The Wycherly Woman

A Lew Archer Novel

By: Ross Macdonald

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Phoebe Wycherly was missing two months before her wealthy father hired Archer to find her. That was plenty of time for a young girl who wanted to disappear to do so thoroughly—or for someone to make her disappear. And before he could locate the Wycherly girl, Archer had to reckon with the Wycherly woman, Phoebe’s mother, an eerily unmaternal blonde who kept too many residences, had too many secrets, and left too many corpses in her wake.

©1961 Ross Macdonald; renewed 1989 by Margaret Millar (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

In the character of Lew Archer, Macdonald redefined the private eye as a roving conscience who walks the treacherous frontier between criminal guilt and human sin.

“Lew Archer [is] up to his neck in murder, kidnapping, and blackmail – just another day at the office. This is hard-boiled detective writing at the top of its form.” ( Library Journal)

“It’s not just that Ross Macdonald taught us how to write; he did something much more, he taught us how to read, and how to think about life, and maybe in some small but mattering way, how to live.” (Robert B. Parker)

Excellent Storytelling

Interesting story, captivating characters, great private eye detective work. Enjoyed it immensely. One of this Author's most intriguing title in this PD series. Would recommend.

Classic (not boring) Gumshoe

I really enjoyed this book. It was slow moving but in a good way. I haven't read any of his other novels but it worked well as a freestanding read. Decent character development. The narrator was pretty good but I wish he would have differentiated more between characters. Definitely not boring...subtle.

Missing

Archer is hired to kind a missing daughter. What he finds is both mother and daughter missing and two murdered blackmailers. Like all good mysteries, this has lots of red herrings.

Nice work

Grover Gardner is such an excellent narrator that he invests all his work with convincing voices and therefore credible characters. This helps with this novel which has a plot that is a little more stretched than usual. The final hour and denouement require more suspension of disbelief than Macdonald usual demands. Still the complete result is very entertaining and often funny. Recommended.

Outstanding all around!

Grover Gardner does an outstanding performance with nuanced characters that make you forget you’re listening to one narrator. He pulls you along and directs your imagination with clear visualizations of each character, and every cinematic scene.

Of course he has excellent material to work with. I think Ross McDonald rivals Chandler and Hammett. This story is exemplary in the sheer number of quotable dialogue quips with that full classic LA and Bay Area Noir! You cannot go wrong by picking this up and giving it a thorough listening!

Retro

Definitely a retro, noir style story. It was like watching a ‘40’s hard-boiled detective film noir. Grover Gardner never disappoints.

Hard boiled mystery.

My first Lew Archer book. Some actions may be dated or sexist, but all in all a good listen. Grover Gardner is great as always.
A wealthy man returns from a 2 week cruise to discover his daughter is missing. Archer unravels a huge entangled mess of lives leading up to the discovery that not all is as it seems.
Excellent.

The wycherly woman

I really enjoyed this private detective story of murder and hidden secrets. The detective was always putting himself in dangerous situations, but he was like a bulldog in his determination to solve the case.

50s and 60s Views of Women

It’s a good investigation story. Attitudes toward women were very different in this time period. It’s good to realize how things have changed.

Confessions of a Philistine

Of the three major names in American hardboiled fiction, Chandler, Hammett, and Macdonald, I like Macdonald best. And not just because he graduated from the University of Michigan. Or that his first protagonist works on the school’s Middle English Dictionary project—an effort still underway when I graduated some 40 years later.

No, I prefer Macdonald because he is the least haunted, the least labored, the least self-consciously literary of the three. Like Hammett, he clearly sees things wrong with America but doesn’t hate the country--or indulge in the fathomless despair Hammett's hatred inspires. Unencumbered by Chandler’s theories of style vs formula, Macdonald just writes. I like Lew Archer; he’s a genuinely good man. I delight in his wry, self-deprecating humor. And, frankly, his cases are far easier to follow.

Grover Gardner (aka Tom Parker), who reads every Lew Archer story available at Audible, is very easy to follow, too.