The Ross MacDonald Blog

Ross MacDonald

Blog

A place for a conversation about the works and life of Ross Macdonald.

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,...

A Note on Linda Millar

Tom Nolan has written a first-class biography of Macdonald and it is not my aim to compete with him.  I hope that my own work, which focusses almost exclusively on Macdonald’s books, is a useful supplement to Nolan, who discusses the books only as necessary to tell...

THE BARBAROUS COAST — Part Ten

                                                      Spoiler Alert                                         The Good and the Bad                                                             First, the good:   Macdonald achieves a rapid pace that...

THE BARBAROUS COAST — Part Nine

                                                                                           Spoiler Alert             If That’s What You Think, You Ought to See a Shrink   When Archer gets to work, nothing stops him.  After leaving Rina behind at the LA airport he...

THE BARBAROUS COAST — Part Eight

                                                                                                    Spoiler Alert                                           The Perfect Patsy   Rina wakes up, still groggy from her sleeping pill, and she and Archer start to...

THE BARBAROUS COAST — Part Seven

                                                                          Spoiler Alert                                    The Pace Quickens, Sort of   Archer spent Chapter 21 through 23, a matter of 18 pages in my edition, in conversation with Tobias. But...

THE BARBAROUS COAST — Part Six

                                                                    Spoiler Alert                                                              This Calls for a Drink                      After Graff leaves, Archer marvels that Bassett stood up to the most powerful...

Schedule an Event

Dgarrett1948@gmail.com

Join my mailing list and I'll let you know when I have a new blog post ready or a new book coming out!

I will never use your email address for any other reason.

15 + 12 =

Contact Author

Dgarrett1948@gmail.com