Publisher Description

The Library of America caps its three-volume edition of the writer who stands with Hammett and Chandler as a master of the modern crime novelFrom his vantage point in Southern California-andthrough the eyes of his great creation, private eye LewArcher-Ross Macdonald (the pseudonymn of Kenneth Millar)fashions a haunting, startlinglyimmediate vision of modern America- a swirling mixof sexual exploitation, intergenerational conflict, racialanimosities, and ecological disaster.In Black Money, Archer is hired to find a wealthy mangone missing and soon finds himself investigating asuspicious seven-year-old suicide. The case becomes apeeling away of many levels of deception, delusion,and false identity. Exploring themes of immigrationand border-crossing central to Macdonald's own life,Black Money also pays homage to The Great Gatsby,one of his favorite books.The Instant Enemy begins with Archer's search for arunaway teenage daughter and her troubled, possiblymurderous boyfriend, a search that uncovers amorass of hidden wrongs. In an emotionally intensework that reflects the chaos and conflicts of hisfamily's troubled past, Macdonald gives indelibleand ultimately tragic expression to the generationalconflict and drug culture of the DJHCs.An investigation into "a rather peculiar burglary" takesa drastic turn with the discovery of a body in an abandonedcar on a beach in The Goodbye Look, the bookthat sealed Macdonald's reputation as the preeminentcrime novelist of his time. Tracking a stolen heirloom,Archer follows a trail of violence that lays bare amiasma of buried secrets and unforgotten traumas."In our day," wrote Eudora Welty, "it is for such anovel as The Underground Man that the detectiveform exists." A raging wildfire stirred by the SantaAna winds serves as prelude to a chain of kidnappingand murder. Youthful rebellion is pitted against thehypocrisies of the older generation in a novel, inWelty's estimation, "not only exhilaratingly welldone; it is also very moving."LIBRARY OF AMERICAis an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Author Biography

Tom Nolan, editor, is the author of the definitiveRoss Macdonald- A Biography (1999). In addition tothe three-volume Library of America edition ofMacdonald's fiction he has edited The Archer Files(2007) and (with Suzanne Marrs) Meanwhile ThereAre Letters- The Correspondence of Eudora Welty andRoss Macdonald (2015).

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The Library of America caps its three-volume edition of the writer who stands with Hammett and Chandler as a master of the modern crime novel

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The Library of America caps its three-volume edition of the writer who stands with Hammett and Chandler as a master of the modern crime novel

Description for Sales People

The Goodbye Look prompted William Goldman to pronounce the Lew Archer novels 'the finest series of detective novels ever The Underground Man garnered a front page review by Eudora Welty in The New York Times Book Review and a cover story in Each volume of The Library of America series features authoritative, unabridged texts, chronology, detailed notes, and b

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