Skip to main content

The Way Some People Die, Ross Macdonald

from Wikipedia:
Middle-aged Mrs. Samuel Lawrence gives Lew Archer 50 dollars for one day of his time to find her daughter Galatea (a.k.a. Galley) who has been missing since just before Christmas. Archer soon discovers she was married to a small-time mobster named Joe Tarantine. Starting the investigation in the most likely place, with Tarantine’s brother, Mario, Lew finds the man in the hospital after a severe beating that has left him almost unrecognizable. And shortly after that, a big-time mobster offers him five thousand to find Tarantine. The investigation quickly gains a body count and Lew is constantly drawn from Los Angeles to Pacific Point (a fictionalized version of La Jolla[1] ), Palm SpringsSan Francisco, and back again, trying to tie together details that seem as random as they are violent. As the bodies pile up, so does Archer’s confusion, but he remains undeterred by the situation, relying on his well-honed instinct for deviant behavior and the venal intentions of others. Still, the bodies accumulate at an alarming rate, a handsome part-time actor found dead in his apartment, a newlywed husband on the lam, a boat piled on the rocks, fast-talking women, everybody with a handout or hidden agenda.

Plot:  Mom calls in Lew Archer to find her missing daughter.
Daughter has run off with Tarantine who is involved in heroin.
Archer tracks her down.  Keith, a friend of Tarantine, gets killed.
Tarantine takes his brother's boat and fakes his own death.

Archer after Tarantine and still after the girl.

A prostitute tells Archer that she's headed to SF for heroin--are all the various pieces of the plot headed there?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Netflix Lincoln Lawyer

 Just a long yawner.  Acting was fine; there just wasn't nearly enough plot to carry 10 episodes.  Tech guy accused of killing wife.  LL takes on the case after the tech lawyer's first lawyer is murdered.  Mickey Haller gets the guy off . . . trick is the guy is guilty.  He used a drone to dispose of bloody clothes.  Subplot Maggy McFierce trying to get a conviction of a human trafficker.  She loses but then wins.  The divorced couple almost gets back together, but they are on opposite sides of the adversarial process and work comes first.  Won't be in a hurry to watch Season 2

Live and Let Die

 The Fleming book, flawed by 50's racism, moves along in plot and character.  Fleming is an excellent writer--great descriptive powers and pacing. The movie has no redeeming qualities.  All that's left from the book is the racism, and in the book you can feel Fleming's doubts about his racist scenes slipping in.  In the movie (made years later), the racism is incredible.  1972.  Those who say no progress has been made should watch this.  Impossible to imagine this film being made today.