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The Guilty Ones
Lew Archer didn't like his client, J. Reginald Harlan, M.A. Of course Archer generally didn't like people whose names started with a single syllable. Harlan hired Lew to find his sister. A respectable school mistress that has run off with a bohemian artist type. But he finds more than what he expected when he has a corpse literally dumped on him!
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First published March 1, 1952
About the author
Ross Macdonald
170 books826 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 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 29, 2022
The Guilty Ones is one of the short Lew Archer stories penned by the great Ross Macdonald. I didn’t find it quite as good as Midnight Blue, another short Lew Archer Kindle offering, but it's still a good genre read.
Archer is rougher at the beginning of this one, sort of mimicking the typical hardboiled style. Macdonald would gradually refine the Lew Archer stories into a more layered, deeper psychological examination of personal damage, most often familial or marital. This is still tremendously well-written, however — if not expertly proofed. An intended word like murmur, for instance, becomes rumor in the transfer to Kindle, which makes no sense within the context.
The story is involving, and it has good movement. Hired by a squirrelly guy who needs Archer's help to facilitate a face to face meeting with his sister, it sounds straightforward enough. The sister has apparently run off with a guy her brother claims is only using her. The case quickly spins out of control, however, when Archer views someone digging a grave, and then discovers why.
Who is the nude in the sack, and who killed her? Adding to Lew Archer's difficulties is a client he doesn’t like much, and who might be lying to him. Everyone seems to be confessing in this tale of infidelity spinning wildly out of control. A good, short read from a writer who, like cheese and wine, got better with with the passage of time.
Archer is rougher at the beginning of this one, sort of mimicking the typical hardboiled style. Macdonald would gradually refine the Lew Archer stories into a more layered, deeper psychological examination of personal damage, most often familial or marital. This is still tremendously well-written, however — if not expertly proofed. An intended word like murmur, for instance, becomes rumor in the transfer to Kindle, which makes no sense within the context.
The story is involving, and it has good movement. Hired by a squirrelly guy who needs Archer's help to facilitate a face to face meeting with his sister, it sounds straightforward enough. The sister has apparently run off with a guy her brother claims is only using her. The case quickly spins out of control, however, when Archer views someone digging a grave, and then discovers why.
Who is the nude in the sack, and who killed her? Adding to Lew Archer's difficulties is a client he doesn’t like much, and who might be lying to him. Everyone seems to be confessing in this tale of infidelity spinning wildly out of control. A good, short read from a writer who, like cheese and wine, got better with with the passage of time.
December 14, 2015
While private investigator Lew Archer doesn’t generally like people, he the moral compass for his next client and the people involved in this case. Archer is as hard as it gets, he can’t be manipulated or bribed; which doesn’t help Harlan, his sister and the bohemian artist she has run off with. This is my first Ross MacDonald book and first impression of him is; he can write with the best of them; a mix between Hammett and Chandler, MacDonald is possibly another hardboiled master. I look forward to reading some more from Ross MacDonald.
May 18, 2010
Have your Hammett, chew on your Chandler, but I'll take Ross MacDonald for literary "guilty" pleasures. Nice to have these short stories available on Kindle...
March 7, 2011
My first Kindle read!!!!
July 5, 2017
For a man who doesn't like people much, particularly his client, P.I. Archer demonstrates he has a far better moral compass than most people.
I would imagine not liking people comes in handy in Archer's line of work. It certainly lets you slap them around, shoot at them and deceive them. But only when necessary to get at the truth.
This is a fun short story set in Los Angeles and has all the classic noir elements: the dirty city, the duplicitous client, the love angle that can't end well, greed, lies and deceit. What more could a reader want!
This short story is a steal for the price of .99 cents for a Kindle read.
I would imagine not liking people comes in handy in Archer's line of work. It certainly lets you slap them around, shoot at them and deceive them. But only when necessary to get at the truth.
This is a fun short story set in Los Angeles and has all the classic noir elements: the dirty city, the duplicitous client, the love angle that can't end well, greed, lies and deceit. What more could a reader want!
This short story is a steal for the price of .99 cents for a Kindle read.
September 13, 2019
I thought this was unusual when I read it. Turns out there's a story behind the story.
