> If we're only going to read one Archer,
I'd
> recommend
> THE NAME IS ARCHER/LEW ARCHER - P.I., one of
the
> best
> private eye short story collections ever. If it
has
> to be a novel, why not the first, THE MOVING
TARGET,
> which was the basis for the biggest PI film of
the
> '60's, HARPER? If it has to be post-GALTON,
I'd
> personally choose THE ZEBRA-STRIPED HEARSE, but
I've
> heard that Macdonald himself once said that
he
> regarded BLACK MONEY as his best effort.
>
I'd personally go with THE CHILL, which I think is a nice
working out of the MacDonald formula, although ZEBRA is good,
as is BLACK MONEY. They're all pretty decent -- yet strangely
hard to distinguish. Although people overstate it, in a way
it's true what they say, if you've read one post GALTON you
really have read them all.
That doesn't mean they're bad, at all, but they are very
highbrow-formulaic.
MOVING TARGET is a fun book but reads like what it is, a
Chandler imitation, and doesn't really have much to do with
MacDonald as a fully developed writer.
doug
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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