Detective Novels
 | There are many crime fiction writers who have become famous than their
original names and Kenneth Millar is one of them. His original name was
Ross Macdonald, famously known for his crime fiction novels mainly
settled in the areas of Southern California and his creation of the
famous detective, Lew Archer.
detective fiction Kenneth Millar was born on the last month of the year of 1915 on 12th in Los Gatos, California. He mainly lived with his relatives in Ontario during the initial stages of his life as his father and mother separated due to differences. His stories on crime fiction mainly focused on broken homes and domestic problems which were drawn from the early phases of his life. Although many critics accused him of his novels' central theme being the secrets of the past, family histories hidden in the mind, he wrote them with numerous variations that readers and his loyal fans could not differentiate and decipher. In the year 1938, Kenneth Millar married Margaret Sturm and they had a daughter Linda. His wife became famous as Margaret Millar, a mystery writer. During World War II, he enrolled in the American Navy as a communications officer in an escort carrier on the Pacific Ocean. He began his life, writing stories for magazines. Although he wrote his first novel, The Dark Tunnel in 1944, while he was doing graduation in the University of Michigan, he changed a series of pen names such as John Macdonald before settling for Ross Macdonald. He also obtained his Ph.D. in literature. After settling in Santa Barbara in the 1950s, he wrote a series of crime fiction bestsellers, namely "The Goodbye Look, The Underground Man and Sleeping Beauty." In his books, he took crime fiction to various levels and directions that the reader could seldom dream about. In the 1960s, though he was famous as a crime fiction writer, he and his wife became interested in environmental causes and articles on environment were published on San Francisco and Sports Illustrated. Kenneth Millar actively participated in the protests where massive oil spill near the coast of Santa Barbara caused environmental pollution. His famous character, Lew Archer, the hero of his crime fiction stories has been portrayed in films such as Harper (1966) and The Drowning Pool (1975). Many honor titles and responsibilities were bestowed upon him in his lifetime, such as President of the Mystery Writers of America, Silver Dagger and Gold Dagger from the British Crime Writers Association. Kenneth Millar left for his heavenly abode on 1983, but not before firmly entrenching his name in golden words in the area of detective fiction. The world today hails him as a writer who began his career initially as an honest crime fiction writer but ended along with other literary greats such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Detective Novels |
