The Ivory Grin is Ross Macdonald's fourth Lew Archer detective novel, published in April 1952. Like most of Macdonald's, the plot is complicated and takes place mostly in out of the way Californian locations.
The Ivory Grin is Ross Macdonald's fourth Lew Archer detective novel, published in April 1952. Like most of Macdonald's, the plot is complicated and takes place mostly in out of the way Californian locations.
Macdonald's working title for the novel was The Split Woman. The phrase The Ivory Grin that he eventually preferred appears near the start of the book. The author had still not decided on the final form of his assumed name by that date and used John Ross Macdonald on the cover. It was published by Alfred A. Knopf in April 1952, and by Cassel & Co in London. Next year the paperback edition from Pocket Books was retitled Marked for Murder without Macdonald's permission. The cover featured a blonde loading an automatic, a female corpse and a blazing car. [1]
In Britain the book was favourably reviewed by Julian Symons, noting in the Times Literary Supplement that "The Ivory Grin uses many of the thriller’s standard ingredients, but it is not at all a standard product". In 1958 Symons also compiled for the Sunday Times a list of "The 99 Best Crime Stories" from 1794 to the present and included there The Ivory Grin. [2] In the decade between 1964 and 1975 eight translations of the book were to appear: in Catalan, [3] Danish, [4] French, [5] Czech, [6] in German from Switzerland, [7] Hungarian, [8] Finnish, [9] and in Spanish from Argentina. [10]
Archer is asked to tail Lucy Champion, a colored girl light enough to pass for white. He suspects that his client Una has given him false details about herself and the reason for her request but agrees because he needs the money. After tailing Lucy, he discovers her in a motel room with her throat slit. Among her effects is a newspaper clipping offering a reward for information concerning Charles Singleton, a socialite missing from his home in Arroyo Beach. Archer sees a connection, since it is dated from the time that Lucy left her employer a fortnight before.
Lucy's boyfriend Alex is imprisoned on suspicion of being her murderer. Archer believes he is innocent and agrees to help Lieutenant Brake with the case, hoping to clear Alex's name. What he learns about Singleton is that he had been connected since 1943 with a good-looking blonde named Bess. This eventually proves to be the clue that helps Archer to unravel a complicated history. As a teenager, Bess had been given a night club position by Chicago gangster Leo Durano and had then come West and married the small-town Doctor Benning, while at the same time carrying on an affair with Singleton.
Singleton's car is discovered burnt out after an accident in the mountains, but Archer is able to prove that the body in it belongs to crooked private eye Maxfield Heiss, who was also in pursuit of the reward money. When Archer locates the missing Bess, she agrees to tell her story in return for stake money to escape the area. She confirms that Una is Leo Durano's sister, who has been intermittently insane for years while Una has cared for him. Presently they are located in a mansion at Arroyo Beach, living off his share of the numbers game pay-off. Two weeks before, she had given Leo a gun and driven him to where Bess and Charles shared a mountain shack. Leo had shot Charles and they had taken him to Dr Benning for treatment, but Charles had died on the operating table. At this point, Una bursts in and shoots Bess, while Archer kills Una.
Later Archer confronts Dr Benning and accuses him of deliberately killing Charles out of jealousy. Lucy, who had been acting as Benning's nurse, spotted his guilt and the doctor had in turn murdered her. He had also disposed of Charles' body and mounted the skeleton in a cupboard, pretending he had bought it for study purposes. Archer disgustedly denies him the chance of committing suicide and turns him in so as to exonerate the wrongly imprisoned Alex.
Tom Nolan, Ross MacDonald: A Biography, Scribner 1999
Ross Macdonald was the main pseudonym used by the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar. He is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in Southern California and featuring private detective Lew Archer. Since the 1970s, Macdonald's works have received attention in academic circles for their psychological depth, sense of place, use of language, sophisticated imagery and integration of philosophy into genre fiction. Brought up in the province of Ontario, Canada, Macdonald eventually settled in the state of California, where he died in 1983.
Lew Archer is a fictional character created by American-Canadian writer Ross Macdonald. Archer is a private detective working in Southern California. Between the late 1940s and the early '70s, the character appeared in 18 novels and a handful of shorter works as well as several film and television adaptations. Macdonald's Archer novels have been praised for building on the foundations of hardboiled fiction by introducing more literary themes and psychological depth to the genre. Critic John Leonard declared that Macdonald had surpassed the limits of crime fiction to become "a major American novelist" while author Eudora Welty was a fan of the series and carried on a lengthy correspondence with Macdonald. The editors of Thrilling Detective wrote: "The greatest P.I. series ever written? Probably."
The Moving Target is a detective novel by writer Ross Macdonald, first published by Alfred A. Knopf in April 1949.
Blue City is a thriller written in 1947 by Ross Macdonald. The novel was originally released under his real name, Kenneth Millar, by Alfred A. Knopf, while a condensed version was serialized in the August and September 1950 issues of Esquire.
The Way Some People Die is a detective mystery published, under the author's then pseudonym of John Ross Macdonald, by Alfred A. Knopf in 1951. It is Ross Macdonald's third book to feature his private eye Lew Archer. The plot centres on the activities of heroin-traffickers, a form of criminality which Macdonald particularly despised.
