The Wycherly Woman [Paperback]

Ross Macdonald (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam Books; First edition. edition (1963)
• ASIN: B0014LNTZW
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,106,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very well done, May 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Wycherly Woman (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)

This is only the second book I have read by MacDonald but it certainly won't be the last. The plot and characterizations were both very strong. From what I have read so far, MacDonald compares very favorably with Hammett and Chandler. The thing that I probably like best about MacDonald is that his detective, Lew Archer, seems more like a real person than most of the detectives in this genre. He is tough, but he also shows some sensitivity and human emotion.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of his very best efforts., March 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Wycherly Woman (Paperback)

This novel includes everything MacDonald is best known for: far-flung sagas of wealthy families, gritty portrayals of California's marginal sectors, memorable characters, moral dilemmas, and a twist-filled plot leading to an irresistable climax. Worth a try even if you don't like mysteries or detective novels

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sad story...sad people...don't know why it works so well..., October 18, 2008

By 

Mark Town "realoldmusicman" (Pittsburgh USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Wycherly Woman (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)

I enjoy Ross Macdonald. I have probably read all the Archer books over the last twenty years. They fit a certain mood. I cannot explain why I like him so much, mostly that melancholy mood that he creates, I think. Archer is a good man, but not too good. The other characters in the books are almost all screw-ups who make their own trouble or are victimized by the trouble created by others. The world they inhabit is vacuous and headed no where good. Although written long before American decline gained the unstoppable momentum of the current moment, these novels seem to anticipate that decline and chronicle it as well. Sad American stories of how money cures almost nothing, despite our lust for it, and how what might actually make us happy is all the more elusive because we do not value it sufficiently until it is too late. The Wycherly Woman is not the best of the lot but not the weakest either. Time with it is far better spent then 98% of the other "mysteries" out there.