The Zebra-Striped Hearse

An excellent PI Novel with its share of nail biting suspense intact. Ross Macdonald is a fabulous writer with an excellent prose and depictions of characters, their moral dilemmas all authentically brought out.. ( )

When a woman tries to hire Archer away from her husband, the PI is thrown into a case involving multiple identies, multiple murders and a strangely painted hearse. As always, Archer has a suspect in sight, but the twists and turns result in an unexpected solution. ( )

The Lew Archer series by Ross Macdonald needs very little introduction. Macdonald was the heir to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett and wrote the novels from 1949 to 1976. This one begins with Archer being hired to investigate the prospective son-in-law of Colonel Blackwell with the hope that he will dig up some information that will stop the marriage. Burke Damis, the subject of Archer's investigation, is an artist who is a bit of a wild man. The Zebra-Striped Hearse is the the rolling home of a group of surfers who live on the beaches of Southern California.
The book quickly becomes a murder investigation as Archer digs into Damis's past. The story has some colorful locales, Lake Tahoe, Mexico and Malibu. The character I enjoyed most was a woman artist who lived in Mexico and had been living with Damis before he hooked up with Harriet Blackwell. She was serious about being an artist and someone who would be worthwhile taking the time to have dinner with. Archer ran into a female movie idol from his youth in Mexico who quickly threw him out of her house.
The book is not one of Macdonald's best which means it is a pretty good murder mystery. The plot has the usual quota of twists and turns and you think it is over three times before the final surprise. I enjoyed the book, but I can only give it three and one-half stars. The plot got lost in itself a couple of times and there were very few interesting or likeable characters. Still even going through the motions at times Macdonald is a good author and reading this book was a nice way to spend the time. ( )