The Far Side of the Dollar

A Lew Archer Novel

By: Ross MacDonald

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Has Tom Hillman run away from his exclusive reform school, or has he been kidnapped? Are his wealthy parents protecting him or their own guilty secrets? And why does every clue lead Lew Archer to an abandoned Hollywood hotel, where starlets and sailors once rubbed shoulders with tycoons and hustlers? The once-popular palace is now boarded up. But for Archer, it may hold the key to a missing teenager and a hot murder.

Archer knows that 20 years ago a handful of dreamers and losers came together in the Barcelona. The only questions now are: What kind of deal went down there? And why were a mixed-up rich kid and a beautiful blonde the first to pay the price?

More mayhem? Try our other Lew Archer mysteries.©1964 Ross Macdonald (P)1995 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Runaway to Murder

Archer is hired to find a runaway. What he gets is a kidnapping, an adoption scam, and the murder of a married couple. As always, Macdonald has lots of interesting characters.

What families do families do?

This is an interesting take on what familiy means and what members do to each other.

QC problems

Someone at Audible needs to QC this. Chapters repeat. Or begin in the middle before going back and starting over.

I like the book itself, but the quality control is a mess.

Psycho action

Great development of mystery and character. Usual snappy dialogue from McDonald's, along with psychological portrayal that is just about successful

Pop psychology motives

The story was pretty gripping, but the psychology behind the motives is tired so the denouement is lackluster and weird. The author tries unsuccessfully to add some romantic flair between Lew and and ex, but all it does is lead to a scene where Lew displays some uncharacteristic and unwarranted jealousy that was really offputting. As usual, a good number of characters are obnoxious entitled rich people and/or drunks. Gambling to excess and abuse also come up. It’s a bit grim.

Spoilers:
A good deal of the plot revolves around an adoption. This is evident early but takes obnoxiously long to come to light. And when it dies, it’s a lot of “real mom” kind of talk, which I personally think is shallow. While the book is good about talking about the dangers of lying to adopted kids, and our PI tries to impart some leveling balance on the subject of parenting and parentage, the nasty notion of biology being determinative plays too much into the motive, as does “real” parents, and it’s topped off by rich people thinking they’re better than people who need money. While people haven’t changed a lot, what we consider normal or reasonable behavior has. The psychology in this installment hasn’t aged well.

Narration: Really well done. Story was gripping for the most part, and easy to follow.