Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look (UK 2012)

From the Publisher:
'A more serious and complex writer than Chandler and Hammett ever were' -- Eudora Welty
Lew Archer, world-weary private investigator, is hired by Larry and Irene Chalmers when they suspect that their troubled son Nick is involved in their own burglary. But when a fellow investigator - one who's been working with Nick - turns up dead, Archer soon realizes this isn't simply about some stolen loot. To help their son, Archer must uncover the truth about a kidnap years ago, and discover why the handgun from a decades-old killing apparently turns up at every new and terrible murder.

In The Goodbye Look, Ross Macdonald exposes the damage families can cause one another in the name of love, lies and greed.

Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer mysteries rewrote the conventions of the detective novel with their credible, humane hero, and with Macdonald's insight and moral complexity won new literary respectability for the hardboiled genre previously pioneered by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. They have also received praise from such celebrated writers as William Goldman, Jonathan Kellerman, Eudora Welty and Elmore Leonard.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look. Penguin, ISBN: 9780141196602 (July, 2012), 276 p., £8.99, eBook £5.50.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
"Another of Mr. Macdonald's somber celebrations of the evil that lurks in men's souls... as elaborately designed as the plot of any three-volume Victorian novel." -- The Christian Science Monitor

In The Goodbye Look, Lew Archer is hired to investigate a burglary at the mission-style mansion of Irene and Larry Chalmers. The prime suspect, their son Nick, has a talent for disappearing, and the Chalmerses are a family with money and memories to burn. As Archer zeros in on Nick, he discovers a troubled blonde, a stash of wartime letters, a mysterious hobo. Then a stiff turns up in a car on an empty beach. And Nick turns up with a Colt .45. In The Goodbye Look, Ross Macdonald delves into the world of the rich and the troubled and reveals that the past has a deadly way of catching up to the present.

"It was not just that Ross Macdonald taught us how to write; he did something more, he taught us how to read, and how to think about life, and maybe, in some small, but mattering way, how to live.... I owe him." -- Robert B. Parker

If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, it is Ross Macdonald. Between the late 1940s and his death in 1983, he gave the American crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity that his pre-decessors had only hinted at. And in the character of Lew Archer, Macdonald redefined the private eye as a roving conscience who walks the treacherous frontier between criminal guilt and human sin.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look. A Lew Archer Novel. Vintage Crime / Black Lizard, ISBN: 0375708650 (December, 2000), 243 p., $12.00.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look (UK 1990)

From the Publisher:
THE GOODBYE LOOK
Irene Chalmers was a good-looking woman, and the lawyer Lew Archer worked for thought that was all a woman really had to be. Archer knew better. He also knew she was lying. More was missing from her California mansion than an old gold box. The Chalmers' son, Nick, was missing too - run off to commit suicide or murder or both. Another private detective on the case already had a bullet in his head. And if Archer stepped into his shoes, he'd be walking a one-way street to trouble that had begun twenty years and three dead bodies ago.

ROSS MACDONALD
"Macdonald should not be limited in audience to connoisseurs of mystery fiction. He is one of a handful of writers in the genre whose worth and quality surpass the limitations of the form" -- Los Angeles Times
"The Lew Archer books are the finest series of detective novels ever written by an American" -- New York Times Book Review
"Marvellous books" -- Time Out
"Ross Macdonald must be ranked high amongst American thriller writers" -- Times Literary Supplement

Ross Macdonald was born near San Francisco in 1915. For over twenty years he lived in Santa Barbara and wrote mystery novels about the fascinating and changing society of his native California. Lew Archer is his most famous creation, portrayed by Paul Newman in the film of The Moving Target (which is also available in the A&B American Crime series). He died in 1983.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look. A Classic Lew Archer Mystery. Allison & Busby American Crime, ISBN: 0850317150 (January, 1990), 222 p., £3.99.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look (USA 1987)

From the Publisher:
PRAISE FOR A GENIUS OF THE GENRE
"It was not just that Ross Macdonald taught us how to write; he did something much more, he taught us how to read, and how to think about life, and, maybe, in some small, but mattering way, how to live...I owe him." -- ROBERT B. PARKER
"Ross Macdonald's work has consistently nourished me...I have turned to it often to hear what I should like to call the justice of its voice and to be enlightened by its wisdom, delighted by its imagination, and, not incidentally, superbly entertained." -- THOMAS BERGER
"The most important successor to the Chandler / Hammett tradition, as well as the writer who elevated the hard-boiled private-eye novel to a new 'literary' form." -- MARCIA MULLER
"(The) American private eye, immortalized by Hammett, refined by Chandler, brought to its zenith by Macdonald." -- The New York Times Book Review
"A more serious and complex writer than Chandler and Hammett ever were." -- EUDORA WELTY

Irene Chalmers was a good-looking woman, and the lawyer Lew Archer worked for thought that was all a woman really had to be. Archer knew better. He also knew she was lying. More was missing from her California mansion than an old gold box. The Chalmers' son, Nick, was missing too -- run off to commit suicide or murder or both. Another private detective on the case already had a bullet in his head. And if Archer stepped into his shoes, he'd be walking a one-way street to trouble that had begun twenty years and three dead bodies ago.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look. A Lew Archer Mystery. Bantam Books, ISBN: 0553271024 (November, 1987), 186 p., $3.50.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look (USA 1984)

From the Publisher:
THE GOODBYE LOOK
Irene Chalmers was a good-looking woman, and the lawyer, Lew Archer, worked for thought that was all a woman really had to be. Archer knew better. He also knew she was lying. More was missing from the Malibu mansion than an old gold box. The Chalmers' son, Nick, was missing too, out on a committ episode of mugg or both. Another private detective on the case, already, had a bullet in his head. And if Archer stepped into his shoes, he'd be taking on one easy street to trouble that had begun twenty years and three dead bodies ago.

ROSS MACDONALD
Winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, Ross Macdonald is acknowledged around the world as one of the greatest mystery writers of our time, the New York Times has called his books featuring private investigator Lew Archer "the finest series of detective novels ever written by an American."

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look. A Lew Archer Mystery. New York: Bantam Books, 1984, ISBN: 0553241923, 186 p., $2.95.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look (UK 1978)

From the Publisher:
Lew Archer "by a long chalk, the best private eye in the business" -- Sunday Times

Hot Lead...
Nick held Betty with one hand and with the other pointed a heavy revolver at my stomach. I felt resentment more than fear. I hated the idea of dying for no good reason at the hands of a mixed-up overgrown boy.
"Drop it," I said routinely.
"I don't take orders from you."
"Come on now Nick," Betty said. She moved closer to him, trying to use her body to distract him. Her right arm slid around his waist, and she pressed one thigh forward between his legs. Then she brought her left hand sharply down on his gun arm.
"Damn you!" he said. "Damn you both!"

THE GOODBYE LOOK

ROSS MACDONALD was born near San Francisco in 1915. He was educated in Canadian schools, travelled widely in Europe, and acquired advanced degrees at the University of Michigan. In 1938 he married a Canadian who is now well known as the novelist Margaret Millar. Ross Macdonald (Kenneth Millar in private life) taught school and later college, and served as communications officer aboard an escort carrier in the Pacific.

For nearly thirty years now he has lived in Santa Barbara and written mystery novels about the fascinating and changing society of California. Among his leading interests are conservation and politics. A past president of the Mystery Writers of America, he also received awards from the Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain for The Chill and The Far Side of the Dollar.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look. Fontana, ISBN: 0006153917 (October, 1978), 192 p., 75p.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look (USA 1977)

From the Publisher:
"MAYBE YOU COULD HELP ME, MR. ARCHER."
Archer would have been happy to oblige the lady, but help wasn't necessary. She'd been bothered by a guy passing himself off as a private detective. He wouldn't be bothering her any longer. Archer had just seen him stretched out on the back seat of his convertible, his face covered with blood.

THE GOODBYE LOOK
Don't miss any of the Lew Archer novels, the detective series The New York Times called "the finest ever written by an American." Available in Bantam editions where paperbacks are sold:

THE BLUE HAMMER
THE FAR SIDE OF THE DOLLAR
THE INSTANT ENEMY
THE IVORY GRIN
THE MOVING TARGET
THE WAY SOME PEOPLE DIE

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look. A Lew Archer Mystery. Bantam Books, ISBN: 0553109952 (April, 1977), 192 p., $1.75.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look (UK 1974)

From the Publisher:
Lew Archer "by a long chalk, the best private eye in the business" -- Sunday Times

Hot Lead...
Nick held Betty with one hand and with the other pointed a heavy revolver at my stomach. I felt resentment more than fear. I hated the idea of dying for no good reason at the hands of a mixed-up overgrown boy.
"Drop it," I said routinely.
"I don't take orders from you."
"Come on now Nick," Betty said. She moved closer to him, trying to use her body to distract him. Her right arm slid around his waist, and she pressed one thigh forward between his legs. Then she brought her left hand sharply down on his gun arm.
"Damn you!" he said. "Damn you both!"

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look. London: Fontana, 1974, ISBN: 0006135242, 192 p., 35p.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look (UK 1970)

From the Publisher:
Lew Archer "by a long chalk, the best private eye in the business" -- Sunday Times

Hot Lead...
Nick held Betty with one hand and with the other pointed a heavy revolver at my stomach. I felt resentment more than fear. I hated the idea of dying for no good reason at the hands of a mixed-up overgrown boy.
"Drop it," I said routinely.
"I don't take orders from you."
"Come on now Nick," Betty said. She moved closer to him, trying to use her body to distract him. Her right arm slid around his waist, and she pressed one thigh forward between his legs. Then she brought her left hand sharply down on his gun arm.
"Damn you!" he said. "Damn you both!"

