Customer Reviews

Way Some People Die

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This early Lew Archer novel starts off in straightforward fashion. Mrs. Samuel Lawrence of Santa Monica, a poor but proud widow, hires Archer to find her missing daughter, a young nurse named Galley. Archer goes where the clues lead and soon finds he is involved in something more than a simple missing persons case. Slowly but surely, the hardboiled PI becomes immersed in the sordid world of heroin addicts and dealers.

The Way Some People Die contains plenty of good dialogue as well as numerous descriptive passages notable for their insightful detail. The intricately constructed narrative contains several intriguing plot elements that are ultimately tied together in the final pages. A 4 star effort, not quite up to the standard of Macdonald's best work, but nevertheless a worthwhile read for hardboiled crime fans.

A master of the noir thriller, Macdonald captures the heart and soul of 1940-50s California, from Los Angeles to Palm Springs to San Francisco, his protagonist at home prowling the mean streets of LA. A former cop, Lew Archer, now a PI, is called to the Santa Monica home of a distraught mother, Mrs. Samuel Lawrence. Her daughter has been missing since Christmas and now, months later, Mrs. Lawrence is willing to invest in outside help to locate Galatea. Galley is one of those few remarkable women that draw men in like a black widow spider, all innocence and fresh beauty, virtually irresistible to the male of the species. Galley quit her nursing job after caring for a gut-shot petty hood, apparently running off with a small time gangster in his employ, Joe Tarantine. Archer resorts to the tried and true techniques that served him well on the police force, gathering bits of evidence until he can form a cohesive picture of the girl's activities and her possible whereabouts, not to mention the men in her life

The most likely place to start is with Tarantine's brother, Mario, but he is laid up in the hospital after a terrible beating that leaves him almost unrecognizable. Still Mario is the closest lead to his brother, although Archer gets sidetracked by a local drug dealer with influence enough to corrupt some local law enforcement. Surrounded by a grotesque band of thugs, Dowser, a former boxer, has Lew escorted to his fortified hilltop home between Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades. His intention is to enlist Archer's aid in locating Joe Tarantine, since they are both interested in finding the same man, offering a decent reward; the PI plays along since that is likely the only way he will leave the enclave in one piece. Tracking Tarantine to a bar in Palm Springs, an odd collection of characters spring up along the way, some unsavory, others with questionable motives; but before he has a chance to sort out the various factions, Lew finds Galley in a rented house outside of Palm Springs and is knocked out before her can question her, rescued from the roadside by a middle-aged newlywed.

Before long, the bodies pile up, conflicting motives complicating the case, a handsome part time actor found dead in his apartment, a newlywed husband on the lamb, a boat piled on the rocks, fast-talking women, everybody with a hand out or a hidden agenda. With dialog and descriptions straight out of the past, Archer mirrors the stark black and white nature of the crime genre in its prime, tough guys and hoods, beautiful dames, pushy cops and nasty characters you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley: "His face and body had an evil swollen look as if they had grown stout on rotten meat." With a penchant for naming people by their looks ("Paleface" and "Judas"), Archer is the epitome of a dedicated PI, willing to work for his money but on edge when people take advantage, especially when they render him unconscious. This is a man with a heart, willing to scrape a junkie off the streets and deliver her to a hospital for treatment but unwilling to be anybody's sucker. For a few hours of escape into the ambiance of old Hollywood, this novel is a great escape into more readily definable days where good and evil were easy to recognize, women wore gloves and both good and bad guys wore hats. Luan Gaines/2007.

P.I. work can be challenging, but Lew Archer wasn't prepared.

It all started out so simple, an over-protective mother, looking for her adult missing daughter. She hadn't heard from her for a few months and was truly distraught. It was obvious by her humble surroundings that she had little money, but Archer didn't want to work for free. He was reluctant to get involved, but Mrs. Lawrence was adamant and showed him a picture. Galley was her name and she was definitely a looker. He agreed to do a little poking around if Mrs. Lawrence would pay him fifty dollars. But he was sure it would be a dead end.

That was a bad call...

Galley had left little behind to trace, but it was enough to get Archer started. It appeared she had unknowingly become involved with some unsavory characters. It was quite possible she was in definite danger. The more Archer dug, the deeper he was pulled in. Cross-country searches, illegal activities, and drugs weave a tangled web of deception-but that is just the beginning. Just when he gets close to Joe Tarantine, a major link to Galley, he often slips away.

When Galley finally surfaces, Archer is determined to set her free. The stakes are high and the risks are chancy at best, but that's just part of the job. When things really get hot, the police are involved. But will they trust his instincts or write Archer off?

Witnesses and sources turn against each other and Archer is stuck in the middle. Some times he's just ahead of the police but the next time he's to late. Sorting out the truth in between the lines is a challenge, will Archer's persistence pay off in the end or will the real truth slip away?

This is one of 18 Lew Archer novels published between 1949 and 1976. Ross MacDonald, the pen name for Kenneth Millar, died over 20 years ago. At that time, he was considered the greatest American crime novelist since Raymond Chandler-also a literary artist-not just a detective storywriter.

The Way Some people Die is full of unexpected twists and 360 degree turns.

Armchair Interviews says: It will keep you hanging until the very last page!

Poor old Mrs. Samuel Lawrence of Santa Monica doesn't realize what a can or worms she's opening when she hires Lew Archer to find her missing daughter, Galley. By the end Lew has traveled up and down the length of California and left a string of bodies behind, most of them well-deserving of their morbid fate. And Galley, well, she's not the sweet little nurse her mother thinks she is. This is a swell ride, start to finish. I'm now officially a Ross MacDonald fan and am looking foward to reading everything he wrote.

Being a big fan of Ross MacDonald, I know that his early books (pre-1958) are solid but rather standard hard-boiled mysteries very much in the Hammett/Chandler school. MacDonald didn't really find his voice (and his power as a writer) until his amazing streak of successes that started with 1959's The Galton Case, and beyond.

Having known that when I started The Way Some People Die (written 1951), I was still surprised to find it pedestrian and somewhat less than gripping. The plot is appropriately complex, but of all MacDonald's books this definitely comes across as undistinguished and derivative of Chandler in particular. The comings and goings of several characters (especially the daughter who Archer is hired to find at the beginning) make little sense, and the environment of gangsters, thugs and hired goons is not what MacDonald does best, and they're the kind of Hollywood stock characters that make this book feel tired and dated in a way that no other MacDonald books are.

this book is very satisfying. the carecters are well fleshed out and lew archer is at his hard boilest. mcdonald has done it again.

Lew Archer is asked to find Galley Lawrence by her mother, and the interesting thing is that he does within the first 50 pages of the book. After that, the story becomes a character study of Galley, and even though by the end Archer is able to pin three murders on her, he is never able to figure out why she committed them. The book also is a searing portrait of the underbelly of Southern California - the world through which Galley moves - filled with prostitutes, dope peddlers, and racketeers. MacDonald writes about this heart of darkness with the toughness you'd expect from a writer working in the tradition of Raymond Chandler. The long confrontational scene Archer has with Galley where he lays out the murders before her, but gets none of the answers he's really looking for, is excellent. The irony at the end involving the use of the $30,000 Galley got after killing her husband is a real kicker. The opening sentence of the book comparing "earshot" and "rifleshot" is a gem. Worth looking into.