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Meet Me at the Morgue
Meet Me at the Morgue is the story of a kidnapping that led to four murders. In his search for the killer, Howard Cross digs deep into the Los Angeles underworld, finding along the way a beautiful, lost adolescent mourning a dead lover, a suitcase hidden under an aging sadist's bed, and a slovenly gentleman with an ice pick in his neck. Ross Macdonald has never written a story quite like this, and neither has anyone else.
184 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1953
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About the author
Ross Macdonald
168 books822 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 66 reviews
April 8, 2019
A boy from a wealthy family is kidnapped, and Howard Cross begins his own investigation. The police are convinced the family chauffeur is involved, but Cross--the chauffeur's probation officer--isn't so sure.
The protagonist Howard Cross is almost Lew Archer but not quite, and therein lies the problem. He's tough enough, cynical enough and compassionate enough beneath the cynicism, but he begins with a bias (he "has a dog in this hunt," as President Clinton would say), and, as the action proceeds, he falls in love, and this affects his judgment even more.
Cross is situationally incapable of the cold objective light that makes Archer's tragic vision possible, and, without that vision, many things that bring out the best in Macdonald's writing--the character summations, the descriptive passages, the philosophical one-liners--become impossible too.
Don't get me wrong. This is still a well-plotted, entertaining mystery. But I expect more than merely that from Ross Macdonald.
June 12, 2022
Meet Me at the Morgue is a stand-alone novel from Ross MacDonald featuring Hugh Cross, a probation officer in Pacific Point, California. Published in 1953, it's set in the years following World War II, and most of the men in the novel, Cross included, are veterans of the war. Like many of MacDonald's novels this story has its roots in developments that occurred years earlier, in this case going back at least to the years of the war.
As the book opens, Cross encounters one of his "clients", a man named Fred Miner, outside of the County annex building where Cross has his offices. Miner is on parole after pleading guilty to a hit-and-run accident in which a man was killed. He's now working as the driver for a wealthy man named Able Johnson, and when Cross sees Miner, the chauffer is accompanied by Johnson's four-year-old son, Jamie. Jamie and Miner seem to get along very well, but Miner seems a bit uneasy and the little boy is excited about a trip that he and Miner are going to take that day.
Later that day, Jamie's parents get a note saying that the boy has been kidnapped and demanding fifty thousand dollars for his safe return. Miner and the boy are nowhere to be found and it would appear that Miner is involved in the kidnapping.
While the sheriff and the F.B.I. quickly become involved, Cross is the investigator who seems to turn up most of the leads in the case. Like all of MacDonald's novels, this one is very well-plotted and the story becomes pretty complex. There's a good cast of characters including a variety of crooks, domineering mothers and the requisite femme fatales. As in most MacDonald stories, psychological factors play an important role.
Howard Cross is an interesting guy to tag along with and he's a bit sunnier and a lot less world weary than MacDonald's series character, Lew Archer. All in all, this is a very satisfying hard-boiled novel.
As the book opens, Cross encounters one of his "clients", a man named Fred Miner, outside of the County annex building where Cross has his offices. Miner is on parole after pleading guilty to a hit-and-run accident in which a man was killed. He's now working as the driver for a wealthy man named Able Johnson, and when Cross sees Miner, the chauffer is accompanied by Johnson's four-year-old son, Jamie. Jamie and Miner seem to get along very well, but Miner seems a bit uneasy and the little boy is excited about a trip that he and Miner are going to take that day.
Later that day, Jamie's parents get a note saying that the boy has been kidnapped and demanding fifty thousand dollars for his safe return. Miner and the boy are nowhere to be found and it would appear that Miner is involved in the kidnapping.
While the sheriff and the F.B.I. quickly become involved, Cross is the investigator who seems to turn up most of the leads in the case. Like all of MacDonald's novels, this one is very well-plotted and the story becomes pretty complex. There's a good cast of characters including a variety of crooks, domineering mothers and the requisite femme fatales. As in most MacDonald stories, psychological factors play an important role.
Howard Cross is an interesting guy to tag along with and he's a bit sunnier and a lot less world weary than MacDonald's series character, Lew Archer. All in all, this is a very satisfying hard-boiled novel.
June 27, 2019
Macdonald's non Archer books are usually not worth it. Four out of six of them were written before Macdonald started writing his Archer books and they are amateurish attempts at noir best left forgotten. Meet Me at the Mourge written after the first four Archer books escapes this curse and is much better.
An abduction with an obvious suspect is not as obvious as it seems when bodies start dropping with an alarming frequency. The protagonist Cross is basically Archer-lite, less hard-boiled and more trusting. Macdonald is one of the best plotters in the history of crime fiction but the motive behind the murders could have used some polish.
The usual Macdonald web of shared histories and past betrayals connect all the characters. However he probably overdoes the connections on this occasion. The character themselves star some notable Macdonald archetypes - the domineering mother who smothers her ward with control, the femme fatale who is as much a victim as she is a conniving manipulator.
Meet Me at the Mourge reminded me of generic film noirs where the scriptwriter had to adhere to stricter code laid down by the censors than novelists. (Coincidentally even The Big Sleep, not generic by any means falls prey to this). The plot is neater and the protagonist mellower than what the best in the genre offers but still entertaining enough with a nice smattering of good lines and dialogue for fans to give it a shot. Rating - 3/5.
An abduction with an obvious suspect is not as obvious as it seems when bodies start dropping with an alarming frequency. The protagonist Cross is basically Archer-lite, less hard-boiled and more trusting. Macdonald is one of the best plotters in the history of crime fiction but the motive behind the murders could have used some polish.
The usual Macdonald web of shared histories and past betrayals connect all the characters. However he probably overdoes the connections on this occasion. The character themselves star some notable Macdonald archetypes - the domineering mother who smothers her ward with control, the femme fatale who is as much a victim as she is a conniving manipulator.
Meet Me at the Mourge reminded me of generic film noirs where the scriptwriter had to adhere to stricter code laid down by the censors than novelists. (Coincidentally even The Big Sleep, not generic by any means falls prey to this). The plot is neater and the protagonist mellower than what the best in the genre offers but still entertaining enough with a nice smattering of good lines and dialogue for fans to give it a shot. Rating - 3/5.
July 1, 2024
Meet Me at the Morgue is one of Ross Macdonald’s few standalone novels, particularly after he focused his energies on the Lew Archer series. Also set in 1950’s Los Angeles, here, though in an imaginary suburb named Pacific Point near the harbor (which could be sort of a stand-in for Palos Verdes, maybe), Macdonald uses Probation Officer Howard Cross as his protagonist rather than a private eye. Cross is a stand-up guy who gives no favors and wants the truth even if it is not what he thinks it should be. He has two assistant probation officers working under him, but only Ann Devon figures prominently in this novel. She had a recent degree in psychology and “large untapped reserves of girlish fervor.”
