The Archer Files

Love these short stories. I like to read short stories written by authors of crime fiction novels to see how they fit in a crime within 10-15 pages. Ross Macdonald's The Archer Files are too good.

Great collection but bad paper quality.

Ross Macdonald is one of the great crime writers of all time. And these short stories featuring private eye Lew Archer don't disappoint.

Für Fans von Lew Archer ist diese Sammlung sehr zu empfehlen. Die Fälle sind nicht alle überzeugend, und der Schluss ist manchmal etwas arg melodramatisch. Ich glaube nicht, dass eine Frau sich mit einem Brieföffner selbst erstechen kann. Aber egal: mir kommt es auf die elegante Sprache an. Die ist unnachahmlich.

I've been a fan of Ross MacDonald's work for a bit over a year, having bought the two already-published collections from Library of America and read all of them straight through, almost compulsively. Altogether I've read nine of his novels and intend to read the rest. I'm not much of a reader of short stories, but I knew I had to take a chance with The Archer Files. The complete stories were all ingenious, and though the plots were perforce less complicated than the novels, all were excellent. As a lagniappe, the volume includes a number of Case Notes, fragments from unfinished novels and/or stories. All of them are written with MacDonald's signature elegance of phrasing, his clear and concise style. And yes, they're a bit maddening, because the reader is caught up in the tale and wants to know how the stories finally play out. I am not generally a reader of detective fiction, and the writer must be a fine stylist before I'll bother reading. That's why I read all of P.D. James and why I will read everything by Ross MacDonald.

Eminently readableMacdonald at his best!

Kenneth Millar's/Ross Macdonald's Archer has always been my favorite "hard boiled" detective and this collection of short stories did not disappoint! In fact the only drawback are is the selection of "Case files" —incomplete beginnings of possible Archer stories — which I desperately want to see fleshed out into full-length tales.