Trouble Follows Me

Chet Gordon #2

by Ross Macdonald

It's 1945. Ensign Sam Drake attends a party on his last night stationed in Hawaii and meets the woman of his dreams. But before the night is out, her best friend is dead in an upstairs room at the party. It appears to be suicide.

The next day Sam starts his leave before receiving a new post. He returns to his home town of Detroit, and decides to check into a connection there between the dead woman and a radical group of black activists. Another death quickly follows and Sam finds himself on a cross-country adventure, haunted by dangerous characters everywhere he turns.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Noir, Hard Boiled, Thriller, Espionage

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Ross Macdonald is the pseudonym of the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar. He is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in southern California and featuring private detective Lew Archer.

Millar was born in Los Gatos, California, and raised in his parents' native Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, where he started college. When his father abandoned his family unexpectedly, Macdonald lived with his mother and various relatives, moving several times by his sixteenth year. The prominence of broken homes and domestic problems in his fiction has its roots in his youth.

In Canada, he met and married Margaret Sturm (Margaret Millar)in 1938. They had a daughter, Linda, who died in 1970.

He began his career writing stories for pulp magazines. Millar attended the University of Michigan, where he earned a Phi Beta Kappa key and a Ph.D. in literature. While doing graduate study, he completed his first novel, The Dark Tunnel, in 1944. At this time, he wrote under the name John Macdonald, in order to avoid confusion with his wife, who was achieving her own success writing as Margaret Millar. He then changed briefly to John Ross Macdonald before settling on Ross Macdonald, in order to avoid mixups with contemporary John D. MacDonald. After serving at sea as a naval communications officer from 1944 to 1946, he returned to Michigan, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree.

Macdonald's popular detective Lew Archer derives his name from Sam Spade's partner, Miles Archer, and from Lew Wallace, author of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Macdonald first introduced the tough but humane private eye in the 1946 short story Find the Woman. A full-length novel, The Moving Target, followed in 1949. This novel (the first in a series of eighteen) would become the basis for the 1966 Paul Newman film Harper. In the early 1950s, he returned to California, settling for some thirty years in Santa Barbara, the area where most of his books were set. The very successful Lew Archer series, including bestsellers The Goodbye Look, The Underground Man, and Sleeping Beauty, concluded with The Blue Hammer in 1976.

Macdonald died of Alzheimer's disease in Santa Barbara, California.

Macdonald is the primary heir to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler as the master of American hardboiled mysteries. His writing built on the pithy style of his predecessors by adding psychological depth and insights into the motivations of his characters. Macdonald's plots were complicated, and often turned on Archer's unearthing family secrets of his clients and of the criminals who victimized them. Lost or wayward sons and daughters were a theme common to many of the novels. Macdonald deftly combined the two sides of the mystery genre, the "whodunit" and the psychological thriller. Even his regular readers seldom saw a Macdonald denouement coming.

Reviews

[TXGAL1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

TROUBLE FOLLOWS ME is the 2nd offering of the “Chet Gordon Trilogy”. It is a typical crime noir murder mystery that has the snappy banter that so often represents the genre.

This story takes place in a variety of locations with World War II a mentioned time period. The predominant character in the middle of the mystery to be solved is Sam Drake—an officer in the US Navy currently on survivor leave.

Everyone is on edge due to the war and issues with security. Spies are known to be active and “mum is the word.” When a radio broadcaster is found dead there are many questions. There is an interesting cast of characters and many twists and turns along the way to find resolution.

This story is well written and engaging. However, one of the characters used as a plot device to describe the racial landscape of the times is deplorable. WARNING: this book contains racist language.

I really liked this book, but knocked the rating down to 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ .

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The is the second published novel by Ross Macdonald, but I suspect much of it dates from his WWII navy days, before Macdonald began to pursue his doctorate in English at the University of Michigan. The plot is often rambling and occasionally forced, and the writing is filled with overwritten passages, many of them turgid and pretentious. These problems are present in "The Dark Tunnel" too, but here they seem even more amateurish, evidence of a new writer painfully learning his craft.

The plot, involving U.S. wartime codes, a foreign spy ring, and Negro secret societies, begins at a navy party in Honolulu, moves to a dive bar in Detroit, starts picking up speed on a transcontinental railway journey, and--after a brief stopover in Southern California--ends in a remote hacienda on the outskirts of Tijuana. Each stage in the journey brings another murder, and also brings Ensign Sam Drake a little closer to solving the mystery.

