The Instant Enemy by Ross Macdonald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For me, real page turners are rare. Though not necessarily a mark of a well written book of great quality, it is certainly a mark of an author that knows how to craft a story to charge a reader through their tale. This is one of those for me.

Ross launches his story off the first few pages and then charges across the pages with twists and turns and revelations that beg another page turned. This is still another Ross story that starts one way and transforms into something else. Again, I believe this is a book Ross over-plotted to throw readers and sacrificed near the end a truly excellent book. A few twists less would’ve strengthened this entry in the Lew Archer series.

Part of the problem is a shifting of characters and plot to a point a reader best read straight through. Put this one off a day or two after 50 pages in, is likely to lose the reader. Also many characters are written too much a like adding further confusion. Especially considering how Ross handles them all.

There’s also the plot holes where the Archer character could’ve stepped away from hearsay and spent shorter time researching and gotten further faster. This would’ve spoiled a number of twists and turns by Ross later in the tale, but the actions of a good detective.

As usual, Ross writes characters enough to salt the book as needed. His settings here were lacking.

Still quite a production.

Bottom line: Irecommend this book. 7 out often points.

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