but it could well have been me. The writing was still perfect.
I didn't love this as much as I love the other Ross Macdonald books I've read, which is utterly and completely. I found this harder to follow, but it could well have been me. The writing was still perfect.
May 20, 2018
Μετά από ακριβώς δυο χρόνια, ξαναδιαβάζω επιτέλους βιβλίο του Ρος Μακντόναλντ. Τα αδιάβαστα βιβλία του που έχω στη βιβλιοθήκη μου λιγοστεύουν επικίνδυνα και επειδή δεν θέλω να ξεμείνω τόσο γρήγορα, αναγκάζομαι να διαβάζω κάποιο βιβλίο του μια στο τόσο. Κάποια στιγμή θα μου τελειώσουν, βέβαια, αλλά ελπίζω μέχρι τότε να μεταφραστούν και άλλα βιβλία του, ειδάλλως θα τον δοκιμάσω και στο πρωτότυπο.
Τέλος πάντων, η αναμονή δυο χρόνων άξιζε τον κόπο. Μιλάμε για ένα πραγματικά πολύ καλό αστυνομικό νουάρ, στο γνωστό επίπεδο ποιότητας που μας έχει συνηθίσει ο συγγραφέας. Η όλη ιστορία ξεκινάει απλά, με τον Λιου Άρτσερ να καλείται από έναν δικηγόρο, που εκπροσωπεί μια πλούσια οικογένεια, να αναζητήσει ένα χρυσαφένιο κουτί γεμάτο γράμματα, που κάποιοι άγνωστοι έκλεψαν από το χρηματοκιβώτιο του σπιτιού της οικογένειας. Όμως, κατά την έρευνα, ο Άρτσερ θα βρεθεί μπροστά σε πολλά, μα πάρα πολλά οικογενειακά μυστικά από το μακρινό και το πρόσφατο παρελθόν, με την υπόθεση να μην αφορά τελικά απλά κάποια κλεμμένα γράμματα, αλλά πολλά παραπάνω...
Κλασικά, έχουμε οικογενειακά μυστικά, προδοσίες, φόνους, μπερδέματα και μπλεξίματα, με τον αναγνώστη να προσπαθεί παράλληλα με τον φοβερό Λιου Άρτσερ να λύσει όλους τους γρίφους, να ανακαλύψει τα κίνητρα, να κατανοήσει τις πράξεις των χαρακτήρων. Προσωπικά, δεν μπήκα στη διαδικασία να λύσω μόνος μου την υπόθεση (άλλωστε κάθε τόσο έβγαιναν και καινούργια στοιχεία στην επιφάνεια), απλώς έκατσα και απόλαυσα τη συναρπαστική εξέλιξη των γεγονότων, καθώς και τον τρόπο λειτουργίας του Λιου Άρτσερ. Η γραφή είναι πραγματικά πολύ καλή, στιβαρή και σίγουρη, με φυσικότατους διαλόγους και καλές αλλά συνάμα λιτές περιγραφές τοπίων, ανθρώπων και καταστάσεων, ενώ η ατμόσφαιρα είναι σαφώς εξαιρετική. Γενικά μιλάμε για εγγυημένη αναγνωστική απόλαυση.
Τέλος πάντων, η αναμονή δυο χρόνων άξιζε τον κόπο. Μιλάμε για ένα πραγματικά πολύ καλό αστυνομικό νουάρ, στο γνωστό επίπεδο ποιότητας που μας έχει συνηθίσει ο συγγραφέας. Η όλη ιστορία ξεκινάει απλά, με τον Λιου Άρτσερ να καλείται από έναν δικηγόρο, που εκπροσωπεί μια πλούσια οικογένεια, να αναζητήσει ένα χρυσαφένιο κουτί γεμάτο γράμματα, που κάποιοι άγνωστοι έκλεψαν από το χρηματοκιβώτιο του σπιτιού της οικογένειας. Όμως, κατά την έρευνα, ο Άρτσερ θα βρεθεί μπροστά σε πολλά, μα πάρα πολλά οικογενειακά μυστικά από το μακρινό και το πρόσφατο παρελθόν, με την υπόθεση να μην αφορά τελικά απλά κάποια κλεμμένα γράμματα, αλλά πολλά παραπάνω...
Κλασικά, έχουμε οικογενειακά μυστικά, προδοσίες, φόνους, μπερδέματα και μπλεξίματα, με τον αναγνώστη να προσπαθεί παράλληλα με τον φοβερό Λιου Άρτσερ να λύσει όλους τους γρίφους, να ανακαλύψει τα κίνητρα, να κατανοήσει τις πράξεις των χαρακτήρων. Προσωπικά, δεν μπήκα στη διαδικασία να λύσω μόνος μου την υπόθεση (άλλωστε κάθε τόσο έβγαιναν και καινούργια στοιχεία στην επιφάνεια), απλώς έκατσα και απόλαυσα τη συναρπαστική εξέλιξη των γεγονότων, καθώς και τον τρόπο λειτουργίας του Λιου Άρτσερ. Η γραφή είναι πραγματικά πολύ καλή, στιβαρή και σίγουρη, με φυσικότατους διαλόγους και καλές αλλά συνάμα λιτές περιγραφές τοπίων, ανθρώπων και καταστάσεων, ενώ η ατμόσφαιρα είναι σαφώς εξαιρετική. Γενικά μιλάμε για εγγυημένη αναγνωστική απόλαυση.