The story opens with an odd scene where Cross meets the boy on the morning of the kidnapping being driven around by probationer Fred Miner, who had apparently had a night of reckless drunkenness resulting in the penultimate end of one pedestrian who got in his way. Cross is supervising Miner and has an interest in his succeeding on probation. Miner is the chauffer for the Johnsons and is carting their four-year-old, Jamie Johnson, around. All is apparently well and good. Cross believes Miner’s life has been salvaged. “He’d fallen, been caught before he hit the bottom, and hoisted back to the moral tightrope that everyone has to walk every day. But a man on probation walks his own high wire without a net. If he falls twice, he falls hard, into prison.”
But, then again, all hell breaks loose a few hours later when Mrs. Miner walks into Cross’ office about a kidnapping and fearing that her husband is involved. There’s a ransom note and the Abel and Helen Johnson do not want to involve the police because the note contained threats. But, there is an odd thing that the ransom note was postmarked the previous day – before the kidnapping occurred. The Johnson do not want to involve the FBI and it looks like Fred is the culprit so Cross gets involved investigating on his own, particularly after the ransom money disappears and the person who took the briefcase with the money is found with an ice pick in his neck.
Cross’ actions here often seem much like that of a private eye operating on his own, only Cross often tells witnesses he is with the police and they have to answer his questions or let him fish around. He soon uncovers connections to odd affairs that were brewing from many years earlier involving a sleazy lawyer, a private eye, a couple of sailors, and a young girl desperate to get her name in the movies and who says she has nothing to go back to after a flood washed everything and everyone away, “a little blonde chick name of Molly Fawn.”
Through it all, we learn that Cross feels “an obligation towards the law, the truth, whatever you want to call the abstractions that keep us going, keep us human. There’s nothing personal in this.”
The story opens with an odd scene where Cross meets the boy on the morning of the kidnapping being driven around by probationer Fred Miner, who had apparently had a night of reckless drunkenness resulting in the penultimate end of one pedestrian who got in his way. Cross is supervising Miner and has an interest in his succeeding on probation. Miner is the chauffer for the Johnsons and is carting their four-year-old, Jamie Johnson, around. All is apparently well and good. Cross believes Miner’s life has been salvaged. “He’d fallen, been caught before he hit the bottom, and hoisted back to the moral tightrope that everyone has to walk every day. But a man on probation walks his own high wire without a net. If he falls twice, he falls hard, into prison.”
But, then again, all hell breaks loose a few hours later when Mrs. Miner walks into Cross’ office about a kidnapping and fearing that her husband is involved. There’s a ransom note and the Abel and Helen Johnson do not want to involve the police because the note contained threats. But, there is an odd thing that the ransom note was postmarked the previous day – before the kidnapping occurred. The Johnson do not want to involve the FBI and it looks like Fred is the culprit so Cross gets involved investigating on his own, particularly after the ransom money disappears and the person who took the briefcase with the money is found with an ice pick in his neck.
Cross’ actions here often seem much like that of a private eye operating on his own, only Cross often tells witnesses he is with the police and they have to answer his questions or let him fish around. He soon uncovers connections to odd affairs that were brewing from many years earlier involving a sleazy lawyer, a private eye, a couple of sailors, and a young girl desperate to get her name in the movies and who says she has nothing to go back to after a flood washed everything and everyone away, “a little blonde chick name of Molly Fawn.”
Through it all, we learn that Cross feels “an obligation towards the law, the truth, whatever you want to call the abstractions that keep us going, keep us human. There’s nothing personal in this.”
April 18, 2022
Although this read just like a Lew Archer novel to me, plot wise it seems weaker and more contrived. Still, I enjoyed the Grover Gardener narration in the audiobook and was pleasantly distracted by the story.
March 11, 2022
I've said this before and I'll say it again. Before I discovered the mysteries of Ross Macdonald, I had been enjoying the works of his wife, Canadian mystery writer Margaret Millar. In the last few years I've tried MacDonald's Lew Archer books, excellent noir mysteries. Meet Me at the Morgue, written originally in 1953, was a non-series novel, featuring Parole Officer Howard Cross. I'll start off by saying it was quite excellent.
One of Cross's parolees is suspected of orchestrating the kidnapping of a young boy, the child of the wealthy family for whom he is chauffeur. Ex-Navy vet Fred Miner disappears and his wife gets Cross to begin investigating this. It all becomes a fascinating, entertaining mystery, as Cross delves into the people who might be involved in the case. Linking with the 'kidnapping' is an accident involving Miner, in which he killed a man (hit-and-run) while driving under the influence. This is why he is out on parole. The body has been unidentified and Cross wonders if there is a link between this accident and the kidnapping.
Macdonald creates a fascinating story. His writing is clear and concise and draws you in. There are suspects enough to keep you wondering and enough action as well to hold your interest. His story - telling is excellent. His description of people and settings creates pictures in your mind. I felt myself liking so many characters, especially Cross. He's a sympathetic but tough individual and has an ability to draw information from those people he comes across. Even minor characters, like aging cop Sam Dressen and FBI man Forest are intelligent and basically good cops.
The mystery twists and turns as Cross investigates. It's all very intriguing and the final resolution is eminently satisfying. So glad to have finally discovered Macdonald's work. (4.5 stars)
One of Cross's parolees is suspected of orchestrating the kidnapping of a young boy, the child of the wealthy family for whom he is chauffeur. Ex-Navy vet Fred Miner disappears and his wife gets Cross to begin investigating this. It all becomes a fascinating, entertaining mystery, as Cross delves into the people who might be involved in the case. Linking with the 'kidnapping' is an accident involving Miner, in which he killed a man (hit-and-run) while driving under the influence. This is why he is out on parole. The body has been unidentified and Cross wonders if there is a link between this accident and the kidnapping.
Macdonald creates a fascinating story. His writing is clear and concise and draws you in. There are suspects enough to keep you wondering and enough action as well to hold your interest. His story - telling is excellent. His description of people and settings creates pictures in your mind. I felt myself liking so many characters, especially Cross. He's a sympathetic but tough individual and has an ability to draw information from those people he comes across. Even minor characters, like aging cop Sam Dressen and FBI man Forest are intelligent and basically good cops.
The mystery twists and turns as Cross investigates. It's all very intriguing and the final resolution is eminently satisfying. So glad to have finally discovered Macdonald's work. (4.5 stars)
September 14, 2023
There is something about Ross Macdonald's books that makes them seem like a ballet done at high speed. Take Meet Me at the Morgue, for example. We have a kidnapping, two unidentified dead bodies (albeit several months apart), a number of highly suspect (yet attractive) females, and a mother's boy of an attorney.
The main character, Howard Cross, isn't even a legitimate police detective: He's head of the local probation department. Yet he passes up several meals and nights of sleep, traveling all over Southern California at high speed, to beat out the police and the FBI in solving a bunch of thorny interrelated capital crimes.
This is one outstanding mystery, easily as good as any of the author's Lew Archer novels. Well worth reading.
The main character, Howard Cross, isn't even a legitimate police detective: He's head of the local probation department. Yet he passes up several meals and nights of sleep, traveling all over Southern California at high speed, to beat out the police and the FBI in solving a bunch of thorny interrelated capital crimes.