One small observation and a question. Observation: there is a touch of paternalistic racism in this novel, and one scene that positively makes me cringe. Drake, who needs to know something about an African-American secret society, is advised to ask "any intelligent Negro," and so he arbitrarily picks a Pullman porter as a source. Question: why is it that the white liberal racism of the forties often seems more pathetic, stranger and weirder than the outright racism of the Klan?

Oh . . . and, remember, Macdonald fans, this definitely ain't Lew Archer. No, not in any sense of the word.

[Cathy DuPont · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not Lew Archer this time, it's Lt. Sam Drake, U. S. Navy.

After spending months at sea, Sam attends a party in Honolulu with his friend and fellow officer, Eric. Sam's not looking for love but he meets a beautiful tall blonde working woman, Mary.

Although Eric is married with a wife in Detroit, he has a girlfriend, Sue, who works with Mary at a radio broadcasting station on the island.

Set in February 1945, WWII is not quite over. (The war ends August 1945.) There is constant talk of Japanese spies especially in the islands.

The four chapters are divided loosely by their location; Honolulu, Detroit, a transcontinental train trip to LA, and then, and then...the conclusion.

What a great read (not unexpected) and when I hesitated on the conclusion, it's because I hated to see it end. It was that good but hey, folks, it's a Ross Macdonald. Tfitoby knows what I'm talking about.

The ending was blow me away great and came so unexpected, out of left field. As I was thumbing through the last 10 pages or so, I was thinking to myself how's he going to end this one, not many pages left. Most books I read the ending is drawn out sometimes far too long. Ross Macdonald, forget it, he closes his books out fast and furious and very unexpected.

There's much social commentary, specifically race in America, in these 200 pages. No surprise because it fits with subject although I can't recall if there's any such commentary in any of the Lew Archer series.

I love RM's writing and this one is 68 years after publication.

Kenneth Millar published this under his real name, then later began using the pen name of Ross Macdonald.

*****************

I've noted some paragraphs which I'm going to add at a later date to give you examples of how clean RM writes. Short (20 words more or less) sentences which are clearly written and easy to understand.

Storyline always intriguing and ends with a bang. No wonder he won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

And no wonder he's got followers almost 70 years after writing this little jewel, his second book, I believe. His first was The Dark Tunnel published in 1944.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've now read all of Ross Macdonald's novels, and I beg you, whatever you do, do not start here. Do not, in fact, start with anything earlier than The Way Some People Die (Lew Archer #3). Honestly his first six books are all really weak, and reading any of them stands a fair chance of putting you off him entirely, which would be a shame, as his later books are outstanding. He's often seen as the successor to Hammett and Chandler, but Hammett only wrote five novels total, and Chandler seven, where it took Macdonald six just to find his footing.

Like all of Macdonald's early novels this one suffers a lot from trying too hard syndrome. Millar (Macdonald's real name) did his Phd dissertation on Coleridge (under W.H. Auden) and his literary ambitions show up as overwritting in his work. Even when some of the poetic language lands, as it occasionally did in some clever descriptions, it usually outstays its welcome as the descriptions go on too long.

Plotwise, this is somewhere in the mystery-thriller area, with a spy focus. It's set during World War II, and our narrator is a naval ensign, who, while on leave after his ship was sunk, takes it upon himself to investigate some suspected espionage. (While he does involve local police and the FBI at points, he never seems to inform anyone in military intelligence or his own chain of command what he's up to.) It feels like there's a bit of coincidence at play, but it's not his worst from that angle. Pacing was good. (I did guess the final villain though.)

Unfortunately, there is a LOT of racist stuff in the book. It's tied to the plot, but there's also a lot of people just saying racist crap to each other. As for the plot, if you're curious: An African-American secret society is being manipulated by the Japanese and some plain old money-grubbing white people. I don't infer anything about Macdonald's own racial attitudes from it, but it's one of those situations where even when the main character is explicitly trying not to be racist, he's still kind of racist, because he's steeped in it so long.

On a weird note, this and The Dark Tunnel, are referred to as "The Chet Gordon" books, but he's the only thing linking them, and he is not the main character in either.

If I were forced to recommend any of Macdonald's four pre-Archer books, I'd pick Blue City, but again, do yourself a favor and just pick one of the later Lew Archer books to start. They can all be read independently. Next time I read Macdonald, that's what I'll be doing. Though perhaps I'll reread Nolan's fantastic biography of Ross Macdonald first.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trouble Follows Me (aka Night Train) (1946) was Ross MacDonald’s second published novel and came out a few years before Millar turned nearly full-time to writing Lew Archer’s legendary private eye series. Trouble Follows Me, though, is quite different from the Archer novels and offers a very different experience with Millar’s writing. For one thing, it is a World War 2 espionage novel, although that is not apparent at first. Set initially in Honolulu, then in Detroit, and on a cross-country Orient Express, it appears to be a murder mystery with hints that something else might be at play as Navy Ensign Sam Drake and his romantic partner Mary Thompson race to figure out what is behind a string of murders or suicides that they seem to be a few steps too late to uncover.