By 1952, Canadian-turned-Californian Kenneth Millar (AKA Ross Macdonald) had produced several critically-acclaimed novels, most featuring private detective Lew Archer. Critics raved that he was the natural heir to Hammett and Chandler and that he was raising the bar for other "hard-boiled" writers.
But writing is a precarious business and good reviews don't pay the bills. Even with the income from Margaret Millar's popular mysteries, the Millars always needed money. Television was becoming a staple in American homes and Ken Millar was a fan of Jack Webb's "Dragnet" series. He wondered if television might be the answer to their financial woes.
"The Guilty Ones" was written to tempt a television producer into creating a series around the already well-known Lew Archer. Millar/Macdonald wanted a story that could easily be converted into a screen play and I think he succeeded. As you read it, you can imagine it being acted out by a couple of good character actors, a couple of pretty young actresses, and (of course) a leading man to play wise-cracking, but super-competent Lew Archer.
The action starts when a prissy Mid-Westerner hires Archer to find his sister. The head mistress of their family-owned school, she's eloped with an attractive art instructor. J. Reginald Harlan claims to be concerned about his sister's well-being, but he's more concerned that she might sell the school and push him out of his cushy job there. Seems Papa Harlan was more impressed with his daughter than with his son and arranged his will accordingly.
It's a nice, twisty tale, replete with characters who are long on wile and short on scruples. And Lew Archer is as appealing a fictional detective as ever strapped on a gat. For whatever reason, Archer never became a star of the small screen, but his creator was able to include this story in a collection called "The Name is Archer." That book sold well, so Millar/Macdonald's time wasn't wasted.
By 1952, Canadian-turned-Californian Kenneth Millar (AKA Ross Macdonald) had produced several critically-acclaimed novels, most featuring private detective Lew Archer. Critics raved that he was the natural heir to Hammett and Chandler and that he was raising the bar for other "hard-boiled" writers.
But writing is a precarious business and good reviews don't pay the bills. Even with the income from Margaret Millar's popular mysteries, the Millars always needed money. Television was becoming a staple in American homes and Ken Millar was a fan of Jack Webb's "Dragnet" series. He wondered if television might be the answer to their financial woes.
"The Guilty Ones" was written to tempt a television producer into creating a series around the already well-known Lew Archer. Millar/Macdonald wanted a story that could easily be converted into a screen play and I think he succeeded. As you read it, you can imagine it being acted out by a couple of good character actors, a couple of pretty young actresses, and (of course) a leading man to play wise-cracking, but super-competent Lew Archer.
The action starts when a prissy Mid-Westerner hires Archer to find his sister. The head mistress of their family-owned school, she's eloped with an attractive art instructor. J. Reginald Harlan claims to be concerned about his sister's well-being, but he's more concerned that she might sell the school and push him out of his cushy job there. Seems Papa Harlan was more impressed with his daughter than with his son and arranged his will accordingly.
It's a nice, twisty tale, replete with characters who are long on wile and short on scruples. And Lew Archer is as appealing a fictional detective as ever strapped on a gat. For whatever reason, Archer never became a star of the small screen, but his creator was able to include this story in a collection called "The Name is Archer." That book sold well, so Millar/Macdonald's time wasn't wasted.
April 7, 2014
Archer gets hired by a man who wants his sister returned home. She'd married an artist with a reputation and the man was worried the fellow was after money. The siblings had a school founded by their father worth money.
Archer didn't like his client. He seemed more interested in money than his sister's happiness.
The case devolves into a bigger mess right away.
A fine story.
Archer didn't like his client. He seemed more interested in money than his sister's happiness.
The case devolves into a bigger mess right away.
A fine story.
January 28, 2015
A brother shows up wanting to find his sister and protect the family's reputation and money. It could be a quick job for Lew Archer, private detective, but don't bet on it.
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Great bite-sized Noire.
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Great bite-sized Noire.
June 7, 2015
An excellent short story (27 or so pages) featuring MacDonald's private eye, Lew Archer. It is a great introduction to him with some hard boiled dialogue,neat twists and Archer is a sympathetic character. I will definitely read more MacDonald
September 8, 2016
Short story where everyone except Archer is a bad guy/gal.
March 7, 2016
Another good story from MacDonald.
July 2, 2016
1 jul 16, another from macdonald, ross, for me.
2 jul 16, finished, good story, i really liked it. really. no, really.
2 jul 16, finished, good story, i really liked it. really. no, really.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews