Polite Dissent

Ross Macdonald, the nom de plume of Kenneth Millar, is probably the least known of the “holy trinity” of original American hard-boiled detective writers. A prolific writer, he was the author of over twenty five novels and a handful of short stories.

His novels all concern Lew Archer, a private investigator in California. Archer is a complex character, flawed but still with a strong sense of right and wrong. As a character, he matures as the series continues. The Archer in the later books is a much more complex man than the one in the novels written in the 1950s. It’s important to note that each book is complete in and of itself, so they don’t have to be read in any particular order.

In addition to the requisite murder (usually murders), his novels all seem to have a dark family secret at the center of them, usually related to a childhood trauma of some sort. This is most likely because of the turbulent childhood Millar himself lived through. The Galton Case, published in 1959, is felt to be the most autobiographical of his novels.

His best (at least of those I’ve read) are The Galton Case, The Chill, The Drowning Pool, and The Far Side of the Dollar, though any Macdonald book is a good read.