In these three novels, written during a remarkable five-year period, Ross Macdonald elaborated on his chosen theme of families destroyed by hidden guilt with a new assurance, uniting his genius for intricate narrative structure with a profound compassion for his anguished characters. They prompted Anthony Boucher to make the following statement in The New York Times: 'Without in the least abating my admiration for Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, I should like to venture the heretical suggestion that Ross Macdonald is a better novelist than either of them.'
