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Shop nowThe Zebra-Striped Hearse
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Learn moreStrictly speaking, Lew Archer is only supposed to dig up the dirt on a rich man’s suspicious soon-to-be son-in-law. But in no time at all, Ross Macdonald’s private eye is following a trail of corpses from the citrus belt to Mazatlan. And then there is the zebra-striped hearse and its crew of beautiful, sunburned surfers, whose path seems to keep crossing the son-in-law’s—and Archer’s—in this powerful, fast-paced novel of murder on the California coast.
Ross Macdonald (1915–1983) was the pen name of Kenneth Millar. For over twenty years he lived in Santa Barbara and wrote mystery novels about the fascinating and changing society of his native state. He is widely credited with elevating the detective novel to the level of literature with his compactly written tales of murder and despair. His works have received awards from the Mystery Writers of America and of Great Britain, and his book The Moving Target was made into the movie Harper in 1966. In 1982 he was awarded the Eye Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Private Eye Writers of America.
Alexander Adams is a pseudonym for narrator Grover Gardner. His most high-profile book to date is the unabridged novelization of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, recorded in a joint effort by BOT and Random House under the Adams moniker. He lives in Maryland.
Reviews
“A model of [Macdonald’s] excellence…has character, statement, and style.”
“Macdonald is one of the elite in hard-boiled mystery fiction. In his tenth book (1962), he again indulges us with the moody, smart-mouthed, introspective character of PI Lew Archer. The story—mostly set in Southern California—takes us inside people’s lives—we get to know them and sympathize with some of them…[Grover Gardner’s] flat middle-American voice is well suited to the characterizations in this book…A first-class reading.”
“Archer solves crimes with the instincts of a psychologist and the conscience of a priest, and the mid-twentieth-century Southern California setting is a wonderful ride in the Wayback Machine.”
“This is completely and formally a detective novel, but with more meat on its bones than nine out of ten novels.”
“This is hard-boiled detective writing at the top of its form.”
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