Meet Me at the Morgue

Ross Macdonald has put forward a book set in the time of the great classic hard-boiled mysteries of yester-year... Maltise Falcon, The Big Sleep... 'Meet me at the Morgue' has all of the qualities of a good Chandler or Hammett novel. This is a stand alone novel I think. It does not contain Macdonalds character Lew Archer. Instead we are dealing with a moral parol officer who finds himself in the center of a kidnapping. As the story unfolds, it becomes more and more clear that things are not what they seem to be. Macdonald does a first rate job of creating a mood and a classy group of characters. I had a little bit of a hard time getting into this novel at first because the prose here is so spare. Macdonald does a fine job of offering up the barest Hemmingway-esq ammount of information from one sentence to the next. After a chapter or two in which the characters are introduced, the ball gets rolling and your in for a fine thrill ride. I would say thumbs up to this one.

Meet Me at the Morgue takes place in Pacific Point, California, a seaside town just south of Los Angeles. Four year old Jamie Johnson, the son of one of the community's richest men, has been kidnapped. The ransom is $50,000. Howard Cross is the narrator of this well written novel. He's a local County Probation Officer who suddenly finds himself at the center of the investigation. This book has much to recommend it. As an investigator, Cross is most definitely hard-boiled. But MacDonald wisely keeps Cross' tough guy persona in check so as to make him a more likeable protaganist. The narrative is compelling and flows quite smoothly. Believable dialogue and great descriptive passages both add to the novel's substantial appeal. Meet Me at the Morgue has only one flaw. And that's what prevents me from giving it 5 stars. One of the crime's perpetrators, a man named Art Lemp, is inexplicably tied in to a completely unrelated subplot. This, unfortunately, constitutes too much of a coincidence and thereby detracts from the story's otherwise masterful construction. But, all in all, I'd have to say Meet Me at the Morgue is a prime example of crime fiction as it was meant to be. Highly recommended.

Ross MacDonald is quite well known for his series of mysteries starring Lew Archer as the erstwhile detective. In this kidnapping / murder mystery, the Lew Archer stand-in is a probation officer who admits he lives on several sides at once. This novel shares several themes with his Lew Archer series. One's past sins do come back to bite you; women inevitably ruin their life with the wrong man; and an absent father will reappear in one's life. The dark atmosphere is also present in this novel. It is a very enjoyable read. MacDonald has an excellent ear for dialogue and detail.