Whenever Bill Crider says he is getting rid of something, the
thought strikes me that I must either join him in the tossing
or reread the damn thing. This happened to me with Ross
Macdonald's The Ferguson Affair, a novel I barely
remembered.
I am happy to report that the novel holds up well; both the
plot, which is very solid, and the protagonist, attorney
William Gunnarson, is well drawn. The book is less gloomy and
the action faster than in the Archer novels Macdonald was
writing at the time; parts of it read like a procedural. I
highly recommend this obscure title.
My copy is part of a Detective Book Club three-for-one
omnibus, which also contains Helen Nielsen's _Sing Me A
Murder_, a beautifully constructed novel that I had never
read, and _Murder After A Fashion_, by one Spencer Dean (I
haven't read it). Nielsen deserves attention. I am going to
pick up more of her stuff.
Is Spencer Dean for real? It sounds suspiciously like a
pen-name. I browsed this novel and the tone is hardboiled,
the language reminiscent of the paperette era. I will
probably have to read this. I'm intrigued.
Best regards,
MrT
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