This is one outstanding mystery, easily as good as any of the author's Lew Archer novels. Well worth reading.
February 10, 2014
"Freud was one of the greatest influences on me. He made myth into psychiatry, and I've been trying to turn it back into myth again." --Ross MacDonald
Ross Macdonald is top shelf when it comes to detective fiction. Unfortunately, he is sometimes overshadowed and overlooked by more popular Hardboiled mystery writers like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett . Zebra-Striped Hearse was the first Ross Macdonald book I ever read and I've been hooked ever since.
Meet Me at the Morgue is a pager-turner and continuously challenges the reader and seldom disappoints. Unlike Macdonald's other work, Detective Lew Archer, the main PI of his books, is absent (also in The Ferguson Affair). However, the plot and characters are still equally engaging. In this case, Howard Cross is the main character. He is a County Probation Officer. The crime: Kidnapping. The victim: a four-year old kid. Ransom: $50,000. (hey, the book was published in 1953). By the time this crime is solved four murders will stack up in the Southland.
The mastery of Macdonald's storytelling is that he can spin a yarn in 184 terse and tight pages and pacing that take most writers triple the amount of pages that often results in a turgid plot.
Memorable line: "You never can tell about these private operators. The dirt they work in is always rubbing off on them."
Great retro-cover of PCH and the Mailbu coast from Vintage. One critique: The editor should keep the original "Cast of Characters" like in the Bantam pocketbook editions of yesteryear that was typical of pulps. Multiple characters are introduced and it provides a good reference for the reader.
Read Ross Macdonald once and you'll return to him years later again and again...
Ross Macdonald is top shelf when it comes to detective fiction. Unfortunately, he is sometimes overshadowed and overlooked by more popular Hardboiled mystery writers like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett . Zebra-Striped Hearse was the first Ross Macdonald book I ever read and I've been hooked ever since.
Meet Me at the Morgue is a pager-turner and continuously challenges the reader and seldom disappoints. Unlike Macdonald's other work, Detective Lew Archer, the main PI of his books, is absent (also in The Ferguson Affair). However, the plot and characters are still equally engaging. In this case, Howard Cross is the main character. He is a County Probation Officer. The crime: Kidnapping. The victim: a four-year old kid. Ransom: $50,000. (hey, the book was published in 1953). By the time this crime is solved four murders will stack up in the Southland.
The mastery of Macdonald's storytelling is that he can spin a yarn in 184 terse and tight pages and pacing that take most writers triple the amount of pages that often results in a turgid plot.
Memorable line: "You never can tell about these private operators. The dirt they work in is always rubbing off on them."
Great retro-cover of PCH and the Mailbu coast from Vintage. One critique: The editor should keep the original "Cast of Characters" like in the Bantam pocketbook editions of yesteryear that was typical of pulps. Multiple characters are introduced and it provides a good reference for the reader.
Read Ross Macdonald once and you'll return to him years later again and again...
May 3, 2022
As the probation officer for an unnamed county in southern California, Howard Cross sees his job as serving as an intermediary between the law and his charges. Thus, when Fred Miner, a Navy veteran and war hero working as a chauffeur, approaches him with a question about his probation for accidentally running over an unidentified man, Cross does his best to help to help with some cautionary advice. Then Miner’s wife Ann shows up in his office to report that the son of the man for whom Miner works – a four-year-old boy who was with Miner when he talked with Cross – has been kidnapped and Miner is the primary suspect. Believing Miner to be innocent, Cross investigates the situation, and soon finds himself enmeshed in a web of greed, secret identities, and unidentified bodies as he struggles to find the boy before it is too late.
Though best known for his superb Lew Archer series, Ross Macdonald wrote a half-dozen novels featuring other characters. Though I’ve only read a couple of them, they deviate little from the formula of most of his Archer books, as a moral hero investigates a mystery driven by long-hidden secrets. Making Cross a probation officer puts his central character in an interesting place – technically an officer of the law, yet one lacking authority to investigate and thus working unofficially as a result. The nebulous nature of his status is one of the recurring points of the book, and works nicely with the overall story. While in the end the novel doesn’t measure up to the best of Macdonald’s work, it is nonetheless an entertaining, well-paced work that makes for an enjoyable read.
Though best known for his superb Lew Archer series, Ross Macdonald wrote a half-dozen novels featuring other characters. Though I’ve only read a couple of them, they deviate little from the formula of most of his Archer books, as a moral hero investigates a mystery driven by long-hidden secrets. Making Cross a probation officer puts his central character in an interesting place – technically an officer of the law, yet one lacking authority to investigate and thus working unofficially as a result. The nebulous nature of his status is one of the recurring points of the book, and works nicely with the overall story. While in the end the novel doesn’t measure up to the best of Macdonald’s work, it is nonetheless an entertaining, well-paced work that makes for an enjoyable read.
May 6, 2018
One of Macdonald's six non-Archer books. I have yet to read very first two, The Dark Tunnel and Trouble Follows Me, but this is definitely better than Blue City, and much much better than The Three Roads.
The protagonist and POV character in this first person mystery is a Parole Officer named Howard Cross who takes it upon himself to investigate a kidnapping involving a parolee when the child's family refuses to call in the authorities. The it isn't long before the first dead body turns up, but Cross continues his own parallel investigation. The book was published in 1953. If a specific date was given in the story I didn't pay any particular attention to it, but there are several WWII vets among the characters and it's got that post-war Southern California feel. Macdonald's usual web of buried connections between the parties involved is here, though with a somewhat less incestuous feel than the Archer books often have.
Though I've mostly been reading Macdonald's books in the order published, I'd skipped over this one when its turn came up because I'd been very disappointed with The Three Roads and this one had some rather negative reviews which led me to put it off. I shouldn't have worried, it's quite good. Not Macdonald's best but a very respectable outing.
The protagonist and POV character in this first person mystery is a Parole Officer named Howard Cross who takes it upon himself to investigate a kidnapping involving a parolee when the child's family refuses to call in the authorities. The it isn't long before the first dead body turns up, but Cross continues his own parallel investigation. The book was published in 1953. If a specific date was given in the story I didn't pay any particular attention to it, but there are several WWII vets among the characters and it's got that post-war Southern California feel. Macdonald's usual web of buried connections between the parties involved is here, though with a somewhat less incestuous feel than the Archer books often have.
Though I've mostly been reading Macdonald's books in the order published, I'd skipped over this one when its turn came up because I'd been very disappointed with The Three Roads and this one had some rather negative reviews which led me to put it off. I shouldn't have worried, it's quite good. Not Macdonald's best but a very respectable outing.
July 29, 2013
This is a non-Lew Archer series book, but still bears all the Ross MacDonald / Lew Archer hallmarks: Physically slim but nevertheless packs a punch and fits in a lot of finely hewed detail. Ross MacDonald was about a decade behind Raymond Chandler, chronologically, but I think is much the better writer. I mentally envision a well cut diamond when I think of MacDonald's novels, all of which I've read and enjoyed. His are the quintessential So. Cal. detective novels and are not to be missed.
