Another great Sunday mystery, and another oldie but goodie (not as old as last week’s Murder in the Calais Coach by Agatha Christie): this week I read The Ferguson Affair by Ross MacDonald (published in 1960).  This mystery does not feature his famed investigator Lew Archer but instead has a less hard-boiled hero, the stubborn and thoroughly decent small-time lawyer, Bill Gunnarson.

Macdonald whips up an unbelievable plot using look-alikes, mothers and offspring, one huge coincidence, scattered hints of police corruption, dated insights into the “Spanish” character of southern California’s Hispanics living on the wrong side of the “tracts” and plenty of booze and drugs — and I loved every minute of it.  Dated?  Yes, absolutely.  Engrossing?  Yes, absolutely.

I knew through every minute of the book that I was in time zone of the late fifties, hanging out in southern California, and running with the wild crowd.  Touching scenes of Gunnarson’s home life and his slow-knitting but gun-ready nine-month pregnant wife only added to the thrill of his late night meetings and morgue visits and various kidnappings, smothering, and sudden revelations. Gunnarson would have been magnificent with a cell phone and internet search engines (but then so would the bad guys).  He did a great job anyway carrying out his investigation of The Ferguson Affair using old-fashioned methods of buying drinks and chatting up old ladies (and when all else failed, using his secretary for research, phone calls, and wife-sitting), and I had a great time watching him.