September 9, 2018
Πρόκειται για ένα κλασικό noir του 1969. Ένα αστυνομικό που αποτέλεσε μέρος της απαρχής του είδους. Ένα hardboiled μυθιστόρημα με πρωταγωνιστή τον ιδιωτικό ντετέκτιβ Λιου Άρτσερ.
Η ιστορία ξεκινά με την κλοπή μια χρυσής κασέλας με επιστολές που χρονολογούνται από τον Β' Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο ως περιεχόμενο. Η διάρρηξη αποκαλύπτει τα ένοχα μυστικά μιας οικογένειας. Πλανάται η υποψία πως εμπλέκεται ο Νικ, ο γιος της οικογένειας Τσάλμερς, απ' την οποία και κλάπηκε η κασέλα. Ο Άρτσερ έρχεται αντιμέτωπος με τη δολοφονία του συνεργάτη του Νικ. Παράλληλα, αντιλαμβάνεται πως η διάρρηξη της κασέλας συνδέεται με μια απαγωγή και με τη ληστεία μιας τράπεζας που συνέβησαν πριν χρόνια. Επιπλέον σύνδεσμο αποτελεί η χρήση του περιστρόφου σε τρεις δολοφονίες.
Διαδραματίζεται σε ένα μισοσκότεινο τοπίο. Οι χαρακτήρες του βιβλίου είναι με τόση πληρότητα σχηματισμένοι, που βλέπεις βαθιά μέσα τους. Μοιάζει να έχουν ξεπεταχτεί από μια noir ταινία εκείνης της περιόδου. Σαν να τους βλέπεις μπροστά σου, φιγούρες με καπέλο, καμπαρντίνα, να καπνίζουν ένα τσιγάρο στο σκοτάδι.
Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο του Ross Macdonald στέκεται απέναντι από τους αναγνώστες και εγκωμιάζει με μελαγχολικό τρόπο το κακό που ενεδρεύει στις ψυχές των ανθρώπων. Η ιστορία του είναι πολύπλοκη και ευρηματική σαν ένα τρίτομο βικτοριανό μυθιστόρημα.
Εν ολίγοις, το βλέμμα του αποχαιρετισμού στρέφεται προς ένα θλιβερό παρελθόν ή ένα παγερό μέλλον. Δεινά και τα δύο.. Βγαίνουν στην επιφάνεια κρυμμένα μυστικά, αποκαλύψεις και λόγια που δεν παίρνονται πίσω, γιατί έχουν ήδη ειπωθεί..
Εμένα με συνεπήρε η εποχή! Εσείς, οι λάτρεις της αστυνομικής λογοτεχνίας νομίζω πως θα το αγαπήσετε!
Η ιστορία ξεκινά με την κλοπή μια χρυσής κασέλας με επιστολές που χρονολογούνται από τον Β' Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο ως περιεχόμενο. Η διάρρηξη αποκαλύπτει τα ένοχα μυστικά μιας οικογένειας. Πλανάται η υποψία πως εμπλέκεται ο Νικ, ο γιος της οικογένειας Τσάλμερς, απ' την οποία και κλάπηκε η κασέλα. Ο Άρτσερ έρχεται αντιμέτωπος με τη δολοφονία του συνεργάτη του Νικ. Παράλληλα, αντιλαμβάνεται πως η διάρρηξη της κασέλας συνδέεται με μια απαγωγή και με τη ληστεία μιας τράπεζας που συνέβησαν πριν χρόνια. Επιπλέον σύνδεσμο αποτελεί η χρήση του περιστρόφου σε τρεις δολοφονίες.
Διαδραματίζεται σε ένα μισοσκότεινο τοπίο. Οι χαρακτήρες του βιβλίου είναι με τόση πληρότητα σχηματισμένοι, που βλέπεις βαθιά μέσα τους. Μοιάζει να έχουν ξεπεταχτεί από μια noir ταινία εκείνης της περιόδου. Σαν να τους βλέπεις μπροστά σου, φιγούρες με καπέλο, καμπαρντίνα, να καπνίζουν ένα τσιγάρο στο σκοτάδι.
Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο του Ross Macdonald στέκεται απέναντι από τους αναγνώστες και εγκωμιάζει με μελαγχολικό τρόπο το κακό που ενεδρεύει στις ψυχές των ανθρώπων. Η ιστορία του είναι πολύπλοκη και ευρηματική σαν ένα τρίτομο βικτοριανό μυθιστόρημα.
Εν ολίγοις, το βλέμμα του αποχαιρετισμού στρέφεται προς ένα θλιβερό παρελθόν ή ένα παγερό μέλλον. Δεινά και τα δύο.. Βγαίνουν στην επιφάνεια κρυμμένα μυστικά, αποκαλύψεις και λόγια που δεν παίρνονται πίσω, γιατί έχουν ήδη ειπωθεί..
Εμένα με συνεπήρε η εποχή! Εσείς, οι λάτρεις της αστυνομικής λογοτεχνίας νομίζω πως θα το αγαπήσετε!
