''The Drowning Pool'' is a 1950 mystery novel by American writer Ross Macdonald, his second book in the series revolving around the cases of

private detective A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

Lew Archer Lew Archer is a fictional character created by American-Canadian writer Ross Macdonald. Archer is a private detective working in Southern California. Between the late 1940s and the early '70s, the character appeared in 18 novels and a handful o ...

Plot summary

Archer is hired by a woman to investigate a libellous letter she received. The family lives in the house situated on the line between two Southern Californian towns, one an idyllic, oil-rich town and the other the small, seedy town from which the oil comes, corrupt and destroyed by the industry. It is not long before Archer is more concerned with investigating murder instead of just blackmail. The book was the basis of the 1975 Paul Newman film of the same name but the movie has radical departures from the plot of the novel, including moving the location to

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

Reception

The ''New York Times'' called the book "a fast moving, smoothly written first rate whodunnit." They named it one of the top mysteries of 1950.

References

1950 American novels American novels adapted into films Lew Archer (series) Novels by Ross Macdonald Alfred A. Knopf books Novels set in California {{Canada-novel-stub