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The Ivory Grin, a.k.a. Marked for Murder (1952).
by Ross MacDonald.
ISBN-13: 978-0307278999
“Archer-Macdonald are working together at
their peak, piecing together a most modern American Tragedy, making literature
out of the thriller form, gazing more clearly than ever into the future as it
rolls through the smog.” – Newsweek.
A hard-faced woman clad in a blue mink stole
and dripping with diamonds hires Lew Archer to track down her former maid, who
she claims has stolen her jewelry. Archer can tell he's being fed a line, but
curiosity gets the better of him and he accepts the case. He tracks the wayward
maid to a ramshackle motel in a seedy, run-down small town, but finds her dead
in her tiny room, with her throat slit from ear to ear. Archer digs deeper into
the case and discovers a web of deceit and intrigue, with crazed number-runners
from Detroit, gorgeous triple-crossing molls, and a golden-boy shipping heir
who's mysteriously gone missing.
Traveling from sleazy motels to stately
seaside manors, The Ivory Grin is one of Lew Archer's most violent and macabre
cases ever.
