The Ivory Grin, by Ross MacDonald

Title: The Ivory Grin 

Author: Ross MacDonald 

Borrowed from Fairfax County Public Library 

Started:7/25/2025

Finished: 7/29/2025

This was never one of my favorite Lew Archer books but I liked it a lot more this time around.  Getting older, I suppose. 

A Short Stay in Hell, by Steven L Peck

Title: A Short Stay in Hell 

Author: Steven L Peck 

Borrowed from DC Public Library Kindle Edition 

Started: 7/27/2025

Finished:7/28/2025

Fantastic very short novella or very long short story.  

Find a Victim, by Ross MacDonald

Title: Find a Victim

Author: Ross MacDonald

Borrowed from Audible

Started: 7/21/2025

Finished: 7/24/2025

I haven't read this one in 16 years.  Looking back at my post, I didn't like it back then.  I liked it better now, but it isn't one of the stronger Archer books.  Internet articles will tell you it's because a new publisher wanted MacDonald to compete with the Mike Hammer series -- much more violence and sex.

Find a Victim has more of that.  I was especially taken aback by the gang rape near the end.  This is also one of the rare Archer novels where he sleeps with someone involved in the case.  

Anyway, I liked it better than I did 16 years ago, but this is definitely a much more tough talking Archer.  But all the psychological drama and intellectual commentary is there that makes these Archer books so enjoyable. 

Blackwater, by Michael McDowell

Title: Blackwater

Author: Michael McDowell

Purchased from Audible

Started: 7/12/2025

Finished: 7/21/2025

I like Michael McDowell's work generally but have held off on reading Blackwater because I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy it.  Well, I can now say I waited for now reason -- I loved it.  Southern Gothic, multigenerational, family drama.  The fantastic stuff was so secondary that I wouldn't have cared if it had been left out entirely.  The multigenerational family drama was just so damn entertaining.  I would forget about the supernatural stuff because it was so few & far between.  

Death Reports to a Health Resort, by PJ Fitzsimmons

Title: Death Reports to a Health Resort 

Author: PJ Fitzsimmons 

Purchased from Amazon Kindle Edition 

Started: 6/18/2025

Finished: 7/6/2025

Book 9 in the Anty Boisjoly series, this time author Fitzsimmons finally gets some money from me as this one wasn't available as an audiobook from the public library.  

Enjoyed this one as much as the previous and after listening to the prior 8 books ready by Tim Bruce it was impossible not to hear those same voices in my head as I read this one on my kindle.  

What you might notice is how I took almost 3 weeks to finish this one when the audiobooks were consumed in 2 or 3 days.   I'm not a slow reader, but I was really trying to take my time and savor this final book (so far) in the series. 

At the end of the book is a summary of all the previous entries as well as a teaser for book 10, but I can't find any mention of book 10 elsewhere and the title included the phrase "red herring" so now I'm wondering if this is all an elaborate prank.  

Great book, great series, and great fun since discovering Anty Boisjoly thanks to a random Reddit thread.