Peter Talbot’s Reviews > Four Novels of the 1950s: The Way Some People Die / The Barbarous Coast / The Doomsters / The Galton Case > Status Update

Finished . Bizarre heavy pop psychology mishmash, all the more cray cray for its earnest touting of middle-brow psychological justifications for violent serial murder promoting sympathy for the killer in a California where the victims are unfeeling selfish manipulators. Denounces the categories of "good" and "bad" ethics among other trends. Every plot point involves automobile operation and worship.

The Barbarous Coast: well plotted and more mature work: highly interesting patter that more expressively reveals the commitment and ethics of Detective Lew Archer (1956). Ross Macdonald is well worth reading extensively, despite a tendency toward middle-brow Freudian mythos and method that has not aged as well as the plot devices and character dialogue.

Just finished: "The Way Some People Die": female serial killer and ambivalent Lew Archer making his debut in 1949. Very interesting: not least for its wise portrayal of California of that age. Worthy of Hammett (if not Chandler).