July 16, 2024
In the Goodbye Look (1969), Lew Archer is hired to investigate a pilfered family heirloom, but quickly runs into a complicated case with family secrets taking him back in time. Archer is initially told that the Chalmers house was burgled while they were in Palm Springs and peculiarly the only thing taken was an old gold box kept in a study safe. We are told that Mrs. Chalmers had “the tone of a handsome woman who had married money and social standing and never could forget that she might just as easily lose these things.” And, keep that in mind, because often monied folks spend their lives worrying about things that could cause them to lose everything- things like dirty secrets from the past which they hope will stay buried, but seldom does in the long term.
The key, at least initially, is a troubled young man, Nicholas Chalmers, who is now running around with “phony blonde with a big red sloppy mouth and poisonous eyes” rather than stay focused on Betty Truttwell who lives across the street and probably still wears poodle skirts and saddle shoes in her wide-eyed innocence.
The phony blonde is one Jean Trask and Archer finds her in a motel room in Monte Vista, a sort of conglomeration of Southern California places, perhaps a stand-in for Montecito, “a rustic residential community for woodland types who could afford to live anywhere.” Jean tells Archer that perhaps he can help her because she hired Sidney Harrow, but he turned out to be a fast man with a tow bar and dangerous. He almost killed her boyfriend, she tells Archer, but when she says boyfriend, she also means “we’re more like brother and sister, or father and daughter — I mean mother and son.” “She spoke with the foolish wisdom of a woman who had no feeling for men and would always make the wrong decisions about them.”
Once again, MacDonald offers up a mystery so complicated that you need a scorecard to figure out who is who and who is related to who, but the key, as it so often is, is events that occurred many years earlier and that have caused ripples to form in the water, ripples that spread ever so slightly and cause more ripples and eventually waves so strong that they threaten to bring everything down.
Through it all, we readers get an Archer who operates solo, often on hunch more than solid evidence, and is concerned with doing the right thing, not knowing where all the chips will fall in the end.
The key, at least initially, is a troubled young man, Nicholas Chalmers, who is now running around with “phony blonde with a big red sloppy mouth and poisonous eyes” rather than stay focused on Betty Truttwell who lives across the street and probably still wears poodle skirts and saddle shoes in her wide-eyed innocence.
The phony blonde is one Jean Trask and Archer finds her in a motel room in Monte Vista, a sort of conglomeration of Southern California places, perhaps a stand-in for Montecito, “a rustic residential community for woodland types who could afford to live anywhere.” Jean tells Archer that perhaps he can help her because she hired Sidney Harrow, but he turned out to be a fast man with a tow bar and dangerous. He almost killed her boyfriend, she tells Archer, but when she says boyfriend, she also means “we’re more like brother and sister, or father and daughter — I mean mother and son.” “She spoke with the foolish wisdom of a woman who had no feeling for men and would always make the wrong decisions about them.”
Once again, MacDonald offers up a mystery so complicated that you need a scorecard to figure out who is who and who is related to who, but the key, as it so often is, is events that occurred many years earlier and that have caused ripples to form in the water, ripples that spread ever so slightly and cause more ripples and eventually waves so strong that they threaten to bring everything down.
Through it all, we readers get an Archer who operates solo, often on hunch more than solid evidence, and is concerned with doing the right thing, not knowing where all the chips will fall in the end.
April 15, 2018
All of the Lew Archer mysteries by Ross Macdonald are very good, and all but two or three are excellent. This one is in the top three of four, which means it is one of the best mystery novels ever written, and beyond that, it is an excellent novel, period.
As always with Lew Archer, there is practically no violence, no gore, nothing lurid, no sensationalism. Instead it is well plotted, tight, and plausible. (I didn't say probable.) This one is quite complex, and probably not the first Lew Archer mystery to read if one is new to the series.
The characterizations are excellent. It flows smoothly, a real page turner, hard to put down. The reader would be rewarded by keeping a note pad and jotting down the first time and place a character is mentioned, and other key points, such as who is related to whom. I did and it really helps. 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.
I have read all of the Lew Archer novels at least twice over a period of thirty years. This is one of my personal favorites, even though it may not be the absolute best, if there is such a thing. Others on my list of favorites are Sleeping Beauty, The Wycherly Woman, and The Zebra-Striped Hearse.
The year is 1969 and the plot starts with Archer being called to the home of a wealthy family, the Chalmers. They were away for a weekend and a valuable gold jewel case has been stolen. It soon becomes apparent that it was an inside job, and suspicion quickly falls on their only child, Nick, now 23 and trying to finish college. He has an apartment at the nearby college. We soon learn that Nick had a troubled childhood, and just what the trouble was might be relevant to the current theft. Across the street lives lawyer John Truttwell and daughter Betty, who is in love with Nick.
Gradually a complicated story develops involving four families who have known each other since the mid 1940s. They were linked then by an embezzlement followed quickly by flight into Mexico by more than one person. About the same time, someone was mysteriously run down by a car. As the years pass, four murders occur.
Recurring themes: private mental hospital, wealthy families, college setting, navy in WWII.
As often happens in a Lew Archer novel, some people are not what they seem, and the deep secrets of 20 years ago come back to haunt the young people of today. It doesn't get any better than this, folks.
