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The Chill (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Ross Macdonald
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Ross Macdonald is best known as the creator of the Lew Archer series.
The Chill (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Ross Macdonald is available. Click for more info or to buy it now.
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The Chill (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Ross Macdonald
Features
Paperback:
288 pages
; Dimensions (in inches): 0.61 x 7.99 x 5.22
Publisher: Vintage Books; Reissue edition (June 1996)
ISBN:
0679768076
Amazon.com
"The surprise with which a detective novel concludes should set up tragic vibrations which run backward through the entire structure," wrote Ross Macdonald in his 1981 Self-Portrait. Nowhere in his work does he better demonstrate this principle than in The Chill, first published in 1964. The plot is one of Macdonald's most masterfully constructed. Private detective Lew Archer is engaged to trace a missing spouse, who has vanished--apparently of her own free will--only a day into her honeymoon. Archer begins pulling at the threads of the case, and by page 25 they're already starting to reveal a deeper, darker story involving two murders 20 years apart. As usual, Macdonald's economical prose propels the reader forward from one action-packed scene to another, while the scenes in turn pile up to paint a rich, complex picture of buried memories, anguished relations between parents and children, the arrogance of the rich, and the search for identity. Then, at the end, one of the author's best surprise reversals changes the picture's colors entirely. Even if you're one of those discerning readers who find Macdonald's lesser work superior to most other mystery writing (as does this reviewer), The Chill stands out among his books. --Nicholas H. Allison
Book Description
In The Chill a distraught young man hires Archer to track down his runaway bride. But no sooner has he found Dolly Kincaid than Archer finds himself entangled in two murders, one twenty years old, the other so recent that the blood is still wet. What ensues is a detective novel of nerve-racking suspense, desperately believable characters, and one of the most intricate plots ever spun by an American crime writer.
Reader Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Complicated, tragic puzzle with a hint of daring, July 22, 2003
Reviewer:
Neal Clark Reynolds
from E. Taunton, MA United States
Noir fiction often has tested barriers and taboos. This Lew Archer novel is in that tradition in that it doesn't break any taboos, but it does hint at it. If THE CHILL were written today, I think it would have been a bit more direct. As with many Lew Archer cases, this one starts innocently enough with his being hired to find a missing newlywed who's disappeared after an encounter with a mysterious visitor. In a short period of time, he's involved in a murder case, one in which he feels a vague sense of being responsible. There are the usual twists, the usual questions of identity, the interconnection of characters which doesn't at first meet the eye. MacDonald characters are difficult to pigeonhole into "good" or "bad" categories. The motivations often come from deeply within the psyches of the characters. The emphasis in this story as well as most in the series is on the puzzle. There are seldom recurring characters in these novels, and little interaction other than investigative betwee Archer and the other characters. And as always, the dark corners of human nature are well probed. Definitely highly recommended.
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