Macdonald has written in Sleeping Beauty the most metaphorically unified novel of the Lew Archer series. The integration he achieved by using the central symbol of the oil spill both draws the fiction together and expands its meaning outward. The circularity of the plot, actions brought full circle, as well as forward in time, are reflected in the ebb and flow, ever more menacing because of the free floating oil, of the sea which echoes the diurnal regularity of nature. The natural associations of the characters with various elements and the order of birth and death also add to the symbolic associations within the novel. Here there is little quarrel with Macdonald's use of poetic metaphor. It all seems right, in harmony with the larger literary structure of the story. Even the fairy tale suggested in the title adds to the resonance of the book. With a passing...