Important Characters, alive, dead, and missing:
John Truttwell, lawyer whose wife was run down by a car 24 years ago.
Betty Truttwell, daughter of John, serious young woman.
Larry Chalmers, wealthy father of Nick.
Irene Chalmers, still beautiful wife and mother.
Nick Chalmers, troubled young man.
Judge Chalmers, deceased father of Larry and still important local icon.
Estelle Chalmers, deceased wife of Judge Chalmers, mother of Larry.
Eldon Swain, embezzler of 24 years ago who was last seen 15 years ago.
Mrs. Eldon Swain, who never saw a dime of the money.
Jean (Swain) Trask, daughter who pines for her missing father.
Sidney Harrow, amateur detective, trying to find Eldon Swain.
George Trask, ineffective husband of Jean.
Dr. Smitheram, psychiatrist who knows a lot about Nick.
Moira Smitheram, wife who knows some things too.
Samuel Rawlinson, now elderly, president of the bank that was ruined by the embezzlement.
Mrs. Shepherd, housekeeper for Samuel Rawlinson, ex-wife of Randy, mother of Rita.
Randy Shepherd, ex-husband of Mrs. Shepherd, gardener with other interests.
Rita Shepherd, mysteriously missing woman who was a teenager when Eldon Swain embezzled.
As always with Lew Archer, there is practically no violence, no gore, nothing lurid, no sensationalism. Instead it is well plotted, tight, and plausible. (I didn't say probable.) This one is quite complex, and probably not the first Lew Archer mystery to read if one is new to the series.
The characterizations are excellent. It flows smoothly, a real page turner, hard to put down. The reader would be rewarded by keeping a note pad and jotting down the first time and place a character is mentioned, and other key points, such as who is related to whom. I did and it really helps. 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.
I have read all of the Lew Archer novels at least twice over a period of thirty years. This is one of my personal favorites, even though it may not be the absolute best, if there is such a thing. Others on my list of favorites are Sleeping Beauty, The Wycherly Woman, and The Zebra-Striped Hearse.
The year is 1969 and the plot starts with Archer being called to the home of a wealthy family, the Chalmers. They were away for a weekend and a valuable gold jewel case has been stolen. It soon becomes apparent that it was an inside job, and suspicion quickly falls on their only child, Nick, now 23 and trying to finish college. He has an apartment at the nearby college. We soon learn that Nick had a troubled childhood, and just what the trouble was might be relevant to the current theft. Across the street lives lawyer John Truttwell and daughter Betty, who is in love with Nick.
Gradually a complicated story develops involving four families who have known each other since the mid 1940s. They were linked then by an embezzlement followed quickly by flight into Mexico by more than one person. About the same time, someone was mysteriously run down by a car. As the years pass, four murders occur.
Recurring themes: private mental hospital, wealthy families, college setting, navy in WWII.
As often happens in a Lew Archer novel, some people are not what they seem, and the deep secrets of 20 years ago come back to haunt the young people of today. It doesn't get any better than this, folks.
Important Characters, alive, dead, and missing:
John Truttwell, lawyer whose wife was run down by a car 24 years ago.
Betty Truttwell, daughter of John, serious young woman.
Larry Chalmers, wealthy father of Nick.
Irene Chalmers, still beautiful wife and mother.
Nick Chalmers, troubled young man.
Judge Chalmers, deceased father of Larry and still important local icon.
Estelle Chalmers, deceased wife of Judge Chalmers, mother of Larry.
Eldon Swain, embezzler of 24 years ago who was last seen 15 years ago.
Mrs. Eldon Swain, who never saw a dime of the money.
Jean (Swain) Trask, daughter who pines for her missing father.
Sidney Harrow, amateur detective, trying to find Eldon Swain.
George Trask, ineffective husband of Jean.
Dr. Smitheram, psychiatrist who knows a lot about Nick.
Moira Smitheram, wife who knows some things too.
Samuel Rawlinson, now elderly, president of the bank that was ruined by the embezzlement.
Mrs. Shepherd, housekeeper for Samuel Rawlinson, ex-wife of Randy, mother of Rita.
Randy Shepherd, ex-husband of Mrs. Shepherd, gardener with other interests.
Rita Shepherd, mysteriously missing woman who was a teenager when Eldon Swain embezzled.
October 22, 2009
If you want to talk about pure story telling, Ross MacDonald is the man. I hadn't read any early MacDonald, only his later works. [Book:The Goodbye Look] was a revelation to me. For the first time in my reading of mysteries, and that includes old 1920s up to the present day, did a book resolve itself strictly by the reasoning skill, and investigative talents of the main character.
Lew Archer is a wonderful character who not only is a Private Investigator, he is humane, intelligent, compassionate, and motivated by justice, not money. It is such a delight to read a book where forensics plays no part, and the story is pure story, not a dependence upon the "ins and outs" of police work. Granted, some of the actions Archer takes would put him in prison today, but the book was written in 1969.
While he may be too dated for some readers, and not violent enough for others, if mystery stories that are solved by the story itself, and not the current selection of "deus ex machina," i.e., forensics, torturous police interrogations, etc., then this is a book for you.
I love it and recommend to anyone who likes a who-done-it, and does not want the blood and gore that has taken over the genre.
