markk

Though I have read nearly a dozen Ross Macdonald novels, this was the first one that wasn’t in his Lew Archer series. In this one the protagonist is John Weather, a young veteran returning to his hometown after a decade’s absence. No sooner does he arrive than he learns that his father, from whom he was estranged, was killed by an unknown assailant two years before. Determined to find the murderer, Weather finds himself facing off against thugs, bent cops, and the gangster who had taken his father’s place in the political machine that dominates the city. And the deeper Weather digs, the more he risks his own life at the hands of those who are determined to prevent him from unraveling their hold on power.

 

While Macdonald’s most famous character is absent from its pages, the novel contains all the other elements that his readers have come to expect from his work, such as sin, corruption, and the power of a person with a firm moral compass to effect change. Yet it lacks the polish and nuance that would soon characterize his subsequent books. Nowhere is this better reflected than with his protagonist, who despite his motivation doesn’t have the depth that would characterize Archer from the start. The plotting is also clumsier than one would come to expect, with the murderer’s identity tipped off far too early in the book and with an ending that wraps everything up more tidily and happily than one should expect in the messy world in which it’s set. Nevertheless the novel remains an interesting read, both as a glimpse into a changing postwar America and for the light it sheds on the development of one of the 20th century’s greatest mystery writers.