The Zebra-Striped Hearse

The Zebra-Striped Hearse is a detective mystery written in 1962 by Ross Macdonald, the tenth book featuring his private eye, Lew Archer.

Plot introduction

Archer hunts a missing girl who may be dead, possibly murdered. Strictly speaking, Lew Archer is only supposed to dig up the dirt on a rich man’s suspicious soon-to-be son-in-law. But in no time at all Archer is following a trail of corpses from the citrus belt to Mazatlan. And then there is the gay zebra-striped hearse and its crew of beautiful, sunburned surfers, whose path seems to keep crossing the son-in-law’s–and Archer’s. He questions the surfers, but to the youngsters, death is remote and funny. To the world-weary detective, it's close and grim.

Facts and quotations

"The greatest American mystery novelist. Macdonald imbued the mystery with the qualities of a full-bodied novel: impeccable plotting, a sense of place, a careful delineation of human psychology, and a perfect fusion of story and character." – Richard North Patterson

"Ross Macdonald gives to the detective story that accent of class that Raymond Chandler did." – The Chicago Tribune

References