The Novels of Ross MacDonald

In his examination of Macdonald's 18 detective novels, Kreyling (English, Vanderbilt U.) suggests that Macdonald elevated a popular genre from the plateau reached by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler to a level of sophistication yet to be surpassed. He considers the mutual bond of structure and life that informs Macdonald's work, the Freudian theories Macdonald adopted to advance his genre, and the place his novels occupy in the larger literary canon. Kreyling concludes that the works warrant a closer, more discriminating reading than is commonly accorded the genre. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR