24 April, 2002
The Drowning Pool
Ross MacDonald
1950
216 pp
In this book, Lew Archer is hired by Maude Slocum to investigate a poison-pen letter which somebody had sent to her husband, accusing her of adultery. Maude was able to intercept the letter before her husband could see it, and was worried that the author of the letter would send another one, which she wouldn't be able to suppress. The real danger to Maude would be if her mother-in-law found out. The husband, James, is a total mama's-boy, and the entire family is financially dependent upon the old lady's largesse, to boot. The night Archer visits the family estate to meet everybody, the old bat gets killed, and Archer starts to investigate her death.
The plot in this one is a little bit on the sprawling side; many people had motives for killing the old Mrs. Slocum, and they all get involved in the case, and Archer goes all over the place investigating them all, it gets hard to follow the main thrust of the plot, in a few spots. The Wycherly Woman was much more tightly-plotted. It's still a perfectly good read.
Here's a bit I particularly liked. While driving through a rich neighborhood filled with mansions on large lots, Archer has run into a guy who helped rough him up pretty bad, the previous day:
We were in a dark-green valley walled with close-set laurel on both sides. The only sound was the hum of our idling cars. "You have a deceptive face," I said. "If I didn't know better, I'd think it was alive. You want it gun-whipped.""Try it on," he said stolidly. "See where it gets you."
I wanted to hurt him, but the memory of the night was ugly in my mind. There had to be a difference between me and the opposition or I'd have to take the mirror out of my bathroom. It was the only mirror in the house, and I needed it for shaving.
The publishers of this edition of the book (Bantam 1983 MMPB) really piss me off. Can you believe they actually put the solution of the murder mystery in the teaser exerpt at the beginning of the book? How clueless can you get? The only reason this didn't completely spoil the mystery for me is that I figured it must be some trick, because nobody would actully do that!
While MacDonald was strongly influenced by Chandler, he breaks one of Chandler's rules for a good detective novel in this book:
MEDIUM SPOILER FOR THE DROWNING POOL:
Chandler says that the criminal should be punished somehow, although not
necessarily by the judicial system. The killer in The Drowning
Pool gets off scott free at the end. I guess one could argue that
she endures some psychological discomfort, but it's not exactly sufficient
punishment for murder.