Lew Archer is a wonderful character who not only is a Private Investigator, he is humane, intelligent, compassionate, and motivated by justice, not money. It is such a delight to read a book where forensics plays no part, and the story is pure story, not a dependence upon the "ins and outs" of police work. Granted, some of the actions Archer takes would put him in prison today, but the book was written in 1969.
While he may be too dated for some readers, and not violent enough for others, if mystery stories that are solved by the story itself, and not the current selection of "deus ex machina," i.e., forensics, torturous police interrogations, etc., then this is a book for you.
I love it and recommend to anyone who likes a who-done-it, and does not want the blood and gore that has taken over the genre.
March 23, 2016
Until now I’ve only read two Archer novels (curiously, and coincidentally, the two Paul Newman turned into films) and though I enjoyed them, they didn’t make me whoop with joy. I liked them, thought they had good points, but haven’t rushed on to check out the others.
Having read ‘The Goodbye Look’ I now understand why his fans hold him such high regard. MacDonald’s brilliance – certainly in this novel – lies in taking that Tolstoy maxim that “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” and turning into detective fiction. What starts out as seemingly a minor case (the theft of a gold box) unearths long lost family secrets and brings out the after effects of forgotten crimes. I’d been told how fantastic MacDonald was on psychology, and that is indeed the case. All crime fiction characters need to have strange and unusual motivations, it’s what red herrings are based upon, but in this book they’re not just a contrivance of the plot. Everything that the characters do and say feels real and not just there for the sake of misdirection.
The prose is great as well, with many pithy phrases and wonderful descriptions, and in short I found the whole thing a treat. Without a doubt MacDonald moved into space created by Chandler, but I think he goes in a different direction with it. Rather than the gallant knight walking mean streets because somebody has to, Archer is almost a cipher just trying to make his way through in the world. That vagueness of character can be somewhat frustrating to readers, but I think that blankness explains why people do open up so easily to him. It also helps justify why he gets up the next morning and does it all again, it’s not through Marlowe’s noble calling, but just because – what else does he have?
I won’t delay so long before my next Archer novel.
Having read ‘The Goodbye Look’ I now understand why his fans hold him such high regard. MacDonald’s brilliance – certainly in this novel – lies in taking that Tolstoy maxim that “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” and turning into detective fiction. What starts out as seemingly a minor case (the theft of a gold box) unearths long lost family secrets and brings out the after effects of forgotten crimes. I’d been told how fantastic MacDonald was on psychology, and that is indeed the case. All crime fiction characters need to have strange and unusual motivations, it’s what red herrings are based upon, but in this book they’re not just a contrivance of the plot. Everything that the characters do and say feels real and not just there for the sake of misdirection.
The prose is great as well, with many pithy phrases and wonderful descriptions, and in short I found the whole thing a treat. Without a doubt MacDonald moved into space created by Chandler, but I think he goes in a different direction with it. Rather than the gallant knight walking mean streets because somebody has to, Archer is almost a cipher just trying to make his way through in the world. That vagueness of character can be somewhat frustrating to readers, but I think that blankness explains why people do open up so easily to him. It also helps justify why he gets up the next morning and does it all again, it’s not through Marlowe’s noble calling, but just because – what else does he have?
I won’t delay so long before my next Archer novel.
May 18, 2014
Another in the superb series of detective stories by Ross Macdonald, and another in his endless yet endlessly entertaining and inventive looks at the dark secrets that tear families apart. Macdonald's P.I. Lew Archer in this one investigates the case of a troubled young man who may be linked to a murder which occurred when he was a little boy. Macdonald has a pragmatic yet quietly melancholic view of family, and in a sense most of his novels examine the same question: can the sins of the father ever be erased? Not that it's always the father at fault. Archer seems less sentimental than Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, who isn't very overtly sentimental himself. In this novel, we get a slight hint more than usual of Archer's background and a good feel for his place on the graph of morality. Although the plethora of characters and their intertwining relationships, familial and otherwise, can be a bit confusing, this is still one of Macdonald's most vigorous and enjoyable books.
December 14, 2014
This was the first Ross Macdonald novel I ever read, and it hooked me. I was 15 or 16, I think, when I found the Bantam paperback edition on the twirling paperback rack at the IGA grocery store in Bobcaygeon, Ontario. It was the blurb at the top, from William Goldman's NYTBR, that grabbed me: "The finest series of detective novels ever written by an American." I still think that's true.
January 13, 2019
Το συγκεκριμένο μυθιστόρημα του ΜακΝτόναλντ με τον ντιτέκτιβ Λου Άρτσερ μπορεί να θεωρείται από τα κλασικά 'νουάρ' της αστυνομικής λογοτεχνίας, ωστόσο, αυτά που εντυπωσιάζουν τον αναγνώστη είναι τα έντονα δραματουργικά στοιχεία και οι 'εσωτερικές' συγκρούσεις των ηρώων που έχουν τις ρίζες τους σε μυστικά και αναπάντητα ερωτήματα του παρελθόντος.
