Throwback Thursday: Meet Me at the Morgue by Ross Macdonald

Author: Ross Macdonald
First published in 1953 by Bantam

Meet Me at the Morgue is the story of a kidnapping that led to four murders. In his search for the killer, Howard Cross digs deep into the Los Angeles underworld, finding along the way a beautiful, lost adolescent mourning a dead lover, a suitcase hidden under an aging sadist's bed, and a slovenly gentleman with an ice pick in his neck. Ross Macdonald has never written a story quite like this, and neither has anyone else.

I spent some time recently on my library's Overdrive website looking for older novels for Throwback Thursday.  Meet Me at the Morgue was a random pick.  Written in the early 1950, it's an entertaining mystery.  It reminded me of a straight police mystery that you might see in black and white on screen.

I found I enjoyed listening to the book.  It was refreshing to read a mystery that was solved based on solid detective work and little technology.  In the 50s, there was nothing like CSI in existence.  Howard Cross is actually a parole officer who is convinced his parolee isn't involved in a kidnapping or murder.  I liked his character and it's a shame that this is a stand alone novel because I would probably seek out other stories with him in it.

I definitely would recommend this one if you like mysteries.  It wasn't easy to solve and had a good twist in the end.