A hard-faced woman clad in a blue mink stole and dripping with diamonds hires Lew Archer to track down her former maid, who she claims has stolen her jewelry. Archer can tell he's being fed a line, but curiosity gets the better of him and he accepts the case. He tracks the wayward maid to a ramshackle motel in a seedy, run-down small town, but finds her dead in her tiny room, with her throat slit from ear to ear. Archer digs deeper into the case and discovers a web of deceit and intrigue, with crazed number-runners from Detroit, gorgeous triple-crossing molls, and a golden-boy shipping heir who’s gone mysteriously missing.
The Ivory Grin (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
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“Macdonald's spare, controlled narration, built for action and speed, conveys the world through which the action moves and gives it meaning, [bringing] scene and character, however swiftly, before the eye without a blur.”—Eudora Welty, The New York Times Book Review"Archer-Macdonald are working together at their peak, piecing together a most modern American tragedy, making literature out of the thriller form, gazing more clearly the ever into the future as it rolls through the smog.” —Newsweek“Ross Macdonald must be ranked high amongst American thriller-writers.”—Times Literary Supplement
About the Author
Ross Macdonald's real name was Kenneth Millar. Born near San Francisco in 1915 and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Millar returned to the U.S. as a young man and published his first novel in 1944. He served as the president of the Mystery Writers of America and was awarded their Grand Master Award as well as the Mystery Writers of Great Britain's Silver Dagger Award. He died in 1983.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
As current a mystery as you would want,
By Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Ivory Grin (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)
Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer is one of the most famous characters in all of detective fiction, and The Ivory Grin quickly shows the reader why. Archer is hired by the archetypal mystery client who won't tell him anything about herself, to find a young woman she won't tell him much about either. Archer knows from the first moments that he is being conned, but he's both a little short on cash and a romantic at heart, and he just can't resist the challenge that goes with the $100.
If you're afraid that a novel written and first published in 1952 will seem dated, you'll be both right and completely wrong. Of course, the clothes, cars, telephones, and even some of the geography no longer apply, but the motives and deception, the danger and the twists and turns of a first-rate detective novel are timeless. Macdonald carries it all off with a flair and a high sense of style that have kept his novels in print and his readers wishing he could have lived and written forever. When he died in 1983, Macdonald - a pseudonym for Kenneth Millar - left behind what critic William Goldman called "the finest series of detective novels ever written by an American author." Archer has a dry wit and no overly developed sense of his own importance. His observations of his clients, his surroundings, and the events he becomes part of are smart and wise. In this novel, Archer starts out in his hard-boiled detective office, but spends little time there as he travels between Los Angeles and one of those hot and dusty inland California towns where his clients and the people they're seeking always seem to end up. He runs up against desperate people, motivated by greed and unloosed from whatever moral compass they may have started with long ago in some other existence. He struggles at each point to see who might be on the right side of things, and in almost every case he is disappointed. In The Ivory Grin, there are no heroes, except perhaps Lew Archer himself, and he lays no claim to that title. Armchair Interviews says, "If you're looking for a detective, a story, and a writer that won't disappoint you, pick up Ross Macdonald's The Ivory Grin--and then prepare to rush out for more."
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really good.,
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This review is from: The Ivory Grin (Paperback)
In this early (1952) Lew Archer mystery, author Ross Macdonald does a great job of storytelling. The descriptive passages are original and highly evocative, the dialogue is first rate and the intricate plotting is very compelling. Macdonald introduces a number of interesting, realistically crafted characters from many different walks of life and masterfully weaves their individual stories together to create a literary tapestry that is quite satisfying.
The Ivory Grin is a remarkable example of detective fiction. Its two greatest strengths are the vividness with which the characters are drawn and the precision with which the multiple plot threads blend together. Highly recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A master at work.,
By Peter (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Ivory Grin (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)
The detective novel had been around for many years prior to Ross Macdonald starting his series featuring Lew Archer, but the main writers (Hammett and Chandler) did not take their characters to the depth that Macdonald took Archer.
Archer sees the bleakness of the world through a cynic's eyes and reports to us his findings which are rarely optimistic. Macdonald's books usually had the unlying theme of families disintegrating due to the sins of the past being reborn. Macdonald's books are all classic detective fiction and well worth your time.
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