Peter Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders and he is played by Thomas Law. Peter makes his first appearance in episode 926, originally broadcast on 16 December 1993. Peter has been played by seven actors since being introduced in 1993. Francis Brittin-Snell portrayed the role from 1993 to 1996, followed by Alex Stevens from 1997 to 1998 and Joseph Shade from 1998 to 2004. James Martin took over and played the role from 2004 to 2006. He was played by Thomas Law from 2006 until 2010, when the character departed the series. In April 2013, it was announced that Peter would return, played by Ben Hardy who made his first appearance on 7 June 2013. Hardy announced his departure from the role in November 2014, making his final on-screen appearance on 24 February 2015.
The Galton Case is the eighth novel in the Lew Archer series by Ross Macdonald. It was published in the US in 1959 by Knopf and in 1960 by Cassel & Co in the UK. The book has been widely translated, although the title has been changed in some cases to highlight other aspects of the story. In French it appeared as Un Mortel Air De Famille ; in Turkish as Ölmek Yasak ; in Finnish as Rouva Galtonin perillinen ; and in Italian as Il ragazzo senza storia. Macdonald thought that with this novel he found his own voice as a writer.
Blonde Venus is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film starring Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall and Cary Grant. It was produced, edited and directed by Josef von Sternberg from a screenplay by Jules Furthman and S. K. Lauren, adapted from a story by Furthman and von Sternberg. The original story "Mother Love" was written by Dietrich herself. The musical score was by W. Franke Harling, John Leipold, Paul Marquardt and Oscar Potoker, with cinematography by Bert Glennon.
Black Money is a novel by US American mystery writer Ross Macdonald. Published in 1966, it is among the most powerful of all Ross Macdonald's novels and was his own personal choice as his best book.
Terry Inglis is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours played by Maxine Klibingaitis. She made her first appearance on 11 June 1985. Terry is employed by Max Ramsay as his plumber's apprentice. Terry dates Shane Ramsay and Paul Robinson, whom she later marries. Terry kills Charles Durham and later shoots Paul when he goes to report her to the police. The character departed on 5 November 1985. She is arrested for Charles' murder off-screen, and she later commits suicide, becoming the only character from the serial to have died this way.
Following is a 1998 independent neo-noir crime thriller film written, produced, directed, photographed, and edited by Christopher Nolan. It tells the story of a young man, who follows strangers around the streets of London, and is drawn into a criminal underworld when he fails to keep his distance.
Lucky is a 2011 American crime comedy film directed by Gil Cates Jr. and starring Ari Graynor and Colin Hanks. The film featured the song "I Choose Happiness" by David Choi.
Find a Victim is a novel by Canadian-American author Ross Macdonald, the fifth in a series featuring detective Lew Archer. It was published as a Borzoi Book by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954 and mass marketed by Bantam Books in the following year. The first British hardback was published in Cassell & Company's Crime Connoisseur series in 1955, the same year that a French translation appeared as Vous qui entrez ici. At this period the author was writing under the name John Ross Macdonald and was also identified as Kenneth Millar on the Knopf dust jacket.
The Barbarous Coast is a 1956 detective novel by Canadian-American author Ross Macdonald, the sixth to feature private investigator Lew Archer and his eleventh novel overall. It was published by Alfred A. Knopf in hardcover, and by Bantam Books as a paperback. The plot follows Archer's attempt to locate a missing young woman who is associated with an upscale country club. The novel takes an acid view of Southern California society that foreshadows Macdonald's later treatment of cross-generational deterministic themes.
The Name Is Archer is a collection of short stories written by Ross Macdonald and featuring his detective hero, Lew Archer. Originally compiled in 1955 and published under the name John Ross Macdonald, more stories were added in later collections under different titles.
Meet Me at the Morgue is the ninth novel completed by Ross Macdonald. Credited at the time to John Ross Macdonald, it was published in 1953 by A. A. Knopf and released as a paperback by Pocket Books the following year. In that year too the book was published by Cassell & Co in the UK under the title Experience with Evil. There had been disagreement over the novel's original title. Knopf turned down Macdonald's suggestion of Message from Hell and Macdonald turned down the suggestion of The Convenient Corpse from Pocket Books.
The Chill is Ross Macdonald's eleventh Lew Archer novel, published by Alfred A. Knopf in their Borzoi series in 1964. Macdonald's reputation was now growing and the front cover bore the announcement "a new novel by the author of The Zebra Striped Hearse", which had been well received. After the book was published by Collins Publishers in the UK that year, it went on to gain the Silver Dagger award for 1964 from the British Crime Writers Association. A French translation also appeared in 1964, followed by a Danish translation the following year and an Italian translation in 1967.
The Wycherly Woman is a detective novel by Ross Macdonald. The ninth to feature Lew Archer, it was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961. Earlier that year a condensed version had appeared in Cosmopolitan under the title "Take My Daughter Home". The novel was nominated for the 1962 Edgar Awards, and earlier included in Anthony Boucher’s best crime fiction list of 1961.
The Far Side of the Dollar is the 12th detective novel by Ross Macdonald to feature his private eye, Lew Archer. A condensed version was published by Cosmopolitan in 1964; in 1965 the full version appeared in the US from Alfred A. Knopf and in the UK from Collins Publishers.