The Ross MacDonald Blog

                                               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...

                                                                                                                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...

                         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...

                                    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...

             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...

                           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,...