The Way Some People Die

infobox Book |
name = The Way Some People Die
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of 1952 Pocket Book edition
author = Ross Macdonald
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Lew Archer
genre = Detective, Mystery novel
publisher = Random House Inc
release_date = 1951
media_type = Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 9-997-51952-3
preceded_by = The Drowning Pool
followed_by = The Ivory Grin

"The Way Some People Die" is a detective mystery written in 1951 by Ross Macdonald, the third book featuring his private eye, Lew Archer.

Plot introduction

Mrs. Samuel Lawrence gives Lew Archer fifty dollars for one day of his time to find her daughter Galatea (a.k.a. Galley). Archer soon discovers she was married to a small-time mobster named Joe Tarantine. And shortly after that, a big-time mobster offers him five thousand to find Tarantine. The investigation quickly gains a body count and Lew is constantly drawn from Los Angeles to Pacific Point, Palm Springs, San Francisco, and back again, trying to tie together details that seem as random as they are violent.

Facts and quotations

This book introduces the second of two cities Ross invented and was to use commonly in his work, Pacific Point, located south of Los Angeles.

"Some of my colleagues think that "The Way Some People Die" is the best of my twenty books." – Ross Macdonald.

" ["The Way Some People Die" is] the best novel in the tough tradition I've read since "Farewell, My Lovely" and possibly since "The Maltese Falcon"." - Anthony Boucher, "New York Times" book review, August 5, 1951)