The Drowner

The Drowner is superb potboiler by John D. MacDonald. Private Eye Paul Staniel is hired by the sister of a woman who was found drowned in a small town lake. She doesn't think it was an accident. The victim's estranged husband was something of a debauched swinger. She had formed a new relationship with a local business man who was drowning in tax debt. Could either of them have murdered her?

The villain in this one reminds me a bit of characters out of Stephen King or Thomas Harris novels.

The story is incredibly compelling and MacDonald just keeps turning the screws right up to a the suspenseful ending.

There aren't too many flaws in this one--MacDonald's long winded diatribes on relationships pop up but aren't too distracting here. show more There is one killing that seems a bit unrealistic--but it's portrayed as part of a quite creepy and thrilling scene.

Highly recommended. show less

This already-short novel appeared in a shorter version in Cosmopolitan, so the inside cover says. It was originally published in 1963, thus pre-McGee.

The story is commonplace enough; woman dies, woman's sister doesn't believe it was accidental, hires private detective firm. Ex-cop private detective begins investigation, sets off alarms, several more deaths follow, final chapter has detective and murderer in fight to (almost) finish.

What sets it off, though, is MacDonald's descriptions of the town and the people who inhabit it. I've always thought that while Travis McGee's occasional bursts of philosophy were insightful enough, it was in character description that MacDonald really shone, and he's in fine form here.

Here's the detective show more defining himself:

"He knew out of a cumulative knowledge that Paul Stanial could not survive much longer as this particular human being unless he found his own meaning again. He wanted prideful work, to use all his skills, all his energies and abilities. And he wanted a woman to go with the work."

I get a clear picture of the man in those three sentences, and that's not something all authors can do that quickly and that well. show less

an excellent story from the master. The Drowner doesn't refer to the woman who drowns in the beginning, but rather the person who drowned her. there's a decent love story woven in here, too. I couldn't give it five stars because the sense of place was generic. maybe i'm being picky, but i like my floridians to be floridians, and this could have been anywhere.

Lucille Hanson got rid of her rich husband and had moved on with a strong man who seemed to be too good to be true. She goes for a swim and is found drowned. No marks on her body suggest an accident despite the fact she was an excellent swimmer. Her sister thinks otherwise and hires private detective, Paul Stanial, to confirm it really was suicide.

This was a good read that was difficult to put down.