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The Chill by Ross Macdonald
Like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Macdonald is a crime fiction writer whose work rose above its humble genre. His earliest work was written under his real name Kenneth Millar. When he began writing mysteries in 1949, he wrote under the name John Macdonald to avoid confusion with his wife, Margaret Millar, who was already an established mystery writer. Later he switched to John Ross Macdonald to avoid confusion with John D. MacDonald. He eventually settled on Ross Macdonald until his death in 1983.
Macdonald is best remembered for his Lew Archer novels. In all, he wrote eighteen of them and several short stories. Paul Newman played the detective in Harper (1966) and The Drowning Pool (1975). Archer was also the name of a short-lived television series on NBC in 1975 starring Brian Keith.
The Chill is the eleventh novel in the series, first published in 1964. The story concerns a series of murders and a psychologically distressed young bride named Dolly, whom the police quickly identify as a key person of interest.
Although the book has its share of action and twists, what makes it stand out is Macdonald's remarkable skill at characterization. Even peripheral characters have a depth and definition that seems to effortlessly solidify in your mind's eye from only a brief description or a few lines of dialog. What defines characters is simply everything they do. The way they dress, where they appear, what they say and how they say it. Macdonald is a master of characterization and he seems to use every line to multiple purpose, moving the story forward and revealing character simultaneously.
Written in first person, The Chill is a true page-turner. Not in the sense of imminent danger at every corner or non-stop action, but through engagement with its characters. They're so real and their conflicts so affecting you're compelled to read on to find out what happens next.
This is the first Ross Macdonald novel I've read and he's already one of my favorite writers.
Double Indemnity
by James M. Cain
I chanced upon a worn copy of this American hard-boiled classic at a book sale and picked it up for a song. Although he wrote eighteen novels in all, James M. Cain is most famous for two: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) and Double Indemnity, which was first published in Liberty Magazine in 1936. Both were runaway hits that firmly established him as a master of crime fiction.
At 125 pages Double Indemnity is about the length of the typical pulp magazine story of its era. The prose is terse and reads like a freight train. Once it leaves the station it picks up speed and never slows until it deposits you at the end of its run.
Most pulp stories of this era are rich with 1930's atmosphere. Cain's work goes one better. He captures the era and the setting with such finesse and depth that it almost feels like a character in the story. Double Indemnity is worth reading as a study in writing craft, but the plot is still the main event and it still packs a wallop.
A long time insurance salesman is enticed by the wife of a business man into a high-stakes game of murder and fraud. With his expertise in the insurance racket he plots the perfect crime with the maximum payoff. Too bad he doesn't realize he's not the one running the show until he's in too deep to get out.
The story reflects the ideology of its day, but Cain's exploration of what makes people tick and his observations about the insurance industry are surprisingly frank and timeless. The book is masterfully written in first person narrative which just adds to the fun. Now I'm going to have to track down the movie just to see how they adapted it to the screen.
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