December 6, 2022
In my opinion Meet Me at the Morgue is an early (1953) and great entry into the works of Ross MacDonald. A bit disappointed at first, No Lew Archer … but Howie Cross, probationary officer, greatly exceeded my expectations. He’s a bulldog on getting to the truth. Often, it’s a bit different than he or the reader expects, or wants? “But a man on probation walks his own high wire without a net. If he falls twice, he falls hard, into prison.” Howie Cross takes his job and it’s responsibilities seriously.
Howie’s self awareness, however uncomfortable: “What sort of a man are you, Mr. Cross?”
“You don’t expect an honest answer.” “Yes.” “I’m a slightly displaced person, I think. Nothing quite suits me, or rather I don’t quite suit.”… “majored in sociology. I wanted to help people. Helpfulness was like a religion with a lot of us in those days. It’s only in the last few years, since the war, that I’ve started to see around it. I see that helping other people can be an evasion of oneself, and the source of a good deal of smug self-satisfaction. But it takes the emotions a long time to catch up. I’m emotionally rather backward.”
Howie’s awareness, regularly tested, emotionally exhausting, fits the coda of a MacDonald protagonist [Lew Archer best known].
“Howard Cross. I’m County Probation Officer.” “Abel’s mentioned you, I think. Aren’t you with the police?” “I work with them, but under a different code. I’m a sort of middleman between the law and the lawbreaker.” “I don’t think I understand you.” “I’ll put it another way. The criminal is at war with society. Society fights back through cops and prisons. I try to act as a neutral arbitrator. The only way to end the war is to make some kind of peace between the two sides.”
Howie’s place in the middle, the arbitrator sheds considerable light, it’s complicated, messy and personal. There is right and wrong, but it’s neither black or white, mostly grey. And the forces of good vs. evil, a goal where the lines are usually in motion. “The depression that had blanketed me all day, ever since I learned the boy was stolen, was lifting at the corners. The boy was as lost as ever, but at least I was doing something about it, moving in a long, descending curve towards the heart of the evil. … “There was an angry core of heat in my body. It was, hard to hate evil without overdoing the hate and becoming evil. It wasn’t Molly I hated, or even Lemp. It was the shapes of their desires, the frantic waste of their flesh, the ugly zero waiting at the end.”
And the social distinctions of the times… “Miss Devon is my assistant, and it’s not exactly nonsense. But that’s beside the point.” “It’s very much to the point. You’re a public official, and you have some responsibility. It seems to me that your employees should be indoctrinated with some sense of class distinction. I’m not without power in this community, and when I see my son inveigled into a relationship with a social inferior—“ Her eyes were hard and black, impervious. It had probably been years since they had seen anything in the outside world that they hadn’t wished to see. Her self-assurance was almost paranoiac.”
Howie (and the reader) sees it through, and the benefits in this tale are rewarded. Excellent work done here by Mr. MacDonald.
Howie’s self awareness, however uncomfortable: “What sort of a man are you, Mr. Cross?”
“You don’t expect an honest answer.” “Yes.” “I’m a slightly displaced person, I think. Nothing quite suits me, or rather I don’t quite suit.”… “majored in sociology. I wanted to help people. Helpfulness was like a religion with a lot of us in those days. It’s only in the last few years, since the war, that I’ve started to see around it. I see that helping other people can be an evasion of oneself, and the source of a good deal of smug self-satisfaction. But it takes the emotions a long time to catch up. I’m emotionally rather backward.”
Howie’s awareness, regularly tested, emotionally exhausting, fits the coda of a MacDonald protagonist [Lew Archer best known].
“Howard Cross. I’m County Probation Officer.” “Abel’s mentioned you, I think. Aren’t you with the police?” “I work with them, but under a different code. I’m a sort of middleman between the law and the lawbreaker.” “I don’t think I understand you.” “I’ll put it another way. The criminal is at war with society. Society fights back through cops and prisons. I try to act as a neutral arbitrator. The only way to end the war is to make some kind of peace between the two sides.”
Howie’s place in the middle, the arbitrator sheds considerable light, it’s complicated, messy and personal. There is right and wrong, but it’s neither black or white, mostly grey. And the forces of good vs. evil, a goal where the lines are usually in motion. “The depression that had blanketed me all day, ever since I learned the boy was stolen, was lifting at the corners. The boy was as lost as ever, but at least I was doing something about it, moving in a long, descending curve towards the heart of the evil. … “There was an angry core of heat in my body. It was, hard to hate evil without overdoing the hate and becoming evil. It wasn’t Molly I hated, or even Lemp. It was the shapes of their desires, the frantic waste of their flesh, the ugly zero waiting at the end.”
And the social distinctions of the times… “Miss Devon is my assistant, and it’s not exactly nonsense. But that’s beside the point.” “It’s very much to the point. You’re a public official, and you have some responsibility. It seems to me that your employees should be indoctrinated with some sense of class distinction. I’m not without power in this community, and when I see my son inveigled into a relationship with a social inferior—“ Her eyes were hard and black, impervious. It had probably been years since they had seen anything in the outside world that they hadn’t wished to see. Her self-assurance was almost paranoiac.”
Howie (and the reader) sees it through, and the benefits in this tale are rewarded. Excellent work done here by Mr. MacDonald.
October 13, 2024
I enjoyed this book, an entertaining standalone from Macdonald.
Howard Cross is a probation officer taking on the role of detective and cop when a child in the local area has been kidnapped. The man accused of the kidnapping is Fred, an offender who has been in previous trouble for drunken driving, which resulted in a death.
Fred is under Howard's watch, as he is on probation for his offence, so why would he want to get into serious trouble and face inevitable jail time for kidnapping a child who is also the son of his employer?
From here we witness a murder, and many twists and turns follow throughout the book, as no one and nothing is as clear-cut it initially seems.
I haven't, at this time of writing, read the Lew Archer books, just a few standalones, but some readers have commented that this tale reads like an Archer tale.
I found my self comparing myself this book to later writer David Baldacci's first two Aloysius Archer books. I came to the conclusion that Macdonald was the better writer of the two -imo .
Baldacci, while good, goes overboard on excessive description.
One has to read a page describing the color of a bit part character's dress, or the size and shape of the windows of a room that Aloysius has walked into. Stuff you don't really need to know.
Macdonald's writing has descriptive passages, but he doesn't go too far with it, he gives you just enough, and no more. I found myself appreciating that.
Written in 1952, and set in that year, this book kept me turning the pages. You need to devote your time to it and read it with as few sittings as possible, not just read a chapter here and there and put it aside for a few days. If you do the latter, it would be easy to lose track or forget some aspects of its intricate plot and long cast of characters. If any of that makes any sense. That's how it seemed to me.
A good, vintage crime story, I liked it. The very end may be a bit too neat and tidy (in reference to Cross's future), but I don't have any real quibbles, or wish to nitpick.
Look forward to reading more Macdonald!
