SHOTGUN BLAST FROM THE PAST: THE IVORY GRIN by ROSS MACDONALD

Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series hit its stride in the fourth book, The Ivory Grin. While Moving Target, The Drowning Pool, and The Way We Die are all strong, reads, this is where Macdonald truly understood his voice and special formula for the private eye novel. Lew Archer dives into some of the darkest places and neither does he or his creator blink.

Una, a stocky diamond encrusted woman who immediately gets on Lew's nerves, hires him to track down her maid Lucy Champion, a black woman who can pass for white. She gives a story about Lucy taking jewelry of sentimental value that he doesn't buy. He tracks Lucy down in the California mountain community of Bella City where he finds her in her hotel room with her throat slit. Her boyfriend, Alex, is arrested for the murder. Lew believes he's innocent,so he convinces the local sheriff to let him help. His search for the truth takes him through a Macdonald labyrinth, involving a missing heir, a rival P.I., old members of the Detroit Purple Gang, and, of course, some family secrets.

This is one of the darkest Archer books. It holds some of the author's most brutal depictions of violence, whether committed with cold efficiency or in inflamed passion. It has one of the higher body counts in the series. Each reveal leads to something even darker that and Macdonald always connects it to a very human motivation, making it even more disturbing.

He takes on the plot and themes with a mastered confidence. His plot points and reveals aren't telegraphed or over explained. The reader takes it all in much like Lew. His take on the dark sid eof love and family slowly seeps into the book. He deftly deals with the issue of race in the book through microscopic behavior instead of head-on declarations.

The Ivory Grin is the work of an author who has found his legs and is running with them. Ross Macdonald yells his story of love, family, and violence with a metronome pace and packs it with vivid characters and depth. And he only gets better.