The blue hammer : a Lew Archer novel

R. MacDonald, K. Millar

We find veteran private eye Lew Archer at the Santa Teresa home of copper magnate Jack Biemeyer and his wife Ruth. He's been hired to locate a potentially valuable painting that is missing from their residence. This intricately plotted mystery is less a story about stolen artwork or even murder than it is a study of family secrets reaching back over more than a generation. Lost love, jealousy, dysfunctional relationships, homosexuality and substance abuse all play a part in the interesting narrative that unfolds in the pages of this novel.