First biography of the late mystery writer Ross MacDonald

Ross MacDonald, by Matthew J. Bruccoli. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 177 pp. $14.95 in hardcover, $7.95 in paperback.

Ross MacDonald (born Kenneth Millar) died last summer, and Matthew J. Bruccoli's new book is the first of what will surely be many studies of the man who gave us Lew Archer and who ranks with Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett as a writer of mysteries. Better books will be written on MacDonald - this will do for the time being. It has a chronology, notes, index, and many good illustrations.