Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Sleeping Beauty -- Ross Macdonald

Fred Zackel reminds me that if you want to read a fine crime novel about an oil spill, you should pick up Macdonald's Sleeping Beauty.

2 comments:

David Cranmer said...

And I'm looking forward to it. I'm working my way through the Archer series this year.

Frank Loose said...

One of MacDonald's best stories. The open has Archer flying into LA from Mexico and he can see the oil spill from the air. One of the lines: An offshore oil platform stood up out of its windward end like the metal handle of a dagger that had stabbed the world and made it spill black blood.

To this day, i can't see an off-shore oil well or a picture of one without remembering MacDonald's imagery.

MacDonald used an out-of-control fire as a metaphor in another Archer, The Underground Man, which is also an excellent book. Heck, did he write a bad one?

I envy you, David, if you are reading the series for the first time, though they are so good they hold up to multiple readings. At least, they have for me.