Honolulu as the war is racing to conclusion is no match in Drake’s eyes to cosmopolitan Detroit. Drake meets blonde temptress Mary Thompson, a tall midwestern blonde, at a party in Honolulu along with her radio broadcasting partner Sue Sholto, who his buddy Eric has been having an affair with. Sue’s suicide or perhaps murder during the party sets off a series of events as Drake, for no good reason other than being a good patriotic guy, is set to figure out what is going on.

Sue’s killing appears to be blamed unfairly on the only African-American around, a steward, Hector Land. There is a great deal of racial perspectives given here with the overall tenor being commentary I would think on the state of racial relations in the pre Civil Rights era with Southerners still thinking that African-Americans needed to keep in their places and even Drake and Mary uncomfortable moving in the African-American parts of Detroit. It was certainly a different time and people said things then that they would not say today.

When Land disappears in San Diego, realizing that he was from Detroit too, Drake decides to pay Land’s wife a visit and see what she knows, particularly since there are hints that Land might be connected to a subversive organization. We get Drake moving uncomfortably through parts of town where he stands out.

Eventually, the action moves to a cross-country train with some odd passengers and some poisoned whiskey. Nevertheless, Drake continues to pursue his gut and try to find out what is going on and why people around him seem to become homicide victims. The grand finale ties up all the loose ends and makes sense of everything going on.

This espionage novel just misses with some of the plotting and dialogue being clunky and Drake’s entire involvement seeming to be uncalled-for.

[Aditya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I approach the early books of Macdonald with a lot of trepidation. I still remember his disastrous debut but his Archer series has convinced me it is worth tracing his growth as an author. Unfortunately books like Trouble Follows me make it a tough endeavour even with lowered expectations.

The bodies pile up as Navy intel is presumed to be stolen in this old fashioned espionage thriller. The descriptive metaphors that would later be the lifeblood of Archer show up but they are invariably overwritten. It is the same with tough guy dialogue, the protagonist Sam (already forgot his surname) tries too hard to act edgy. All aspects of the writing essentially feel immature, the potential is there but it is equally obvious the author is in his early days and still trying to figure out his narrative voice. Macdonald was still not the finished article in his first two Archer books but was far enough in his development for it to not detract too much.

The thing that feels the most off is his plotting. It would go on to become the best aspect of his writing but here the whole plot is based on coincidences. A random stranger explains Sam a major plot point during a train journey while a completely forced chance encounter sets up the climax. The characters are one dimensional, the hero is a chest thumping patriot wearing his wit on his sleeve, the villains a bunch of sociopathic subversives. Pretty early in the Archer series, the antagonists will be a lot more nuanced, in fact Macdonald will be one of the first noir authors to focus on the psychology behind crime. That aspect of his writing is completely missing.

It is better than Macdonald's debut but not by much. At least he is not quoting classics left and right to show how well read his protagonists are. That was a major problem with his first book - The Dark Tunnel, even here the protagonist has time to quote Fitzgerald while looking at the wrong end of the gun. That is such a weird place tonally to show off erudition. Fortunately it is not ubiquitous.

Trouble Follows me is a spy thriller that has Macdonald jostling and coming up short against all the qualities that would later make him such a pillar of hard boiled history. On the plus side it is short and fast. 2.5/5 will be reduced for GR because it is essentially a plot heavy novel with questionable plotting. Rating - 2/5.

[Jack Bell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mean, it's fine enough — Macdonald's The Three Roads was a truly haunting piece of postwar noir that I enjoyed a lot, and I hoped that this would capture some of that same evocation. But it's merely an alright yarn, enjoyable but dated and sometimes a little clumsy (at best).

I enjoyed its pulpy feeling and its own little sense of scope: an espionage murder mystery that stretches from Hawaii to Detroit, has a big section on a transcontinental train journey, detours into Los Angeles, and ends up in Tijuana (and God, I do love reading things that I can imagine Anthony Mann or Joseph H. Lewis making a great little B movie of in the late 40s...)

And while it has a twist that legitimately caught me off-guard, it's also quite an inarticulately-structured mystery that's based mostly on characters happening to be in the right place at the right time to overhear something unnaturally incriminating. And that's not even mentioning amount of incredibly dated racial elements, which I'm generally fine with ignoring in books of this era but here gets truly galling at times — especially since this is a book that tries extremely hard to wear its progressiveness on its sleeve, but ends up feeling so sanctimonious and uncomfortable as a result.

