2024 the best far side review

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In The Far Side of the Dollar, private investigator Lew Archer is looking for an unstable rich kid who has run away from an exclusive reform school—and into the arms of kidnappers. Why are his desperate parents so loath to give Archer the information he needs to find him? And why do all trails lead to a derelict Hollywood hotel where starlets and sailors once rubbed elbows with two-bit grifters—and where the present clientele includes a brand-new corpse? The result is Ross Macdonald at his most exciting, delivering 1,000-volt shocks to the nervous system while uncovering the venality and depravity at the heart of the case.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004FYZKAW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage Crime/Black Lizard; Reprint edition (December 29, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 29, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1327 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 258 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0679768653
Reviewer: Joseph Lakewood
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Ross MacDonald Lives On!
Review: I have been reading Ross MacDonald novels for over forty years now, and am currently in the process of rereading them all. In my view, he is the greatest of the thousands of American (he was Canadian, actually) detective novelists and the novels seem stronger now than when they first appeared forty or fifty years ago. MacDonald's detective Lew Archer is one of the most interesting of all fictional investigators, tough, smart, sensitive, and all too human. MacDonald is a great storyteller, and the plots are dazzling. What strikes me most after all of these years is the beauty of his very spare style, and his note-perfect recreation of post-war California. Every book from The Doomsters (1958) on is a masterpiece of the genre, and the five early Lew Archer novels are impressive, too, especially The Barbarous Coast. He is really writing Greek tragedies, under the guise of mystery thrillers. The Far Side of the Dollar is one of the gems of the whole series. I can't recommend this work too highly for anyone who appreciates literate detective fiction.

Reviewer: John Warrant
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Complicated plot, culture wars, and a cast of unpleasant characters
Review: I’m a fan of Ross Macdonald, particularly as I watch Lew Archer evolve his understanding of a changing youth culture while he tries to find the killer. In The Ivory Grin, it’s clear that Archer doesn’t quite know what to do with surf bums, long hair on guys, and a hedonistic lifestyle - but he tries to understand. In this book, his point of view is evolving from the 50s stereotype where parents ruled and kids had no rights. Even with one foot planted in the 50s, he starts to understand the teen angst that blossomed in the 60s, all the while trying to navigate the roadblocks that keep him from cutting through all the social and class barriers between him and the murderer. Although satisfying, the book got bogged down from time to time - but not for long. As usual, the mystery is both simple and complicated, keeping you guessing till the end. Which is why I’m a fan of Ross Macdonald.

Reviewer: Michael G.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A substantive mystery.
Review: Chapter I of The Far Side of the Dollar finds veteran PI Lew Archer visiting a reform school for rich teenagers. Young Thomas Hillman a recent admission to the facility has gone AWOL and Archer has been hired by the school's headmaster to find him. A fairly straightforward case, right? Wrong. As in all Ross Macdonald novels, the plot becomes ever increasingly intricate as the narrative unfolds.There's plenty of standard Ross Macdonald fare packed into the pages of this very engaging book. Family dysfunction that spans the generations, hidden blood relationships between characters, a young person's journey to claim a birthright heretofore denied as well as jealousy and greed leading to murder most foul.The "readability" of The Far Side of the Dollar is greatly enhanced by its wonderfully insightful descriptive prose. Another very appealling aspect to this novel is the extremely vivid and at times emotionally wrenching way the characters are developed. Highly recommended.

Reviewer: Rocky
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: My first Ross MacDonald
Review: This was recommended by some fans of mystery fiction from the 20th Century. What a good writer! In among all the mystery stuff one expects, you will find some great pithy comments. Based on this book I've purchased a couple more, but have yet to get to them (so much to read, so little time). I thought well enough of it that I also purchased a hard copy as a gift for a relative who also loves to read.

Reviewer: Dr. L.
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Interesting story, incomplete ending
Review: While I enjoyed most of the story, I found the ending incomplete. It is abrupt and leaves multiple plot strands unanswered. Without giving much away, there is an unrequited love interest, another possible bastard child, and a sweet romance that is left hanging. I felt disappointed at the last page

Reviewer: Lawrence D. Zeilinger
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Disappearing into History
Review: Nobody reads Ross Macdonald much anymore, but this was one of several books Amazion asked me to review this week, so I'm doing my best to oblige them. This partcular June 1984 14th Bantam Books printing has one of the fabulous James Marsh covers I collect, in which the entire series of some 20-plus books were all published as a posthumous tribute to Macdonald, who died in 1983 and whose real name was Kenneth Millar, born an American, raised in Canada, and returned to California to write. Most of Macdonald's books have deep Freudian themes to them, and are old-style hard-boiled literature whose fans included such notable greats as Eudora Welty and the editor of the New York Times Book Review. It's hard to find him in print anymore, but Black Lizard/Vintage is doing a good job of tring to keep his books afloat. Macdonald writes of the promised land, the sunny valleys of California, and the family tragedies and mysteries behind the secret doors. It's best to start off reading him chronologically, with the three non-Archer novels he wrote during World War II, and then slowly move chronologically into the Lew Archer series, which once comprised a TV series starring Peter Graves and the movie "Harper" with Paul Newman as the Archer character (remember, he liked titles that began with "H", like "Hud" (Larry McMurtry's first book, "Horseman Pass By", and also "Hombre." "Dollar" is a great mystery and you should read everything Ross Macdonald wrote and all the great books of essays and one especially superb biography about him.

Reviewer: Clayton
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Ross Macdonald, Lew Archer...'nuff said.
Review: Haven't read the book yet, but I have yet to read a Lew Archer yarn I didn't like.

Reviewer: L.K Mas Mea
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Eloquent mystery
Review: This book, like all Ross Macdonald's books, are more appropriately "why-dunits" than "whodunits." He aspired at first to write in Chandler's style, then found his own voice. Lew Archer is more the conscience of the series than the protagonist, and he reflects this in his investigations. Macdonald's Archer is a roving conscience that gives both reason and understanding to his characters, as well as the motivations for why they behave as they do. Maconald, through Archer, offers rationalization for people and their motives. I find something new with every re-reading of Macdonald's books.

Reviewer: P. M. Williams
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: cracking who dunnit