Reviews for Hebrews and the Pastoral Epistles

The average rating for Hebrews and the Pastoral Epistles based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-09-01 00:00:00 Eric Mauer Ross Macdonald was a pseudonym for Kenneth Millar (1915–1983). Millar was an author best known for creating the character of Lew Archer, a California Private Investigator. Millar was born in California and lived in Ontario, Canada, until his father abandoned his mother, uprooting their family and forcing them to move again and again over the next few years. While attending the University of Michigan, Millar began writing pulp fiction, publishing his first novel, "The Dark Tunnel", in 1944. Millar introduced Lew Archer, the tough but sensitive private detective in the 1946 short story “Find the Woman.” That story is the first in this collection. Table of Contents: ix - Introduction - Ross Macdonald (1976) 001 - “Find the Woman” (June 1946) 023 - “Gone Girl” (Feb 1953) 053 - “The Bearded Lady” (Oct 1948) 101 - “The Suicide” (Oct 1953) 135 - “Guilt-Edged Blonde” (Jan 1954) 149 -“The Sinister Habit” (May 1953) 183 - “Wild Goose Chase” (Jul 1954) 205 - “Midnight Blue” (Oct 1960) 231 - “Sleeping Dog” (Apr 1965) For his fifth novel, in 1949, he wrote under the name John Macdonald, in order to avoid confusion with his wife, who was achieving her own success writing as Margaret Millar. He then changed his pen name briefly to John Ross Macdonald, before settling on Ross Macdonald, in order to avoid being confused with fellow mystery writer John D. MacDonald. It's amazing how well these stories hold up after half a century. Credit must be given to Ross MacDonald. The book comes in a mylar dust jacket.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-07-19 00:00:00 Parag Goyal "Lew Archer Private Investigator" is a collection of short stories that span the early to middle career of both author and detective; a period of about 20 years. Every one of these stories is worth reading. Ross Macdonald (birth name Kenneth Millar) could always string words together in an interesting way. As with most writers, his skill and style grew over time resulting in a familiar "set" to the Lew Archer character and novels. Apparently Mr. Macdonald did not write many short stories involving Archer even though he wrote during then through the period when magazine fiction (mostly shorts) was very popular and there was a plethora of outlets for even a halfway decent hack. (Kurt Vonnegut wrote about how he himself entered the landscape just as the outlet for short stories collapsed, forcing him to move to the novel as his primary format.) I greatly enjoyed reading how Archer evolved into the man of "The Wycherly Woman" and "The Galton Case" (the two novels I have read so far). Taken by themselves, these are good to very good stories and I would have enjoyed them even had I never seen the novels. Until I got to the second story, "Gone Girl" I was convinced I had never read anything by Ross Macdonald until I picked up "The Wycherly Woman" a few weeks ago. More on that below. In the earliest stories one sees a lot more similarity, perhaps mimicry, of earlier and contemporaneous authors in the genre. Perhaps like most people Mr. Macdonald chose to focus on successful models rather than be wholly experimental while still a novice. It's not such an unreasonable strategy and it clearly kept him alive long enough to develop into a more distinct voice. One of the stories (third in published order, second in the book) was so familiar to me within the first two paragraphs that I knew I had read it before, but wasn't sure where or when. For more than half the story I was convinced that it was a retelling of a "Continental Op" tale by Dashiell Hammet. As I read the final pages I knew that I must have read this exact piece ("Gone Girl" aka "The Imaginary Blonde") in some anthology; the ending is too specific for it to have been something just "similar". According to the original publication date, it was written about 10 years after the first piece included. So, I think it is rather an homage to the elder master, rather than a copy of one. No matter what the motivation it is one of the best stories in the book. If you prefer short fiction to novels, then I recommend this book. And, if you simply like good detective fiction not matter what the length or the period, I recommend this book. The writing is "tight" and accurate (which counts for more in these lengths than in a novel) and the plots are all decent - even if they rework some of the basic well-worn themes. Macdonald makes his fiction interesting; I don't think there is a "dud" in this book.