Like, I guess it's good that the "underground black supremacist secret society" turns out to be mostly a red herring in the grand scheme of things, but it doesn't preclude the fact that one of the biggest clues in the book is the protagonist being told (by a white professor who literally says this line: "I’ve been studying the Negro population of Detroit for years. A great people.") to find and "ask some intelligent Negro what it's all about".

It doesn't get better from there. There were some lines like that — or like "He held his speech carefully in the Amos ‘n’ Andy tradition, the slurred speech which whites have learned to expect of Negroes and resent the absence of" (?) — where I was reading to put this down and write it off, but I stuck through because it was short and not too demanding. And I might have given it a marginally higher rating if I was in a more forgiving mood, but at least it's good to remember that sometimes our emperors do not indeed have clothes. Yes, Macdonald wrote something breezy and often entertaining — I'd be way more disappointed if he didn't even accomplish that — but he would get much... much better.

[Larry Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trouble Follows Me, (pub. 1946) was the 2nd novel by the young author Kenneth Millar, aka Ross MacDonald. I gave it four stars, although the prose be often purple, and the dialogue excessive, the reader sees the early offering of a young and earnest writer commencing his calling, and the overlying themes and insight of a writer -with something to say. Themes of dogged pursuit of truth and fairness, great sociological and psychological insights of the times, developing with Kenneth Millar and which later blossoms in the writings of Ross MacDonald, and in the Lew Archer series.

The Opening Scene. “IN FEBRUARY, 1945, HONOLULU WAS a small blend of Los Angeles and prewar Shanghai, shaken up with the carnival end of a county fair, and poured out carelessly at the edge of the sea. Men in uniform, white, tan, khaki, grey, green, pullulated in the streets, looking for a place like home and not finding any.”

Prevalent Booze & Romance. “The first stages of drunkenness are delicate, illusive and altruistic, like the first stages of love.” Music Selections. Duke Ellington: Portrait of Bert Williams [more to follow on this]. “Play this.” She put the record on a turntable. It was Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbehavin’, the organ version.” Mary Broadcasting from Honolulu. “How do you time record programs?” “It’s easy enough with the one-disc programs. They’re already timed when we get them. And some of the ninety-sixes and hundred-and-twelves are standardized.” “Ninety-sixes?” “Ninety-six turns to a record. They go around ninety-six times. The ones that are specially made for broadcasting are standardized so that you can measure the time right on the record. They send us a little ruler with them, laid out in units of time instead of inches.” … “I listened to the broadcast through the loudspeaker in the audience room. Her voice was deep for a woman, and steady, the only kind of female speaking voice that sounds well over the air. She went in for quietly kidding her audience, more by inflecting her voice than by what she said.”

The Ensign Drake. “It’s true of all of us, I guess. Not just servicemen. There aren’t many people I know that haven’t lost track of themselves.” “Ever since I left Detroit I had felt dislocated, and after my ship went down it was worse. Sometimes I felt that all of us were adrift on a starless night, singing in the dark, full of fears and laughing them off with laughter which didn’t fool anyone.”

Betrayal, Paranoia, Mistrust, Prejudice & Deceit. First body. “ Her head was cocked birdlike on one side as if she was waiting for the answer to a question, and her tongue protruded roguishly. Under her dangling feet were three yards of empty air. Her whole slight weight was supported by a yellow rope knotted under her ear. Her eyes were larger and blacker than they had been in life.” “Mrs. Merriwell said. “Perhaps she invited the boy in there with her. You never can tell what a nigger-lover will do.” Nor what Mrs. Merriwell will say, I thought. Eric looked at her with something like incredulity, but said nothing. Mary took hold of my arm, her fingers clenching painfully, and leaned her weight on me. For the first time in my life I began to see clearly what Dante saw, that hell is largely composed of conversations. Dr. Savo opened the door and said briskly to Mrs. Merriwell: “What you suggest is out of the question. Shall I give you the physiological details?”

A Prime Suspect. “Navy Regs says no gambling on USN ships, which we interpret to mean not too much gambling, and in the proper places at the proper times. I’m going to check up on everything Hector Land has done since he came aboard this ship.” “Land rose as if a spring had been released under him, and almost ran into the galley. “Do you think he’s telling the truth?” “How should I know?” Eric said a little snappily. “A black never tells the truth to a white if he can think of anything better. He’s got too much to lose.”