Howard Cross is a probation officer taking on the role of detective and cop when a child in the local area has been kidnapped. The man accused of the kidnapping is Fred, an offender who has been in previous trouble for drunken driving, which resulted in a death.
Fred is under Howard's watch, as he is on probation for his offence, so why would he want to get into serious trouble and face inevitable jail time for kidnapping a child who is also the son of his employer?
From here we witness a murder, and many twists and turns follow throughout the book, as no one and nothing is as clear-cut it initially seems.
I haven't, at this time of writing, read the Lew Archer books, just a few standalones, but some readers have commented that this tale reads like an Archer tale.
I found my self comparing myself this book to later writer David Baldacci's first two Aloysius Archer books. I came to the conclusion that Macdonald was the better writer of the two -imo .
Baldacci, while good, goes overboard on excessive description.
One has to read a page describing the color of a bit part character's dress, or the size and shape of the windows of a room that Aloysius has walked into. Stuff you don't really need to know.
Macdonald's writing has descriptive passages, but he doesn't go too far with it, he gives you just enough, and no more. I found myself appreciating that.
Written in 1952, and set in that year, this book kept me turning the pages. You need to devote your time to it and read it with as few sittings as possible, not just read a chapter here and there and put it aside for a few days. If you do the latter, it would be easy to lose track or forget some aspects of its intricate plot and long cast of characters. If any of that makes any sense. That's how it seemed to me.
A good, vintage crime story, I liked it. The very end may be a bit too neat and tidy (in reference to Cross's future), but I don't have any real quibbles, or wish to nitpick.
Look forward to reading more Macdonald!
March 23, 2021
review of
Ross MacDonald's Meet Me at the Morgue
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 21, 2021
I continue on my Ross MacDonald spree (thx to the generosity of Caliban Books). Maybe he's the Holy Ghost of that Unholy Trilogy of the Father, Dashiell Hammett; the Son, Raymond Chandler; &, now, MacDonald. Every new thing that I read by him impresses me more & more w/ his craft & his psychology. This one's from 1953, the yr I was born, & isn't a Lew Archer novel. It has the novel device of a 2pp "Cast of Characters" at the beginning that includes the crime-solving protagonist, Howard Cross, a probation officer no less. There're hints of trouble almost immediately:
"The boy scampered back to the Jaguar and dove head first over the low door. The last I saw of him was a thin denim behind and a pair of kicking mocassins."
[..]
""Hold it a minute. What's up?"
""There's nothing up," he answered woodenly.
""The boy said you were going on a trip. You're not leaving the country?"
""No, I'm not going anywhere." He was a long time answering." - p 3
The man answering the questions is on probation. Why is explained:
""He isn't alcoholic. He simply got drunk, as a lot of people do, and killed a man. Don't waste your sympathy on him, because he's been lucky. His wife stayed with him. His boss stood by him. If it wasn't for that, and his war record, Miner would be in jail."" - p 6
An apparent childnapping happens & Cross explains his philosophy to the mother he's trying to help:
""I'll put it another way. The criminal is at war with society. Society fights back through cops and prisons. I try to act as a neutral arbitrator. The only way to end the war is to make some kind of peace between the two sides."
""I'm not a service-club luncheon," she flared out. "Is that how you feel about this case? Neutral?"
""Hardly. There's no probation on a kidnapping conviction. It carries the death penalty, and I think it should. On the other hand, I feel as you do, it's dangerous to jump to conclusions. My office helped to keep Fred Miner out of jail, and I may be prejudiced. But I don't think he's the type. It takes a cruel mind to plan and execute a kidnapping."" - p 18
This probation officer is a non-nonsense kindof a guy:
""Ann Devon's my favorite young woman."
""Mine, too. In my book she's the complete darling. But even the best of them let their emotions get out of kilter now and then. They can never understand that business is business. They want to make everything into a personal issue."
""A lot of things are."
""Come on now," he said heartily, "let's have a little masculine solidarity here."
"I didn't smile." - p 25
& suspicious:
""Nothing like that. You'd think the guy deliberately wiped out his own identity."
""Did you see him?"
""Yes, I took a look at him in the morgue." Seifel's gaze turned inward. "I've seen prettier sights. There wasn't much left of his face. The fog-lamp smashed right into it as he fell.["]" - p 26
&, of course, there's at least 1 more dead person:
"A man reclined on the front seat half covered by a brown topcoat. His head was jammed into the corner between the right-hand door and the back of his seat, his legs twisted under the steering wheel. When I opened the door a brown toupe detached itself from his skull and draped itself across the toe of my shoe. From the side of his neck the red plastic handle of an icepick stood out like a terrible carbuncle." - p 40
Yes, it was the toupe that committed the murders. It's a good thing Cross was wearing steel-toed loafers or he wd've been a goner. It doesn't justify his obnoxiousness tho:
""Stop that thing," he said in a high-pitched voice. "I refuse to talk for the record."
""So you can change your story later on, when you've had more time to think? What's the matter, Seifel? You've got me half convinced that you're involved—"
""I could sue you for that!" He glared at the whirling spools. "If you play that tape with the accusation on it to one or more persons, you're actionable under the libel laws. I advise you to wipe it off."
""It's not recording yet. You have to press this button."" - p 60
MacDonald seems to present a wide variety of oppressive parental types in various bks. Here it's the mother of one of the suspects:
""I'm sorry, Mother."
""Indeed you should be sorry. You forced me to take a public bus down here."
""You could have taken a taxi."
""I can't afford to pay taxi-fare every day. You never think of my sacrifices, of course, but it cost me an enormous amount of money to set you up in practice with Mr. Sturtevant."" - p 68
Ha ha! How many of us know someone like this? Obviously she chose to take the bus just so she cd complain about it. Furthermore, she didn't need to take a taxi every day - just this one time when her son was late.
"She left me in a room with a heavily beamed ceiling and book-lined walls. Many of the books were beautifully bound, but they looked as if they had never been read. Someone had probably bought them all at once, stacked them in cases because the room required them, and then forgotten them." - p 91
As a former bkstore owner I can attest that such things really do happen.
The oasises of description are always juicy:
"There were human sounds behind the walls and doors, sounds of unquiet slumber, alcoholic laughter, furtive love. I was tired enough to feel the weight of lives pressing from both sides on the narrow hallway. For a nightmare instant I felt infinitely tiny, a detached cell threading the veins of a giant, tormented body." - p 112
They tried gassing the toupe, it lived on; they tried electrocuting it, it lived on, they tried a lethal injection, it lived on; they tried hanging it, it lived on. They had to microwave it.
Ross MacDonald's Meet Me at the Morgue
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 21, 2021
I continue on my Ross MacDonald spree (thx to the generosity of Caliban Books). Maybe he's the Holy Ghost of that Unholy Trilogy of the Father, Dashiell Hammett; the Son, Raymond Chandler; &, now, MacDonald. Every new thing that I read by him impresses me more & more w/ his craft & his psychology. This one's from 1953, the yr I was born, & isn't a Lew Archer novel. It has the novel device of a 2pp "Cast of Characters" at the beginning that includes the crime-solving protagonist, Howard Cross, a probation officer no less. There're hints of trouble almost immediately:
"The boy scampered back to the Jaguar and dove head first over the low door. The last I saw of him was a thin denim behind and a pair of kicking mocassins."
