Preview of Blue City Summary:

Although Blue City lacks a central purpose and presents a fragmented view of contemporary society, many of the themes which Macdonald introduces here in embryonic form he worked out in some detail through the Lew Archer series. The search for identity, isespecially the child's search for the truth about its parents, and the twin themes of guilt and revenge, appear most prominent in this novel, but there is also present a concern for the past and a sensual decadence, both which will appear more prominently and with greater social significance in the later Lew Archer books.

When Blue City begins, the central character, who has been absent from his hometown for some five years, discovers that his father has been murdered; and since no one seems concerned that the killer has remained undiscovered, the son begins a search for the killers motivated by both guilt and revenge. His...