Στον 'πυρήνα' των γεγονότων, βρίσκεται ο γιος των Τσάλμερς, Νικ, ο οποίος, μετά την απαγωγή του, πριν από πολλά χρόνια, άρχισε να εμφανίζει συχνές μεταπτώσεις στη διάθεση και κυκλοθυμικότητα, ενώ παλεύει με τις ίδιες του τις ενοχές και τις αμφιβολίες για την .... δολοφονία ενός άγνωστου σε εκείνον άντρα - όλα αυτά έρχονται στην επιφάνεια με τη διάρρηξη μιας χρυσής κασέλας με γράμματα (οικογενειακό κειμήλιο) από τον Β' Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο στην έπαυλη των γονιών του.
Πέρα από αυτά, να αναφέρω ότι υπάρχουν κάποιες ομοιότητες στην ιστορία με το 'Ρίγος' ('The Chill') του ίδιου συγγραφέα, αν και, ευτυχώς, αυτό φαίνεται σε κάποιες συγκεκριμένες λεπτομέρειες και όχι στο μεγαλύτερο μέρος του βιβλίου. Πάντως, στα θετικά του μυθιστορήματος είναι το γεγονός ότι ο ΜακΝτόναλντ καταφέρνει να προσδώσει στους χαρακτήρες των ηρώων του ψυχολογικό βάθος, τέτοιο ώστε να μπορεί να θεωρηθεί ως το πιο ψυχογραφικό μυθιστόρημά του με αρκετά στοιχεία ψυχολογικού θρίλερ.
Επιπρόσθετα, το 1ο μέρος του βιβλίου είναι αρκετά 'χαοτικό' χωρίς ιδιαίτερη δομή στη πλοκή και με πλήθος πληροφοριών, τις οποίες προσπαθεί ο αναγνώστης να αποκρυπτογραφήσει, ενώ, από τη μέση και μετά, υπάρχει μεγαλύτερη οργάνωση στην ανάπτυξη της ιστορίας και πιο συγκεκριμένος ρυθμός στη πλοκή.
Από τα πιο 'ιδιαίτερα' μυθιστορήματα του ΜακΝτόναλντ, αν και άνισο στη δομή και στον ρυθμό της πλοκής.
Βαθμολογία: 4,2/5 ή 8,4/10.
Στον 'πυρήνα' των γεγονότων, βρίσκεται ο γιος των Τσάλμερς, Νικ, ο οποίος, μετά την απαγωγή του, πριν από πολλά χρόνια, άρχισε να εμφανίζει συχνές μεταπτώσεις στη διάθεση και κυκλοθυμικότητα, ενώ παλεύει με τις ίδιες του τις ενοχές και τις αμφιβολίες για την .... δολοφονία ενός άγνωστου σε εκείνον άντρα - όλα αυτά έρχονται στην επιφάνεια με τη διάρρηξη μιας χρυσής κασέλας με γράμματα (οικογενειακό κειμήλιο) από τον Β' Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο στην έπαυλη των γονιών του.
Πέρα από αυτά, να αναφέρω ότι υπάρχουν κάποιες ομοιότητες στην ιστορία με το 'Ρίγος' ('The Chill') του ίδιου συγγραφέα, αν και, ευτυχώς, αυτό φαίνεται σε κάποιες συγκεκριμένες λεπτομέρειες και όχι στο μεγαλύτερο μέρος του βιβλίου. Πάντως, στα θετικά του μυθιστορήματος είναι το γεγονός ότι ο ΜακΝτόναλντ καταφέρνει να προσδώσει στους χαρακτήρες των ηρώων του ψυχολογικό βάθος, τέτοιο ώστε να μπορεί να θεωρηθεί ως το πιο ψυχογραφικό μυθιστόρημά του με αρκετά στοιχεία ψυχολογικού θρίλερ.
Επιπρόσθετα, το 1ο μέρος του βιβλίου είναι αρκετά 'χαοτικό' χωρίς ιδιαίτερη δομή στη πλοκή και με πλήθος πληροφοριών, τις οποίες προσπαθεί ο αναγνώστης να αποκρυπτογραφήσει, ενώ, από τη μέση και μετά, υπάρχει μεγαλύτερη οργάνωση στην ανάπτυξη της ιστορίας και πιο συγκεκριμένος ρυθμός στη πλοκή.
Από τα πιο 'ιδιαίτερα' μυθιστορήματα του ΜακΝτόναλντ, αν και άνισο στη δομή και στον ρυθμό της πλοκής.
Βαθμολογία: 4,2/5 ή 8,4/10.
July 13, 2024
Broken people, sins of the fathers, traumas we carry with us, the ways we fail each other. There's also a mystery in there as murder has deep roots. The Goodbye Look didn't grab me as much as some of Macdonald's other books have as it got too complicated, too many characters and connections to keep straight. Maybe that's just me. But when a reader finishes one of his books it's clear that it was written for an adult. Having been reading the 18 Archer novels (this is #15) in chronological order I can see how he grew as a writer. In the early novels he was shedding his early Chandler influence and trying clumsily to keep some hardboiled elements cribbed from the pulp writers. Those books were still very good and contained a wealth of brilliant moments. As the Sixties arrived putting new stresses on the generations and the country, Macdonald found his own voice, using the detective novel to uncover damaged children, scarred parents, and conflicts that require mercy rather than justice.
