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The Far Side of the Dollar (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
 
 
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The Far Side of the Dollar (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)

by Ross Macdonald (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Price For All Three: $32.58

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Has Tom Hillman run away from his exclusive reform school, or has he been kidnapped? Are his wealthy parents protecting him or their own guilty secrets? And why does every clue lead Lew Archer to an abandoned Hollywood hotel, where starlets and sailors once rubbed shoulders with grifters--and where the present clientele includes a brand-new corpse.

From the Inside Flap
Has Tom Hillman run away from his exclusive reform school, or has he been kidnapped? Are his wealthy parents protecting him or their own guilty secrets? And why does every clue lead Lew Archer to an abandoned Hollywood hotel, where starlets and sailors once rubbed shoulders with grifters--and where the present clientele includes a brand-new corpse.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage (November 26, 1996)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0553129147
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679768654
  • ASIN: 0679768653
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #478,181 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #19 in  Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Macdonald, Ross

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Far Side of the Dollar (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
51% buy the item featured on this page:
The Far Side of the Dollar (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) 4.3 out of 5 stars (7)
$11.86
The Zebra-Striped Hearse (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
13% buy
The Zebra-Striped Hearse (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) 4.5 out of 5 stars (14)
$10.36
Black Money (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
13% buy
Black Money (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) 4.7 out of 5 stars (11)
$10.36
The Chill
12% buy
The Chill 4.2 out of 5 stars (28)
$10.36

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars MacDonald's masterpiece, June 9, 2002
By Todd M. Pence (Fairfax, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Ross MacDonald's (aka Kenneth Millar) Lew Archer novels are probably the greatest modern detective series ever, although the insistence of MacDonald to use the same formulaic elements in his books over and over and over again mean that the novels are better read individually than collectively. With that in mind, The Far Side Of The Dollar is your best bet, as it is the example of MacDonald's formula at its best and most poignant. Other superior Archer novels include The Chill, The Doomsters and The Zebra-Striped Hearse, in addition to the magnificent short story collection The Name Is Archer. Whichever Archer novel you decide to read, make sure to keep a scorecard, because the intricate plots make it hard to keep track of all the various characters and their relationships to one another.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A substantive mystery., August 20, 2006
By Michael G. "mikefromrochester" (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
  
Chapter I of The Far Side of the Dollar finds veteran PI Lew Archer visiting a reform school for rich teenagers. Young Thomas Hillman a recent admission to the facility has gone AWOL and Archer has been hired by the school's headmaster to find him. A fairly straightforward case, right? Wrong. As in all Ross Macdonald novels, the plot becomes ever increasingly intricate as the narrative unfolds.
There's plenty of standard Ross Macdonald fare packed into the pages of this very engaging book. Family dysfunction that spans the generations, hidden blood relationships between characters, a young person's journey to claim a birthright heretofore denied as well as jealousy and greed leading to murder most foul.
The "readability" of The Far Side of the Dollar is greatly enhanced by its wonderfully insightful descriptive prose. Another very appealling aspect to this novel is the extremely vivid and at times emotionally wrenching way the characters are developed. Highly recommended.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Far Side of the Dollar: worth every penny, September 28, 2004
By Amy "Aimskee" (New York City) - See all my reviews
Ross MacDonald infuses eloquence into the lips of his tough detective, Lew Archer. In this mystery, Archer is hired to find the kidnapped son of a couple seriously alienated from one another. The teenage boy has fallen into the wrong hands, partly through his own doing, having run away from a reform school after finding out some startling facts about his background. The mastery the author exhibits as he describes emotions through imagery of the California landscape is poetic and conveys a sense of shattered lives. The reader feels as if the Pacific coast has been transformed into a map of one family's existential angst. This is a powerful mystery worth reading.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Disappearing into History
Nobody reads Ross Macdonald much anymore, but this was one of several books Amazion asked me to review this week, so I'm doing my best to oblige them. Read more
Published on January 20, 2007 by Lawrence D. Zeilinger

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic and Consistent
Excellent example of Mac Donald's well honed style. Good character developments as well as excellent one-dimensional character 'vignettes' that serve as observation portholes... Read more
Published on November 3, 2001

1.0 out of 5 stars Too simplistic to be realistic
This book may be clean and lack 4 letter words but the writing style does not challenge the reader's mind. Plot is thin and the style is too monosyllabic for me. Read more
Published on September 1, 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Classic Mystery
This was the third novel I have read by Ross McDonald and it is my favorite so far. The plot is complex and satisfying and the characters are well developed and three... Read more
Published on August 12, 1999

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