Ross Macdonald is one of the “Big Three” in American hard-boiled detective fiction, along with Chandler and Hammett. In The Barbarous Coast, tough, thoughtful private eye Lew Archer pursues a girl who jackknifed too suddenly from high diving to high living. Archer’s investigation leads him to an ex-fighter with an unexplained movie contract, a big-time gambler who died by his own knife, and finally, to an answer he would rather not have known.
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"for the person of a certain time/culture the novel contains, as with old movies-two narratives; the story, and the context of the creation of the story. kenneth millar's archer is, in a sense the story of the post-war american male life. his protagonist is not omnipotent nor unstirred by the human suffering he is employed by. the novels are before the assembly-line serial forms of the present day and although they utilize set geographies and social strata, the identification one enjoys with archer is uplifting without pontification. that being said- the depth of feeling millar puts on the page is doubled by the sublime acting of Grover Gardener, (as Tom Parker) Mr Gardener is by far one of the masters who Feels the story. all of the blackstone audio recordings of Ross Macdonalds novels are the standard by which detective literature is to be judged." — PRS (5 out of 5 stars)
"for the person of a certain time/culture the novel contains, as with old movies-two narratives; the story, and the context of the creation of the story. kenneth millar's archer is, in a sense the story of the post-war american male life. his protagonist is not omnipotent nor unstirred by the human suffering he is employed by. the novels are before the assembly-line serial forms of the present day and although they utilize set geographies and social strata, the identification one enjoys with archer is uplifting without pontification. that being said- the depth of feeling millar puts on the page is doubled by the sublime acting of Grover Gardener, (as Tom Parker) Mr Gardener is by far one of the masters who Feels the story. all of the blackstone audio recordings of Ross Macdonalds novels are the standard by which detective literature is to be judged."
“Beset by dirty cops, a bumptious boxer turned silver screen pretty boy, and a Hollywood mogul with a dark past, Archer discovers the secret of a grisly murder that just won’t stay hidden.”
“[Grover Gardner] reads with great skill, shading primarily by accent rather than by tone or volume. A prissy character sounds prissy, a Mexican-American has the faintest of Spanish accents, and the first-person protagonist sounds a little weary, a little cynical, a little lonely. This is an excellent presentation of an excellent crime novel.”
“[Gardner] tackles Macdonald’s series detective hero Lew Archer, many subtle ethnic accents, and women’s voices with awesome professionalism.”
“Archer solves crimes with the instincts of a psychologist and the conscience of a priest, and the mid-twentieth-century Southern California setting is a wonderful ride in the Wayback Machine.”
“Lew Archer has evidenced his differences from the usual run of fictional private eyes. He is not obsessed with bed, bottle and boodle; he doesn’t indulge in unnecessary violence, in action or in language; he is a sensitive and thoughtful man, tough enough to survive in a dangerous profession but moved rather to pity than cynicism by the way the world goes.”
" Great Hollywood noir crime read "
" A late swing, but a clean hit. "
" It was very boring! I had to skip pages. "
" Archer investigates a very complicated mystery at Malibu. The ending is very unexpected and surprising, and still satisfying. "
" Haven't finished with it, but Lew Archer is one tough cookie. "
" I'll write more later, but Ross MacDonald is an underrated noir writer. If you haven't discovered him, you are in for a treat. His tough guys and dames and snappy banter is equal to the best of them... "
" Macdonald is still not there yet, but, in this novel and in the previous one, Find a Victim, you can see many of the things that he will use to get there, still in their raw form. He just hadn't quite integrated them. "
" You would think that Lew Archer would learn that when a man hires him to find his missing wife it will inevitably lead to a few beatings, a couple of sappings, the discovery of a few dead bodies and a shootout or two. Still he keeps taking the cases. "
" Archer searches for a missing blonde with money in her eyes and poison in her heart. "
" One of the better MacDonald books I have read, Archer has to find a wife who ran out on her husband and trouble seems to find them both. "
" Good book, and a nice complement to 'Victim' - weak where 'Victim' is strong, strong where 'Victim' is weak. "
" Ross Mcdonald's books are reminiscent of Chandler but he is arguably a better novelist with charcters more finely drawn. The mysteries are good too. "
" Probably not the best of the Archer novels - the plot felt a bit stretched and the characters a bit thin - but who wants to criticize? These books are classics, and they don't make them like this any more. "
Ross Macdonald (1915–1983) was the pen name of Kenneth Millar. For over twenty years he lived in Santa Barbara and wrote mystery novels about the fascinating and changing society of his native state. He is widely credited with elevating the detective novel to the level of literature with his compactly written tales of murder and despair. His works have received awards from the Mystery Writers of America and of Great Britain, and his book The Moving Target was made into the movie Harper in 1966. In 1982 he was awarded the Eye Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Private Eye Writers of America.
Grover Gardner (a.k.a. Tom Parker) is an award-winning narrator with over a thousand titles to his credit. Named one of the “Best Voices of the Century” and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards, was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly, and has earned more than thirty Earphones Awards.
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