May 22, 2022
Το βλέμμα του αποχαιρετισμού με το οποίο αποχαιρετά ο αναγνώστης τον ντετέκτιβ στο τέλος του βιβλίου, κρύβει πολλά συναισθήματα: θυμό, αγανάκτηση αλλά και ανακούφιση. Και αυτό γιατί (παραδοσιακά) στην hard-boiled λογοτεχνία ο ντετέκτιβ σκαλίζει τα μυστικά μιας ομάδας ανθρώπων σκάβει μέχρι τον πάτο και στο τέλος τους αφήνει σε ένα σημείο που είναι δύσκολο να αποφασίσει κανείς αν είναι καλύτερα ή χειρότερα από ότι στην αρχή. Και όπως στα βιβλία του Χάμμετ και του Τσάντλερ οι χαρακτήρες κρύβουν μυστικά, έχουν πολλά πρόσωπα και όλοι δεν είναι ακριβώς ύποπτοι αλλά δεν είναι και τελείως αθώοι. Άξιο νουάρ και όχι της "χρυσής εποχής" αλλά και πάλι διαβάζεται ευχάριστα, υπονοώντας ότι ο Macdonald είναι το μικρό ξαδελφάκι των Χάμμετ/Τσάντλερ.
March 31, 2017
An ornate chest burgled along with the wartime letters it contained, an unsolved John Doe found in a hobo jungle fifteen years before and a pair of recent shootings, the young and disturbed scion who wants to confess to all of them, his family of habitual liars, their violently widowed lawyer and his daughter who has the hots for the suspect rich boy, a professionally compromised psychiatrist and his embittered wife, a Gordian knot of false identities, infidelities and covert illegitimately, 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.
August 25, 2013
Another cracker from the MacDonald stable. The usual themes of ugly secrets, familial dysfunction and repressed guilt pervade the book with the quintessential intricate plotting that is vintage MacDonald.
Is this the best MacDonald book there is? Nope, that honour still lies with "The Chill" and the "Zebra-Striped Hearse" but this is still one helluva ride.
Is this the best MacDonald book there is? Nope, that honour still lies with "The Chill" and the "Zebra-Striped Hearse" but this is still one helluva ride.
October 21, 2008
This is a pretty somber Archer outing, with a series of interrelated pasts that grow almost too complex to keep track of. MacDonald pulls it together at the end, though, and it's ultimately a rewarding read.
October 31, 2024
Πότε δε σε αφήνει να πλήξει ο ΜακΝτόναλντ !
September 11, 2020
Noir πολλά υποσχόμενο, ξεκινάει ωραία και με ενδιαφέρον και προοπτική, αλλά κάπου στη μέση με έχει κουράσει απίστευτα με τους πολλούς χαρακτήρες και τα πολλά ονόματα που ξεχνάω ποιός είναι ποιός. Απλά συνέχιζα ως το τέλος για να δω πως θα το "δέσει", με ανατροπή που δεν την περιμένεις, αλλά δεν ήταν αρκετή για να το σώσει.
September 24, 2020
نمیدونم بعد از چندسال رمان جنایی خوندم.شاید آخرین بار برمیگرده به رمانها و داستانهایی جنابی برای نوجوانان!
این کتاب رو هدیه گرفتم و باعث شد سمت این کتابها هم جذب بشم. واقعا لذت بردم از خوندن این کتاب و لحظه لحظه منتظر بودم ببینم چه اتفاقی میوفته.
این کتاب باعث میشه تو ناخوداگاه خودتون نقش یه کاراگاه رو بازی کنید و خودتون دنبال جواب برید و خب، چی از این قشنگتر؟
این کتاب رو هدیه گرفتم و باعث شد سمت این کتابها هم جذب بشم. واقعا لذت بردم از خوندن این کتاب و لحظه لحظه منتظر بودم ببینم چه اتفاقی میوفته.
این کتاب باعث میشه تو ناخوداگاه خودتون نقش یه کاراگاه رو بازی کنید و خودتون دنبال جواب برید و خب، چی از این قشنگتر؟
January 30, 2021
Ross McDonald books are known for their complicated plots. This one is no exception. We didn't have it figured out until we'll into the last chapter.
August 2, 2022
More of the good stuff
August 30, 2008
While many contemporary mystery writers produce entertaining novels, I like to go back periodically to one of Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer stories. To me Macdonald's narratives are more engaging than those by other pioneer detective writers, such as those featuring Hammett’s Continental Op or Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. Macdonald (a pseudonym for the Canadian Donald Millar, who grew up in Vancouver) engages our minds and our emotions with stories that reflect our society as well as show human drama and tragedy. His novels, written before gore, violence and serial killers became staple elements in the detective story, involve ingenious but logical plots that Archer solves with a humanistic (though solitary and misanthropic) outlook and no gratuitous reliance on firearms or car chases to drive the action.
Macdonald presents a few recurring themes. His main preoccupation is the paradoxical combination of a young and restless Southern Californian society that nonetheless illustrates the consequences of misdeeds on subsequent generations ("The sins of the fathers . . .”). “The Goodbye Look”, written in 1969, is a good example. A lawyer says of a colleague, a man whose grandfather came to California after the Civil War:
“In our instant society that makes him the closest thing we have to an aristocrat.”
Later that same lawyer says to Archer:
“All this is far away and long ago.”
