12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An artfully written but overly convoluted narrative., June 17, 2005
To refer to Nick Chalmers of Pacific Point, California as a troubled young man would be completely understating the case. The truth is he's guilt ridden to the point of being suicidal.
Private eye Lew Archer, whose newest client is Nick's mother Irene, is determined to unravel the complex web of events that has brought Nick to the wretched mental state in which he now finds himself.
The Goodbye Look serves up plenty of typical Ross Macdonald fare as the narrative, an exceedingly complex one even by Macdonald's standards, unfolds. Three families, the Chalmers, the Truttwells and the Swains are plagued by a series of intertwined tragedies that have played out over 25 years and more.
As Archer traverses much of the southern California landscape steadfastly trying to sort out this sordid saga of murder, larceny, infidelity, parental malfeasance and hidden identity, the reader is drawn into Macdonald's world. A world where the sins of the father's are invariably visited upon the children and one's destiny is determined before one is old enough to have any say in the matter.
Enhancing this book's interest quotient is the fact that Archer himself becomes an active participant in the ongoing soap opera when he engages in sex with a married woman. Not just any married woman, but one who has, as it turns out, played a key role in the mystery Archer seeks to solve.
As is the case in most Lew Archer novels, the dialogue and descriptive prose are first rate. However, The Goodbye Look is not quite as strong as some of Macdonald's other work because the plot is so twisted that its unravelling raises as many questions as it answers. Readers, particularly those who are already Ross Macdonald fans, will enjoy certain aspects of this book. For example, a scene where clues are found by viewing a decades old home movie is particularly well written. But overall, The Goodbye Look ranks a notch or two below the author's best work.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Macdonald offers solid fare in this Archer mystery., July 13, 1999
Lew Archer works for the sleaziest rich people in California on a consistent basis. Their concealed pasts go back 20 years, sometimes longer, and in the process of the plot's unravelling several dead bodies usually turn up (including fresh ones). In this novel, his first national bestseller in 1969, two broken families have intertwined tragic pasts that Archer ends up disclosing. By the end they're not happier, but have faced the ugly truth about themselves. This book is compact, unified in time and setting, and has nice plot twists. Macdonald has been criticized for rewriting the same book, and there is a consistency of character and milieu in his work. But hey, if it's not broke... The end is a lift from Macdonald's The Galton Case, widely regarded as his best book. When you've read that one--and if there's a better PI novel written since WWII I don't know of it--try this one. It's a good read by a good writer.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Best, May 26, 2010
The Goodbye Look is one of the best Lew Archer novels by Ross MacDonald. Archer is called to investigate the theft of an antique jewelry box owned by the wealthy Chalmers family. Suspicion quickly falls on the only child, son Nick.
This is one of the three or four best in the Lew Archer series, which is another way of saying that it is one of the ten or so best detective stories ever published. It is also maybe the most complicated of the Archers. There are many characters. I strongly recommend you write them down as they appear. Draw a graph showing who is related to who. For that reason, I do not recommend this as the first Archer novel to read.
The final resolution is not quite what I was hoping. However, it is certainly good and makes sense.
We have here many of the recurring themes that are in all but the earliest Archer novels: The private mental hospital. The strange disappearance of someone a generation earlier, probably murdered. Wealthy people who got that way at the ultimate expense of their children.
The only thing this one is missing relative to some of other later novels in the Archer canon is a lot of the incredible off hand descriptions and musings. Ross MacDonald was one of the finest writers - forget detective - that this nation has ever produced. His Archer novels are full of insights and descriptions of amazing power that resonate in the mind. I didn't find quite so many in this one.
- henry
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