The Ross MacDonald Blog
The Doomsters Part Nine
MACDONOLD AND FATALISM Spoiler Alert “She Blamed it all on the Doomsters” Mrs. Hutchinson continues with her story about Alicia Hallman. The evening she died, Alicia told Mrs....
The Doomsters Part Eight
THE PAST IS NOT DEAD OR EVEN PAST: IT’S AT FOURTEEN CHESTNUT STREET Archer and Parish drive to the home of Mrs. Hutchinson, leaving Mildred alone with her unconscious mother. There is a...
The Doomsters Part Seven
THE WORST DATE EVER Spoiler Alert When Mildred arrives at her home, she is annoyed to find Archer’s car pulling up behind her. There is no reason to think Mildred would have invited him...
The Barbarous Coast–Special Post
A Special Post on the Macdonald—Chandler Relationship One of my favorite followers, Neoklis Galanopoulis, recently posted on how in The Barbarous Coast Macdonald created an unattractive character, Clarence Bassett, and gave him many of the...
The Doomsters Part Six
A MEDICAL VISIT WITHOUT AN APPOINTMENT, PROOF OF INSURANCE OR A CO-PAY Macdonald always tried to make his stories accessible for future generations and went out of his way to avoid current slang...
The Doomsters Part Five
INTO THE PAST Dr. Grantland leaves with Zinnie and Jerry’s child, a useful way of both getting him offstage and reminding us that a quasi-family unit...
The Doomsters Part Four
LET’S MEET MILDRED HALLMAN Archer’s next stop, via a cab, is a visit to Carl’s wife—the task he’d promised before Carl stole his car. Archer’s visit to the hospital was a good narrative move, because his conversations there give him...
The Doomsters Part Three
AN UNCONVENTIONAL BEGINNING Macdonald takes his starting point from his short story, “The Angry Man,” with Archer being confronted at his home in the early hours of the morning by a stranger demanding help. But unlike the...
The Doomsters Part Two
WE HAVEN’T FINISHED WITH THE COMMENTATORS A Comment from the Author “It is out of character for Archer to provide autobiography because his own life is suppressed, Millar told an English...
The Doomsters Part One
WHAT THE COMMENATORS HAVE TO SAY A lot, and for several reasons. Anyone familiar with Macdonald knows that he came into his artistic maturity with The Galton Case. It wasn’t his best-selling book and perhaps it wasn’t his best,...
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