To which Archer replies:
“It seems here and now to me.”
Indeed, in this story the events of the present, especially a young man’s growing mental instability, are completely bound up with events that occurred in 1945 (in this world even “long ago” isn’t so far back) – and in his parents' covering them up and dissembling. Young people in Macdonald’s novels are often damaged, confused and lost – typically due to neglect or outright dishonesty on the part of their parents. Archer’s sympathy is always primarily with the young.
However, the older characters themselves are damaged, often by illusions about their early lives or by regret over their decisions and a desire to relive them. Here are two statements about major characters in this book:
“Her whole body was dreaming of the past.”
“His eyes and voice were faintly drowsy with the past.”
And a more ominous observation about a third character:
“Her mind was being carried down the stream of memory, swept willy-nilly through subterranean passages toward roaring falls.”
Some characters are so mesmerized and crippled by the past that they are incapable of moving forward; their fascination with the past distorts their perspective on life:
“The dream she was defending wasn’t a dream of the future. It was a dreaming memory of the past . . .”
“She looked as if she were dying under the soft bombardment of the past.”
It is Archer’s mission to help the young people break out of this paralyzed world created by their elders’ unhappiness and mystification and have a chance to fashion their own genuine lives.
Combining ruminations on American society with clear figurative prose, Macdonald delivers a novel that will satisfy any reader of mysteries.
Macdonald presents a few recurring themes. His main preoccupation is the paradoxical combination of a young and restless Southern Californian society that nonetheless illustrates the consequences of misdeeds on subsequent generations ("The sins of the fathers . . .”). “The Goodbye Look”, written in 1969, is a good example. A lawyer says of a colleague, a man whose grandfather came to California after the Civil War:
“In our instant society that makes him the closest thing we have to an aristocrat.”
Later that same lawyer says to Archer:
“All this is far away and long ago.”
To which Archer replies:
“It seems here and now to me.”
Indeed, in this story the events of the present, especially a young man’s growing mental instability, are completely bound up with events that occurred in 1945 (in this world even “long ago” isn’t so far back) – and in his parents' covering them up and dissembling. Young people in Macdonald’s novels are often damaged, confused and lost – typically due to neglect or outright dishonesty on the part of their parents. Archer’s sympathy is always primarily with the young.
However, the older characters themselves are damaged, often by illusions about their early lives or by regret over their decisions and a desire to relive them. Here are two statements about major characters in this book:
“Her whole body was dreaming of the past.”
“His eyes and voice were faintly drowsy with the past.”
And a more ominous observation about a third character:
“Her mind was being carried down the stream of memory, swept willy-nilly through subterranean passages toward roaring falls.”
Some characters are so mesmerized and crippled by the past that they are incapable of moving forward; their fascination with the past distorts their perspective on life:
“The dream she was defending wasn’t a dream of the future. It was a dreaming memory of the past . . .”
“She looked as if she were dying under the soft bombardment of the past.”
It is Archer’s mission to help the young people break out of this paralyzed world created by their elders’ unhappiness and mystification and have a chance to fashion their own genuine lives.
Combining ruminations on American society with clear figurative prose, Macdonald delivers a novel that will satisfy any reader of mysteries.
October 19, 2012
Having read all Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer novels, I can't remember being disappointed by any of them.
Lately I got the urge to lose myself in Lew Archer's world, which for the most part runs along the coast of southern California between the late '40s and the early '70s.
I found a deal on a hardcover of The Goodbye Look, the plot of which I only vaguely remembered. And now, more than ever, I agree with William Goldman, whose review of the novel included: "The finest series of detective novels ever written by an American."
MacDonald knew all the tricks of suspense and used them so well that I can feel abused when sleep or some other responsibility calls me away from a novel of his. And he rewards us readers with characters whose actions and emotions we understand, sometimes too well. Even if they are more damaged than us, we can't help seeing in them who we could be, but for fortune.
The Goodbye Look may be MacDonald at his best. The way the good guys reveal their badness and the bad guys find their piece of redemption, and even the lesser characters play crucial parts in the intricate story of the wages of sin multiplied by family secrecy--only a true master can create such as world.
Ken Kuhlken
Perpetrator of the Tom Hickey's California crime novels
www.kenkuhlken.net
Lately I got the urge to lose myself in Lew Archer's world, which for the most part runs along the coast of southern California between the late '40s and the early '70s.
I found a deal on a hardcover of The Goodbye Look, the plot of which I only vaguely remembered. And now, more than ever, I agree with William Goldman, whose review of the novel included: "The finest series of detective novels ever written by an American."
MacDonald knew all the tricks of suspense and used them so well that I can feel abused when sleep or some other responsibility calls me away from a novel of his. And he rewards us readers with characters whose actions and emotions we understand, sometimes too well. Even if they are more damaged than us, we can't help seeing in them who we could be, but for fortune.
The Goodbye Look may be MacDonald at his best. The way the good guys reveal their badness and the bad guys find their piece of redemption, and even the lesser characters play crucial parts in the intricate story of the wages of sin multiplied by family secrecy--only a true master can create such as world.
Ken Kuhlken
Perpetrator of the Tom Hickey's California crime novels
www.kenkuhlken.net
Displaying 1 - 30 of 163 reviews