Black Money (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)

~ Ross Macdonald (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Next time someone who doesn't read mysteries asks where they should start, point them toward Ross Macdonald. Luckily, Vintage/Black Lizard is reprinting several of Macdonald's classic Lew Archer novels in handsome new quality paperback versions. If Black Money (or the other two books in the current series, The Drowning Pool and The Chill) don't have them panting for more, they're probably hopeless cases.

From Library Journal

Published in 1965, 1963, and 1950, respectively, this trio feature Macdonald's hard-boiled private detective Lew Archer. The plots involve murder, deceit, blackmail, sex, and all those other goodies that make for great crime stories.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (June 3, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679768106
• ISBN-13: 978-0679768104
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #165,254 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 14 in The Lew Archer Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The finest series in American detective fiction., September 24, 1997

By	[e-mail] "gpref" (NIANTIC,CT) - See all my reviews

Hammet, Chandler, McBain, Pronzini, Block and Parker are all masters of the American detective novel. The first two created the form, the last four continue to carry it out with both continued freshness and comfortable familiarity. The most perfect form, however, is the series of Lew Archer stories and novels written by the late Ross MacDonald. Like Chandler an immigant, he caught the smell and the feel of Southern California better than a native. He also crystalized the inner calmness and unwavering honor of the classic private eye, without awkwardness and sentiment. Perhaps the greatest tribute that could be given to MacDonald the writer is that he only wrote one story, but wrote it so well that each time was a new experience. This story is just that, a fresh look at the classic life and conflict in a Southern California that never existed but is real and beloved to everyone who admires and appreciates this very American form of literature.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it, November 16, 1997

By A Customer

An elegant masterpiece of crime fiction. Vivid and unsentimental, with crisp stylish prose, "Black Money" shows thepower of Ross Macdonald work, and Black Lizard should keep 'em coming. By the end of the book, I was experiencing so many emotions I didn't know what to feel.. Highly recommended

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Black Money is flawed but definatly worth reading., August 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Money: A Lew Archer Mystery (Audio Cassette)

Ross Macdonald writes in the tradition of the American detective story as developed by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. MacDonald is definatly inferior to these masters but still worth reading. The language of the classic American Detective story is the language of the street, and MacDonald can write with skill. His hero/narrator, Archer, is a man who raised himself out of the slums; a classic "tough guy" with a street wise knowledge of how people act and how to handle them. MacDonald, however, is never really comfortable with this view of life. His background is that of an academic (Ph. D, taught school, studied psyciatry) and it shows in all the wrong ways. We often hear little mini-lectures on the inner workings of the characters and are occasionally treated to such literary allusions as Dante and Beatrice. These things clash badly with the "tough guy" tone of the book, and this inconsistancy is MacDonalds most serious defect. When it comes to plotting, however, MacDonald is excellent. His plots are cleaver, complex and have the feel of truth about them - something that is often lacking in today's mysterys. When he isn't writing like a collage professor, Macdonald can write dialogue that has the dangerous and gritty feel of the underworld. And there are moments that are priceless. One of those moments is when as when the victim, who has had most of her family murdered, lies down in a pool of blood next to her dead lover/murderer, the man responsible for the murders and also the man she loved. She lays there looking at him until the police come. While he may not have the consistancy of Hammett or Chandler, MacDonald has many of the things that make American detective fiction work, and this book is one of his best.