The Zebra-Striped Hearse

The bad news about this wonderful novel is that it is not Ross MacDonald at his very best. The good news is that it is still far better than most mystery novels that have been written. Of the three great masters of the American hardboiled detective novel, MacDonald never achieved the brilliant prose style of Hammett and Chandler, but neither of those two came close to the meditations on the vagaries of the human soul that MacDonald made his subject over and again. All of MacDonald's novels deal with the consequences of original sin, of an evil that seems to be greater than any individual human being, an evil that constantly threatens to overwhelm human beings when they least anticipate it. Frequently, we discover in MacDonald that, as in the Old Testament, the sins of the fathers have been visited on the second and third generations. Often in his novels, the roots of the crimes of the present lay twenty or thirty or forty years in the past. In this novel, Lew Archer at one points explains to his client, "The past is the key to the present," thus stating explicitly one of the fundamental principles underlying all of MacDonald's fiction. Ironically this novel extends less into the pass than almost any of his other novels. One of his truly great novels such as the incomparable THE CHILL or THE INSTANT ENEMY will extend decades into the past, which MacDonald brilliantly links to the present. Often one gets the sense that MacDonald's is revealing the secret history of his character's lives. This one does as well, but instead of going forty years into the past, he goes merely a few years. I loved the locales of the novel. Although I wish he physically described the areas Archer visits, MacDonald was always more of an ethicist than a sociologist. He was always less interested in communities and the way society worked than in the way that humans worked and how the decisions they make ripple down through the lives of other human beings. Thus he visits Lake Tahoe, but there is a kind of timelessness to the area he described. In reading Chandler, on the other hand, there is often a deep consciousness of the character and nature of the places where the stories occur. These technique benefits both authors, by providing a concreteness to Chandler's stories that is often missing in MacDonald's, while lending a sense of timelessness to MacDonald that is impossible in Chandler. Most hardboiled writers have tended to follow more in Hammett and Chandler's footsteps than MacDonald's, though James Ellroy is one notable exception. Though this is not one of MacDonald's best novels, it is still exceptionally enjoyable. It is also one of his least typical. Some people survive you anticipate meeting violent ends (the body count for his central characters is usually quite high). As always, he unrolls his plot skillfully. The characters are all vividly drawn. And unlike many of his other novels, there is more than one unexpected twist at the end. T

Yeah, only in California are you likely to see a zebra striped hearse full of surfing teens. Although one of the important clues comes from the hearse, it doesn't really play that important a part in the story, but it's a symbol of the California lifestyle, especially the lifestyle of the teens & young adults. And this symbol has a bearing on the character especially of the young woman whose boy friend and potential husband Lew Archer is hired to investigate.Of course, you know that what appears to be a simple case for Archer is going to develop into a complicated skein of emotions and events including murder. You can also guess that there will be tragic overtones in the matter. Ross MacDonald is deservedly recognized as one of the elite of the hard boiled school. While there are resembances to Hammett, Chandler and even Parker to an extent, he is unique. While he presents you with a puzzle, he also makes you care for his characters. He may have you disliking and distrusting some of the characters such as the father and the boy friend in this book, and then have you caring in one way or another for them. If you haven't discovered Ross MacDonald yet, it's time you did. And if you have, you don't even need to be reading this review. (Although I'm glad you are)

Ross MacDonald received the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, and it's easy to see why. Though this novel is over thirty years old, it is a meticulous, finely written, moody, introspective novel which can be read and enjoyed today easily. It is hardly dated at all, with the exception of some minor details. Full of interesting complex characters, this book is full of the stuff which excellent detective novels are made of: good, evil, and motives galore.As with MacDonald's books, it is complicated and moves to and fro to a degree that careful reading is necessary, but definately well worth it. While you're reading, the pace increases, the tension rises, the scenes are wonderfully interesting and the characters are delightfully real. The clues are precisely set out and carefully explained as the novel progresses. An excellent read for detective novel fans!

This is my first Ross MacDonald, and it won't be my last. I found The Zebra Striped Hearse to be an insightful, intriguing, tightly written page-turner. This story could easily have been twice as long in the hands of a more recent author in the genre; instead it packs a complex study of both people and crime into a package you'll want to read in a single sitting. One of the best detective stories I've ever read.

Ross Macdonald (1915-1983) is the most important American crime writer of his generation. This mystery takes his brilliant and biting private detective, Lew Archer, in search of a rich man's missing daughter. Deep strains, fears and crimes of the past are dug up all over the place--classic Macdonald.