In his examination of Ross Macdonald's eighteen detective novels, Michael Kreyling suggests that this widely read author elevated a popular genre from the plateau reached by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler to a level of sophistication yet to be surpassed. Including in his study such early volumes as The Ivory Grin and Meet Me at the Morgue, Kreyling takes a fresh look at forgotten works as well as Macdonald's better known novels. Kreyling...