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look. London: Fontana, 1970, ISBN: 0006124046, 192 p., 5/- (25p).

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look (USA 1970)

From the Publisher:
THE GOODBYE LOOK
... is the look of violence and death, the look of the victim gazing into the face of his murderer, often welcoming what the other has to give... Macdonald really know[s] us... [He has] lived the metaphor of our time and place and being... What started a hardboiled detective adventure ended as a literature of sadness and strange ends on the California coast." -- Ray Bradbury

"Macdonald, historian of despair and chronicler of sordid souls, once again probes the effect of big passions on small people. The result is as ominous as a ticking parcel... An exploration of guilt, greed, exile, revenge and causality... from a novelist who uses the detective tradition to explore the modern American psyche." -- Newsweek

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look. The Newest Lew Archer Novel. Bantam Books #N5357 (June, 1970), 186 p., ¢95.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look (UK 1969)

From the Publisher:
In his new novel, Ross Macdonald's famous non-hero private eye Lew Archer -- 'not only the most intelligent of the lone-wolf civilized and humorous detectives' (Daily Telegraph) -- is on his way through a overheated and explosive maze of a wealthy family's long hidden secrets. A lost heirloom, a boy's first brush with murder, a boy's life poised as if to money-crime commitment -- all are elements of The Goodbye Look. This is Ross Macdonald at his unnerring best, a novelist once brilliantly perceptive of the world it memorializes -- the freeway culture of Southern California -- and from first to last glittering in its dramatic excitement and suspense.

Acknowledged master of the 'whipcord thriller' (Bookman), Ross Macdonald is increasingly recognized as an author whose books are 'enjoyable on two levels -- the straight fascination of a carefully tangled web being unwound for us, and the more complex pleasure of a portrait of the seamy and corrupted side of a money-rich society' (Oxford Mail).

'Without in the least abating my admiration for Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, I should like to venture the heretical suggestion that Ross Macdonald is a better novelist than either of them.' -- Anthony Boucher, New York Times Book Review

ROSS MACDONALD was born near San Francisco in 1915. He was educated in Canadian schools, traveled widely in Europe, and acquired advanced degrees and Phi Beta Kappa key at the University of Michigan. In 1938 he married a Canadian girl who is now well known as the novelist Margaret Millar. Mr. Macdonald taught in Millar's private law school, in schools and later in college, and served as Communications Officer aboard an escort carrier in the Pacific. For over twenty years he has lived in Santa Barbara, and written mystery novels about the fascinating and changing society of his native state. Among his leading interests are conservation and politics. In 1964 his novel The Chill was given a Silver Dagger award by the Crime Writers Association, and the same organization declared his The Far Side of the Dollar the best crime novel of 1965. The Moving Target was made into the highly successful film, Harper (1966). Mr Macdonald is also a past president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look. London: Collins Crime Club, 1969, 186 p., 21s.

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look (USA 1969)

From the Publisher:
"Acknowledged master of the "whipcord thriller," Ross Macdonald is increasingly recognized as "not only the best in his field but an important American novelist on any level" (Chicago Tribune). In his new novel, Macdonald's famous non-hero private eye Lew Archer -- embodiment of cool -- picks his way through the overheated and explosive mazes of a wealthy family, long-hidden secrets. A lost heirloom, a murder that breeds more murder, a boy's life poisoned by a money crime committed before he was born -- these are the elements of The Goodbye Look. It is Ross Macdonald at his stunning best: a novel at once brilliantly perceptive of the world it anatomizes -- the freeway culture of Southern California -- and from first to last unfaltering in its dramatic excitement and suspense.

ROSS MACDONALD was born near San Francisco in 1915. He was educated in Canadian schools, traveled widely in Europe, and acquired advanced degrees and a Phi Beta Kappa key at the University of Michigan. In 1938 he married a Canadian girl who is now well known as the novelist Margaret Millar. Mr. Macdonald (Kenneth Millar in private life) taught school and later college, and served as Communications Officer aboard an escort carrier in the Pacific. For over twenty years he has lived in Santa Barbara and written mystery novels about the fascinating and changing society of his native state. Among his professional interests are conservation and politics. He is a past president of the Mystery Writers of America. In 1964 his novel The Chill was given a Silver Dagger award by the Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain. Mr. Macdonald's The Far Side of the Dollar was named the best crime novel of 1965 by the same organization. And The Moving Target was made into the highly successful movie Harper (1966).

Ross Macdonald: The Goodbye Look. The New Lew Archer Novel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969, 215 p., $4.95.