Not his best. Obviously "The Drowning Pool" is a masterpiece of crime and I really enjoyed "The Moving Target" but this one really let me down.
What I usually enjoy so much about Ross MacDonald's stuff is that slight freshness to his characters and scenes. They're not as tired as some of his cohorts' works giving us that little extra splash of colour to keep them in our minds.
Unfortunately this one was a little different:
The characters were flat and confusing. No single one really stood out (except maybe Fritz) and there were so many families and flings to keep track of I only knew what was really going on when character's started spewing their exposition summaries of their lives. And I didn't really care about any of them.
The scenes were basically none existent. There was so little action in this it slipped a little too far into the British Gentile mystery genre and too far from Hard-Boiled Noir. Lew Archer just basically went around from one dysfunctional family to the next to have a chat and move on.
Another of the things I have admired Ross for in the past is his sensitivities to the whys of the crime rather than just the hows. Unfortunately, this one was a little lacking in that respect also and after reading one of his wife's masterpieces Ross seemed a little simplistic in his understanding.
All authors are allowed a dip (I've not got out of mine yet) so its a bit too early to lose confidence in the guy.
No comments:
Post a Comment