"Macdonald should not be limited in audience to connoisseurs of mystery fiction. He is one of a handful of writers in the genre whose worth and quality surpass the limitations of the form." --Los Angeles Times

"Most mystery writers merely write about crime. Ross Macdonald writes about sin." --The Atlantic

"Without in the least abating my admiration for Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, I should like to venture the heretical suggestion that Ross Macdonald is a better novelist than either of them." --Anthony Boucher

"[Macdonald] carried form and style about as far as they would go, writing classic family tragedies in the guise of private detective mysteries." --The Guardian (London)

"[Ross Macdonald] gives to the detective story that accent of class that the late Raymond Chandler did." --Chicago Tribune