Detective Lew Archer is hired by the Blackwell family in Bel Air to investigate a deadbeat artist/playboy set on marrying their daughter who goes by the name of Burke Damis. Mark Blackwell suspects he’s “One of those confidence men who make a career of marrying silly women” and is trying to get his hooks on a half-million fortune. Is Burke Damis who he says he is? Why was Quincy Ralph Simpson killed by an ice pick? What is the significance of the black-and-white hearse?
This is my personal, favorite mystery of all time. I have read this book no less than four times throughout my life and it inspired me on the road to mystery writing. Ross Macdonald weaves a complex Freudian twist in The Zebra-Striped Hearse not explored by Chandler and Hammett. It also examines the, then generation gap. Indicative of Ross Macdonald books, the California coast and sea are woven into the story and paint a serene backdrop against the moral turpitude of the plot.