[..]
""Hold it a minute. What's up?"
""There's nothing up," he answered woodenly.
""The boy said you were going on a trip. You're not leaving the country?"
""No, I'm not going anywhere." He was a long time answering." - p 3
The man answering the questions is on probation. Why is explained:
""He isn't alcoholic. He simply got drunk, as a lot of people do, and killed a man. Don't waste your sympathy on him, because he's been lucky. His wife stayed with him. His boss stood by him. If it wasn't for that, and his war record, Miner would be in jail."" - p 6
An apparent childnapping happens & Cross explains his philosophy to the mother he's trying to help:
""I'll put it another way. The criminal is at war with society. Society fights back through cops and prisons. I try to act as a neutral arbitrator. The only way to end the war is to make some kind of peace between the two sides."
""I'm not a service-club luncheon," she flared out. "Is that how you feel about this case? Neutral?"
""Hardly. There's no probation on a kidnapping conviction. It carries the death penalty, and I think it should. On the other hand, I feel as you do, it's dangerous to jump to conclusions. My office helped to keep Fred Miner out of jail, and I may be prejudiced. But I don't think he's the type. It takes a cruel mind to plan and execute a kidnapping."" - p 18
This probation officer is a non-nonsense kindof a guy:
""Ann Devon's my favorite young woman."
""Mine, too. In my book she's the complete darling. But even the best of them let their emotions get out of kilter now and then. They can never understand that business is business. They want to make everything into a personal issue."
""A lot of things are."
""Come on now," he said heartily, "let's have a little masculine solidarity here."
"I didn't smile." - p 25
& suspicious:
""Nothing like that. You'd think the guy deliberately wiped out his own identity."
""Did you see him?"
""Yes, I took a look at him in the morgue." Seifel's gaze turned inward. "I've seen prettier sights. There wasn't much left of his face. The fog-lamp smashed right into it as he fell.["]" - p 26
&, of course, there's at least 1 more dead person:
"A man reclined on the front seat half covered by a brown topcoat. His head was jammed into the corner between the right-hand door and the back of his seat, his legs twisted under the steering wheel. When I opened the door a brown toupe detached itself from his skull and draped itself across the toe of my shoe. From the side of his neck the red plastic handle of an icepick stood out like a terrible carbuncle." - p 40
Yes, it was the toupe that committed the murders. It's a good thing Cross was wearing steel-toed loafers or he wd've been a goner. It doesn't justify his obnoxiousness tho:
""Stop that thing," he said in a high-pitched voice. "I refuse to talk for the record."
""So you can change your story later on, when you've had more time to think? What's the matter, Seifel? You've got me half convinced that you're involved—"
""I could sue you for that!" He glared at the whirling spools. "If you play that tape with the accusation on it to one or more persons, you're actionable under the libel laws. I advise you to wipe it off."
""It's not recording yet. You have to press this button."" - p 60
MacDonald seems to present a wide variety of oppressive parental types in various bks. Here it's the mother of one of the suspects:
""I'm sorry, Mother."
""Indeed you should be sorry. You forced me to take a public bus down here."
""You could have taken a taxi."
""I can't afford to pay taxi-fare every day. You never think of my sacrifices, of course, but it cost me an enormous amount of money to set you up in practice with Mr. Sturtevant."" - p 68
Ha ha! How many of us know someone like this? Obviously she chose to take the bus just so she cd complain about it. Furthermore, she didn't need to take a taxi every day - just this one time when her son was late.
"She left me in a room with a heavily beamed ceiling and book-lined walls. Many of the books were beautifully bound, but they looked as if they had never been read. Someone had probably bought them all at once, stacked them in cases because the room required them, and then forgotten them." - p 91
As a former bkstore owner I can attest that such things really do happen.
The oasises of description are always juicy:
"There were human sounds behind the walls and doors, sounds of unquiet slumber, alcoholic laughter, furtive love. I was tired enough to feel the weight of lives pressing from both sides on the narrow hallway. For a nightmare instant I felt infinitely tiny, a detached cell threading the veins of a giant, tormented body." - p 112
They tried gassing the toupe, it lived on; they tried electrocuting it, it lived on, they tried a lethal injection, it lived on; they tried hanging it, it lived on. They had to microwave it.
December 4, 2014
The first non-Lew Archer book of Macdonald that I've read and one of the strangest "detective" books I've ever read. Right off the bat, there's the protagonist. The "detective" in question is a probation officer. His irresponsible actions all throughout the book put many lives needlessly in danger and directly causes several deaths.
That being said, it has some great twists and turns and the always top notch Macdonald characterization and dialogue but I can definitely understand why he gave up on making this a series and focused on Lew Archer.
That being said, it has some great twists and turns and the always top notch Macdonald characterization and dialogue but I can definitely understand why he gave up on making this a series and focused on Lew Archer.
December 22, 2014
As always when I read Ross MacDonald, I'm reminded why I consider him the ultimate Noir author. His skill with words has no match. To quote the NY Times Book Review: "The American Private Eye, immortalized by Hammett, refined by Chandler, and brought to its zenith by MacDonald." Exactly.
January 23, 2019
I started it this morning and just finished it! I couldn't put it down. Brilliant pulp read! If you like pulp mysteries you'll love this. Quick , easy, fun, read.
March 30, 2022
Instead of making this his fifth Lew Archer, Macdonald chose to create a new detective, a probation officer named Howard Cross. It's a very clever mystery, tightly plotted, and it keeps you guessing. The core mystery is the kidnapping of a child--we know from the start the identity of the person who took the child but we are stumped about why--and also why corpses keep accumulating. As in most Macdonald books, the real source of the present crime is events in the past. I was completely surprised by the ending. The only problem is that it's not an Archer book, which is a shame because there are really no good reason to bring in a non-series detective. I explore this in detail in my blog at www.neilalbertauthor.com which covers this as well as his other novels. It's among his best early books even without Archer.
January 21, 2022
Ah, I forgot how much I like a good noir. And while it is only the second Ross Macdonald I've read, I'm really enjoying him. The story was slightly overly convoluted (or maybe it's just the problem of me listening to the audiobook while holding a crying newborn) but that's noir for you. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the plot, the well-written characters (though of course everyone knows everyone) and the flowery language (but not to the extent of how it was used by Chandler). The ending was good, with many twists and surprises, just the very finale felt too neat. Apart from that a very, very enjoyable book. Starting another Macdonald right away.
May 23, 2014
A sweet little boy has been kidnapped, apparently by a family retainer. His wealthy father is too ill to be told all the details. His mother, a former Army nurse, is much younger than her husband. Who snatched the boy? Where is he? And can anyone be trusted?
