The Blue Hammer (First Edition)

MacDonald, Ross

ISBN 10: 0394404254 / ISBN 13: 9780394404257

Published by Knopf, New York, 1976

About this Item

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. Quarter black cloth over teal paper-covered boards, gilt spine lettering, yellow top-stain. Near Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Some fading top edge of book. Caldor sticker on front jacket flap. Publisher's original price of $7.95 intact on the front jacket flap. A tight, clean copy. Octavo, 270 pages. "The Blue Hammer" is the final Lew Archer mystery, in which the detective investigates a missing painting and uncovers buried secrets that echo the violence of the past. Ross Macdonald (1915-1983) was a Canadian-American novelist, widely considered alongside Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler to form the "holy trinity" of American crime writing. This was his eighteenth and final Lew Archer novel. Noted in "Pronzini & Muller, 1001 Midnights." The complete series is: "The Moving Target" (1949); "The Drowning Pool" (1950); "The Way Some People Die" (1951); "The Ivory Grin" (1952); "Find a Victim" (1954); "The Barbarous Coast" (1956); "The Doomsters" (1958); "The Galton Case" (1959); "The Wycherly Woman" (1961); "The Zebra-Striped Hearse" (1962); "The Chill" (1964); "The Far Side of the Dollar" (1965); "Black Money" (1966); "The Instant Enemy" (1968); "The Goodbye Look" (1969); "The Underground Man" (1971); "Sleeping Beauty" (1973); "The Blue Hammer" (1976). F4500.

Seller Inventory # 1718

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Blue Hammer (First Edition)
• Publisher: Knopf, New York
• Publication Date: 1976
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0394404254
• ISBN 13: 9780394404257
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

Hired to find a purloined painting, reputedly the work of a man who vanished in 1950, Lew Archer unveils an assemblage of murder and family rivalry and deceit

About the Author

ROSS MACDONALD (1915-1983) was the pen name of Kenneth Millar. Born near San Francisco but raised in British Columbia, he returned to the United States as a young man and published his first novel in 1944. For over twenty years he lived in Santa Barbara and wrote mystery novels about the fascinating and changing society of his native state. His works have received awards from the Mystery Writers of America and of Great Britain, and his book The Moving Target was made into the movie Harper in 1966.