The Chill

By: Ross MacDonald

Narrated by: Tom Parker

Lew Archer knew he shouldn't have taken the case, but Alex Kincaid seemed so desperate. Kincaid's loving new bride, Dolly, had just inexplicably walked out on him, leaving Kincaid more than a little fearful for her sanity and her safety. So Archer reluctantly agreed to help Kincaid find his wife. But what he found instead was enough to send a chill down anyone's spine: a new, fresh corpse and evidence linking Dolly not only to this murder, but to a series of others dating back to before she was born.

Winner of the Mystery Writer of America Grand Master Award, Ross Macdonald is acknowledged around the world as one of the greatest mystery writers of our time.

More mayhem? Try our other Lew Archer mysteries.©1963 Ross Macdonald (P)1996 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"The plot is one of Macdonald's most masterfully constructed....The Chill stands out among his books." (Amazon.com)
"An entertainment of almost Byzantine complexity in which practically nothing is as the facts would seem....Highly satisfactory." (The New Yorker)

Maybe his best

Good plot line with a nice twist at the end. Numerous, marvelous, toss-off one liners that had me laughing, charmed by MacDonald’s skills with word-smithery. Excellent vocal performance, too.

A Classic! Like Raymond Chandler at his finest!!

A winding mystery with unexpected twists and turns that will have you spellbound to the very end. Masterfully performed, you'll feel like you've immersed yourself in the best of film noir as the words jump to life in your imagination!

Depth and Artistic Mastery

these stories of RM are incredibly excellent.
The intelligence, craft and deep wisdom is exhibited in each one over decades. In my view, he surpasses the masters of the 30’s and 40’s.

Brilliant plot

One of McDonald's best among so many good ones. Always a great twist at the end.

An Epigrammatic Private Eye

Of all the classic sleuths I’ve run across, not even erudite, bibliophilic Lord Peter Wimsey is as quotable as Lew Archer. From insights on clients and suspects to word-paintings of scenery and atmospheres, I wish I’d written down some of his best stuff,. But perhaps it’s better this way. Now you’ll be able to enjoy his acute perceptions spontaneously, as I did.

Of course, an epigrammatic, semi-poetic sleuth should require some willing suspension of disbelief – it certainly does with other, less well-conceived crime writing. But not here. Perhaps because the story is so good. And Tom Parker (aka Grover Gardner) is the pitch-perfect vehicle for MacDonald’s stories.