It's not Lew Archer this time, it's Lt. Sam Drake, U. S. Navy. After spending months at sea, Sam attends a party in Honolulu with his friend and fellow officer, Eric. Sam's not looking for love but he meets a beautiful tall blonde working woman, Mary. Although Eric is married with a wife in Detroit, he has a girlfriend, Sue, who works with Mary at a radio broadcasting station on the island. Set in February 1945, WWII is not quite over. (The war ends August 1945.) There is constant talk of Japanese spies especially in the islands. The four chapters are divided loosely by their location; Honolulu, Detroit, a transcontinental train trip to LA, and then, and then...the conclusion. What a great read (not unexpected) and when I hesitated on the conclusion, it's because I hated to see it end. It was that good but hey, folks, it's a Ross Macdonald. Tfitoby knows what I'm talking about. The ending was blow me away great and came so unexpected, out of left field. As I was thumbing through the last 10 pages or so, I was thinking to myself how's he going to end this one, not many pages left. Most books I read the ending is drawn out sometimes far too long. Ross Macdonald, forget it, he closes his books out fast and furious and very unexpected. There's much social commentary, specifically race in America, in these 200 pages. No surprise because it fits with subject although I can't recall if there's any such commentary in any of the Lew Archer series. I love RM's writing and this one is 68 years after publication.Kenneth Millar published this under his real name, then later began using the pen name of Ross Macdonald. *****************I've noted some paragraphs which I'm going to add at a later date to give you examples of how clean RM writes. Short (20 words more or less) sentences which are clearly written and easy to understand. Storyline always intriguing and ends with a bang. No wonder he won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. And no wonder he's got followers almost 70 years after writing this little jewel, his second book, I believe. His first was The Dark Tunnel published in 1944.
Do You like book Trouble Follows Me (1972)?
Ross MacDonald (pen name for Kenneth Millar) is an excellent writer of noir type novels. In this one, the protagonist, Sam Drake, a military man during WWII, is in Oahu when he meets a woman named Mary. A friend of hers apparently commits suicide by hanging herself at a party. They then travel to Detroit where another death occurs. On a train ride to San Diego, yet another death happens. Sam falls in love with Mary but feels the need to figure out how these deaths are related, despite her pleas for him to let the matter rest. Would have been give stars but makes some very racist and misogynistic comments (acceptable at the time this was written) that put me off some. Still overall a suspenseful story well told.
—Ronald Wilcox