My first MacDonald novel, though I've seen films of some of the others. I really enjoyed it and hope to read more. The writing is well-paced and tight, with no extraneous details; MacDonald achieves the "hard boiled noir" ambience without the self-consciousness of Spillane or the (at times) dry detail of Hammett. The dialogue doesn't descend into pastiche except in the mouth of one character who is trying too hard to be tough, anyway.
There's an excellent, unexpected twist in the tail of the story of kidnap, blackmail and second chances gone bad. The main character, Cross, is a human being, though like most noir detectives he too has the apparent ability to go for two or three days at a time without sleep or food without his faculties being impaired; at one point he does have a dizzy spell, but a glass of iced tea sets him up well enough to drive quite a distance without mishap! He's not even a private eye, only a probation officer; I suppose then MacDonald's P. I.s are supermen, like all the rest.
A good, light read that engages the mind without forcing credulity to the usual limits. It could actually have happened.
My first MacDonald novel, though I've seen films of some of the others. I really enjoyed it and hope to read more. The writing is well-paced and tight, with no extraneous details; MacDonald achieves the "hard boiled noir" ambience without the self-consciousness of Spillane or the (at times) dry detail of Hammett. The dialogue doesn't descend into pastiche except in the mouth of one character who is trying too hard to be tough, anyway.
There's an excellent, unexpected twist in the tail of the story of kidnap, blackmail and second chances gone bad. The main character, Cross, is a human being, though like most noir detectives he too has the apparent ability to go for two or three days at a time without sleep or food without his faculties being impaired; at one point he does have a dizzy spell, but a glass of iced tea sets him up well enough to drive quite a distance without mishap! He's not even a private eye, only a probation officer; I suppose then MacDonald's P. I.s are supermen, like all the rest.
A good, light read that engages the mind without forcing credulity to the usual limits. It could actually have happened.
June 17, 2016
This was not your typical mystery novel. It has so many twists and turns that I couldn't figure out who did it until the very end. I always love a good mystery. When a young boy gets kidnapped Howard Cross tries to figure out who did it and then two people get killed and it adds more to the mystery of who did it. It was not the person who I thought that did it until the very end. I can't wait to read more by this author.
April 4, 2021
Another terrific Ross Macdonald novel with Howard Cross, a probation officer as protagonist. The story is a web of deception, coverups, murders, wealth, historical events, and masquerades. Also, he writes about the issue of alcoholism as it effected a character, which he has not written about before. After reading nearly 25 of Macondald's books and stories during the pandemic, I was surprised the murderer was not whom I expected, which is why I think he's such a masterful writer.
July 25, 2009
Dated and slow, but it gets better if you have the patience to follow it through. McDonald is not writing with Lew Archer as his protagonist here. You wonder how much you can trust his perspective. But the action heats up as it goes on, and the ending is more satisfying than expected.
June 14, 2013
Classic mid-century SoCal crime fiction with an unlikely detective (the county probation officer). Incredibly tight plotting and magnificent dialogue. Five stars might not be enough.
March 23, 2024
A decent enough hard-boiled, noir detective story. All the usual cliches are present. I like the MC, Howard Cross, and the fact that he is a probation officer lends a slightly different twist
August 1, 2021
God, I really thought the late-60s was the best period of Macdonald's work, but honestly the mid-50s is really giving it a run for its money.
I went into Meet Me at the Morgue thinking it'd be pulpy and a little insubstantive, but in terms of quality, it really does sit up there with Macdonald's best. It's a terrifically absorbing old-fashioned crime novel, with as much depth and surprise as his best books and just as well-written; a real gem from probably the greatest American mystery novelist really working at the top of his craft.
Pretty much the only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is the Lew Archer-shaped elephant in the room. Every single thing about this book feels like a typical Archer novel: a decades-spanning mystery built on interpersonal secrets and hidden identities, a furiously-paced plot taking place in real time, a dispassionate but driven protagonist determined to uncover it all for the sake of psychological justice.
Only the protagonist is not Lew Archer. Which I wouldn't have minded so much if Macdonald had given any specific reason at all for replacing him -- perhaps if the plot were differently structured, or featured a leading character with personal characteristics more unique to the story, as he did in Blue City or his few other standalones.
But no: if you scan the pages and replace "Howard Cross" and "probation officer" with "Lew Archer" and "private detective", the books would be absolutely the same in all other regards.
I'm not sure why specifically Macdonald included Archer out in this one -- perhaps he was a little bored with his creation (just as Ian Fleming was when he very briefly killed off James Bond in From Russia With Love) but he was obviously not bored with the form of the Archer novel. Macdonald is one of those novelists who truly found detective fiction to be the perfect outlet for all his literary goals, and Archer, by extension, is really his best conduit. When he's missing, the electricity is still there, but doesn't feel like it's giving off the same amount of power.
But still, I'll definitely take the terrific Meet Me at the Morgue with its forgettable Howard Cross over Macdonald's other post-Archer standalone: the bland The Ferguson Affair, starring the even more boring faux-Archer Bill Gunnarson.
I went into Meet Me at the Morgue thinking it'd be pulpy and a little insubstantive, but in terms of quality, it really does sit up there with Macdonald's best. It's a terrifically absorbing old-fashioned crime novel, with as much depth and surprise as his best books and just as well-written; a real gem from probably the greatest American mystery novelist really working at the top of his craft.
Pretty much the only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is the Lew Archer-shaped elephant in the room. Every single thing about this book feels like a typical Archer novel: a decades-spanning mystery built on interpersonal secrets and hidden identities, a furiously-paced plot taking place in real time, a dispassionate but driven protagonist determined to uncover it all for the sake of psychological justice.
Only the protagonist is not Lew Archer. Which I wouldn't have minded so much if Macdonald had given any specific reason at all for replacing him -- perhaps if the plot were differently structured, or featured a leading character with personal characteristics more unique to the story, as he did in Blue City or his few other standalones.
But no: if you scan the pages and replace "Howard Cross" and "probation officer" with "Lew Archer" and "private detective", the books would be absolutely the same in all other regards.
I'm not sure why specifically Macdonald included Archer out in this one -- perhaps he was a little bored with his creation (just as Ian Fleming was when he very briefly killed off James Bond in From Russia With Love) but he was obviously not bored with the form of the Archer novel. Macdonald is one of those novelists who truly found detective fiction to be the perfect outlet for all his literary goals, and Archer, by extension, is really his best conduit. When he's missing, the electricity is still there, but doesn't feel like it's giving off the same amount of power.
But still, I'll definitely take the terrific Meet Me at the Morgue with its forgettable Howard Cross over Macdonald's other post-Archer standalone: the bland The Ferguson Affair, starring the even more boring faux-Archer Bill Gunnarson.
November 16, 2025
In variation of protagonist but not formula, this novel reflects the author's continued refinement to style and craftsmanship.
Parole Officer Howard Cross is confronted with the prospect of one of the least expected parolees going bad, a former sailor turned chauffeur implicated in kidnapping his employer's four-year-old son. Cross takes it on himself to unravel the typically convoluted plot readers expect from the author.
