The Bearded Lady by Ross MacDonald

This novelette was first published in 1948 and was a fine, plot twist infused story with a missing friend of Lew's, a missing painting and a missing sketch of a bearded woman.

My God, everybody in the story had a part to play in the deaths!  It was fun and cleanly written.

Ross MacDonald

Death by Water by Ross MacDonald

Originally written in 1945 this story did not see print until 2001 in the three-story anthology, edited by Tom Nolan, in the book Strangers in Town.

The story was about a nice old millionaire living in a hotel with his wheel chair bound wife.  He befriends many people in the bar and is thrown out of the pool when he and his newly met friends go for a midnight swim.  The next morning his is found, dead, at the bottom of the pool.

Lew Archer investigates, on behalf of the hotel, to confirm that it was an accident and not something more.  Since there is a sizable inheritance involved it's important to discover the truth.

I liked it, it was a straight-ahead whodunit. Lew Archer starts to show his character here.

Information on Ross MacDonald can be found HERE.

Find the Woman by Ross MacDonald

For a first effort and for its time, the story was pretty good; although the murder itself was a bit far-fetched.

Other than an unlikely MO the characters were well written and the story had any easy flow.  Lew Archer himself did not stand out much in this one.
 

This is the first Lew Archer story that was published in the June 1946 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine under his real name, Kenneth Millar.

Information on Ross MacDonald can be found HERE.