The Chill: A Lew Archer Mystery

Rating:
Summary: Written in longhand in spiral notebook in Santa Barbara.
Review: For those of us who keep going back again and again to read
the novels of Ross Macdonald, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell
Hammett, Ernest Hemingway and Peter Matthiessen, this is
without question one of the greatest works of that group.

Once Ross Macdonald (Ken Millar) broke through with the Galton Case, every novel from then on formed one of the great canons of
American literature. The N.Y. Times Book Review had
The Underground Man as its front page review in 1970.
Well-deserved recongnition for a writer at his zenith.
What Conan Doyle was to London in its era, so is Ross Macdonald to
California in its era. A great writer on the edge of a culture.
The Chill stands with the Zebra-Striped Hearse and The
Underground Man alongside The Long Goodbye and The Big
Sleep as American writing at its very best.
To be an American (and a Californian) is to read these
books.
So subtle, so psychological, so empathetic, so hard.
Modern noir --- the epitome of great craftsmanship.
At the top of 5 stars. The very top. One of the proud
novels on the Knopf list.

Rating:
Summary: Give this one an 11!
Review: MacDonald is rightfully considered one of the three great hardboiled detective novelists (along with Hammett and Chandler). Rereading this novel confirmed what I thought the first time I read it: this is the best detective novel that I have ever read.

It is also the most appropriately titled novel that I have ever encountered. The first time I read this I was lying in the sun beside the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. When I reached the moment when the mystery was solved, a chill literally ran up my spine. One of the truly creepy moments of my life. Hyperbole rules among reviewers here, but this one would get a higher rating if I were allowed.

I have read most of MacDonald novels, despite the fact that I really don't spend much time reading mystery or detective fiction. His earliest books are good, but not great. But about four or five novels into the Lew Archer series MacDonald (in real life Professor Kenneth Millar, and husband of fellow mystery writer Margaret Millar)found his voice and his theme. In all his best books the theme is: the sins of the father shall be visited upon the second and third generations (I didn't check my OT for a more precise quotation). A typical plot from his best novels is as follows: Archer is asked to look into this or that problem (a person has disappeared, has left, is being plagued by someone, etc., etc.). Gradually upon conducting his investigation his role shifts from detective to archaeologist, until he eventually discovers the troubles that he has been asked to look into have causes reaching back ten, twenty, or even fifty years. The seed planted by an act decades earlier has sprouted in the present, destroying those who are otherwise innocent. (MacDonald always reminds me of Yeats's "Leda and the Swan," where Zeus's rape of Leda will eventually result in the birth of Helen and all the tragedy of Troy: "A shudder in the loins engenders there/The broken wall, the burning roof and tower/And Agamemnon dead.")

All of MacDonald is more than readable, but someone wanting to proceed from THE CHILL (which really is his finest work) should look at THE DROWNING POOL or THE INSTANT ENEMY.

Rating:
Summary: Complicated, tragic puzzle with a hint of daring
Review: Noir fiction often has tested barriers and taboos. This Lew Archer novel is in that tradition in that it doesn't break any taboos, but it does hint at it. If THE CHILL were written today, I think it would have been a bit more direct.

As with many Lew Archer cases, this one starts innocently enough with his being hired to find a missing newlywed who's disappeared after an encounter with a mysterious visitor. In a short period of time, he's involved in a murder case, one in which he feels a vague sense of being responsible. There are the usual twists, the usual questions of identity, the interconnection of characters which doesn't at first meet the eye.

MacDonald characters are difficult to pigeonhole into "good" or "bad" categories. The motivations often come from deeply within the psyches of the characters.

The emphasis in this story as well as most in the series is on the puzzle. There are seldom recurring characters in these novels, and little interaction other than investigative betwee Archer and the other characters. And as always, the dark corners of human nature are well probed.

Definitely highly recommended.