A little rough around the edges at the beginning, noticeable where the difference in profession is apparent - PI vs parole officer - the narrative is full of sharp characterizations and brisk dialog. The pace accelerates with plenty of mis-direction and red-herrings with the tale compressed as usual to one or two days.
The similes are part of the allure of the author's work:
"...a man of about my age, broad-shouldered and short-legged, with quick suspicious Hollywood eyes set on ball bearings in an anxious face."
"Morbid thoughts...they trailed my car like black crepe all the way to Los Angeles. I drove as if death were behind me on a motorcycle."
"His wrinkled smile was like an old scar that still hurt sometimes."
"...his searching profile was dark and poignant...like an old stone face roughed and eroded by too many rainy seasons."
"The last I saw of his face, it looked bruised and shapeless, as if her Cuban heels had been hammering it."
"I noticed the leathery patches loose under the jaw, the marks of old knowledge around the painted mouth and in the black shining eyes."
"A curved decorator's tool had marked the walls and ceiling with myriad small crescents, like hoofprints left by a revolving army of nightmares."
"Her hair was tied back in an old-fashioned bun that looked as hard and shiny as a doorknob."
"The sky was a dull green, like stagnant water."
Parole Officer Howard Cross is confronted with the prospect of one of the least expected parolees going bad, a former sailor turned chauffeur implicated in kidnapping his employer's four-year-old son. Cross takes it on himself to unravel the typically convoluted plot readers expect from the author.
A little rough around the edges at the beginning, noticeable where the difference in profession is apparent - PI vs parole officer - the narrative is full of sharp characterizations and brisk dialog. The pace accelerates with plenty of mis-direction and red-herrings with the tale compressed as usual to one or two days.
The similes are part of the allure of the author's work:
"...a man of about my age, broad-shouldered and short-legged, with quick suspicious Hollywood eyes set on ball bearings in an anxious face."
"Morbid thoughts...they trailed my car like black crepe all the way to Los Angeles. I drove as if death were behind me on a motorcycle."
"His wrinkled smile was like an old scar that still hurt sometimes."
"...his searching profile was dark and poignant...like an old stone face roughed and eroded by too many rainy seasons."
"The last I saw of his face, it looked bruised and shapeless, as if her Cuban heels had been hammering it."
"I noticed the leathery patches loose under the jaw, the marks of old knowledge around the painted mouth and in the black shining eyes."
"A curved decorator's tool had marked the walls and ceiling with myriad small crescents, like hoofprints left by a revolving army of nightmares."
"Her hair was tied back in an old-fashioned bun that looked as hard and shiny as a doorknob."
"The sky was a dull green, like stagnant water."
April 4, 2025
Macdonald branched out from Lew Archer with a mystery involving probation officer Howard Cross. Investigation isn't generally the sort of thing that a P.O. would do, but Cross gets pulled in to the mystery when one of his probationers appears to be involved in the kidnapping of a young boy. That doesn't feel like the kind of thing that Fred Miner would do. Miner, a navy veteran with a supporting wife and a solid job, is on probation for a manslaughter charge coming out of a drunk-driving incident. Not the sort of thing that would lead to one becoming a kidnapper. And Cross works to try to prove his innocence. And does a good job as an investigator far outdoing the local police, county sheriff's department and the FBI when they are inevitably called in. Ultimately almost everyone in this small town is connected in some way and the ultimate solution is certainly not what I expected...which is a good thing.
I spent the first half of this one thinking that I really didn't care for it. But when I came to the end I realized I'd burned through this one in two evenings of reading. Now it's not a super long book...but that was still a darn brisk pace for me. So we can definitely say it's compulsively readable. Most of the characters in the book are morally ambiguous and at least aware of their various flaws. Which puts it a bit ahead of the pack as far as detective stories of this time-period went. I do think it's good that this was a one-off. Howard Cross did his job and it would be pretty silly for this probation officer in a fairly small town to be continually getting involved in mysteries. I felt kind of cold to it for a fair while, but in the end this is a pretty solid detective story with an ending that isn't really telegraphed.
I spent the first half of this one thinking that I really didn't care for it. But when I came to the end I realized I'd burned through this one in two evenings of reading. Now it's not a super long book...but that was still a darn brisk pace for me. So we can definitely say it's compulsively readable. Most of the characters in the book are morally ambiguous and at least aware of their various flaws. Which puts it a bit ahead of the pack as far as detective stories of this time-period went. I do think it's good that this was a one-off. Howard Cross did his job and it would be pretty silly for this probation officer in a fairly small town to be continually getting involved in mysteries. I felt kind of cold to it for a fair while, but in the end this is a pretty solid detective story with an ending that isn't really telegraphed.
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April 11, 2022Ross MacDonald, an excellent writer who brought us private detective Lew Archer, sidestepped for Meet Me at the Morgue (1953) and created Howard Cross, a probation officer in Pacific Point, California, who is working on a kidnapping. One of Howie's clients, Fred Miner, a World War II Navy veteran, appears to have kidnapped Jamie, the 4-year-old son of wealthy businessman Abel Johnson and his attractive and younger wife, Helen. As the case develops, Cross, who can't work with the police because Mrs Johnson fears for her son's life, digs into an array of characters, including two who were friends with Miner during the war. As is typical of MacDonald's versatile prose with its vivid descriptions and array of metaphors and similes, the pace is fast, the plot twists and turns, the characters are often dysfunctional, and the least-suspected person may be the villain. Meet Me at the Morgue isn't one of MacDonald's excellent Lew Archer mysteries, but this well-written novel is not only fun but well worth the read.
February 1, 2020
Novela de Macdonald que no pertenece al ciclo de Lew Archer, donde esta lo mejor de su producción. Pero ya era un buen escritor y es una novela de buen nivel.
Trata sobre el secuestro de un niño, y un oficial que controla los presos con libertades condicionales, se entera casi accidentalmente de lo sucedido y se pon e a investigar por su cuenta, ad honorem.
Lleva casi unas 50 paginas entrar de lleno, pero vale la pena, mantiene la tensión y todo desemboca en un final imprevisto.
Al protagonista le falta personalidad y carisma, pero es que es uno de las primeros trabajos del autor, después va a desarrollar un estilo y un personaje increíble con Lew Archer.
Es interesante, aunque sea un trabajo menor de uno de los tres grandes autores de novela negra norteamericana de la época de oro, un podio que comparte con Raymond Chandler y Dashiell Hammett.
Trata sobre el secuestro de un niño, y un oficial que controla los presos con libertades condicionales, se entera casi accidentalmente de lo sucedido y se pon e a investigar por su cuenta, ad honorem.
Lleva casi unas 50 paginas entrar de lleno, pero vale la pena, mantiene la tensión y todo desemboca en un final imprevisto.
Al protagonista le falta personalidad y carisma, pero es que es uno de las primeros trabajos del autor, después va a desarrollar un estilo y un personaje increíble con Lew Archer.
Es interesante, aunque sea un trabajo menor de uno de los tres grandes autores de novela negra norteamericana de la época de oro, un podio que comparte con Raymond Chandler y Dashiell Hammett.
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