Back to Detroit. “ I saw the number 214 in rusty metal nailed above the door of a dark building. It stood among other buildings like it, huge multicellular mansions which had once housed a single family in rather stuffy luxury, and now housed twenty or more. Hemmed in by economic pressure and social injustice, the Negroes swarmed in the rotting hives which they had neither built nor chosen, three, five, or seven to a room. The old houses were eaten away by interior decay, the plumbing dissolved and went away in the sewers, the floors and walls were unpainted and unpapered, the roofs were sagging and porous, the heating systems were left unused or taken out to be sold as scrap metal; and the landlords made no repairs, because they were not needed to rent the buildings.” “Yet from the outside, especially when snow and bleak weather kept the tenants huddled inside around their stoves, the houses looked as they had always looked. Their façades were ornate and imposing, like a pompous matron with a social disease.” “The hall was deserted, but it was odorous and murmurous, alive with the memories and promises of human life: cooking and eating, copulation and birth, quarrels and music and violence.” And to the Bar & Bettye on Absinthe. “At the right end of the bar there was a boogie-woogie piano with a black boogie-woogie pianist playing it. The big room was loud with the intricate rustle and jangle of boogie-woogie, thick with smoke, and crowded with people. But there wasn’t much talking, and there was no laughter. I realized with a jolt that everyone in the room was conscious of our presence. I was embarrassed by the power of my skin to stop a roomful of conversations. The piano-player began Suitcase Blues, and surprisingly she started to hum with the music in an alcoholic contralto.” Then back to Civilization. “Civilization consisted of paying three times as much for our drinks and listening to the same kind of music played worse.”

Next Day Body Two. “There’s more to this case than a buck nigger cutting a whore.” I told them briefly why I thought so. “He’s been reading The Shadow,” Cassettari said. “He’s been reading Dick Tracy, too,” Doc said. “This woman was murdered,” I said. “This woman was murdered, he says,” Doc said. “If she was murdered it’s our business to find out.” “I wouldn’t be meddling in your business if you showed any sign of knowing it.”

Detroit Sociology Professor. “I understand that you know a lot about the Negro population of Detroit.” “I’ve been studying them for years. A great people. You may have seen my book on the riots?” [see my notes & highlights 1943 Detroit Riot] “I was told you know a good deal about Negro social organizations. Did you ever hear of Black Israel?” “Why, yes. I believe I have. I’ve heard it mentioned, that is. I was never able to get inside of if, so to speak.” “It isn’t some sort of a Black Hand organization, is it?” “Good lord, no. At least I don’t think so. It’s a racist organization, standing for greater equality, more rights for the Negro, and so forth. There are a good many of them.” …
“found that similar racist societies among the Negroes had little or nothing to do with precipitating the riots. They were a product of many factors: economic competition and jealousy, Negro progress coming into conflict with the reactionary attitudes of Southern whites who have settled in Detroit. Attitudes which were deliberately encouraged and inflamed by certain demagogues and, in some cases, at least, by enemy agents.” [accurate, and not typical of public or academic opinions in 1945]
Info on Black Israel, professor’s advice find an “intelligent negro” …

Hefler, FBI Investigation. Suspect 1. “Hector Land’s brother got killed in the ’43 riots. Somebody slugged him with a club and smashed his skull. Hector was with him when it happened, and he went hog-wild. He tore into a streetful of whites and started to throw them against the walls of the buildings. It took a squad of police and a straitjacket to quiet him down. But that’s just half of it. Do you know what the cops did then?” “Jailed him.” “That’s right. On a charge of aggravated assault. For beating up a couple of thugs that maybe killed his brother, he gets three months in the clink waiting for trial. He walks out of the clink into the Navy.” “It was Hefler’s baby all right, but I couldn’t drop it. I had already made up my mind to go to San Diego with Mary. San Diego is a half hour’s drive from Tia Juana.”

Train to San Diego. Alcohol, another Body and a Intelligent Negro. “Why did you want a drink? Why did Hatcher want a drink? I’ll tell you why. In a word, because life wasn’t good enough for you. You wanted a little escape, a little death. Perhaps it was the war you wanted to get away from. Basically, though, you wanted to get away from yourselves. Excessive drinking is deliberate suicide by degrees.”
… “My name’s Drake,” I said, and held out my hand. He regarded it with cautious impassivity, as if it were a gift which might explode in his face. Then he took it perfunctorily, withdrawing his hand quickly as if from a trap. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Drake, suh. Mah name’s Edwards, suh.” He held his speech carefully in the Amos ’n’ Andy tradition, the slurred speech which whites have learned to expect of Negroes and resent the absence of.” An erudite discussion, then: “His personality shrank to fit the smooth black shell which white opinion has hopefully constructed for Negroes to live in. Watching this change, which I had never seen before because I had never before seen anything but the smooth shell, I felt a movement of anger and pity stir at the bottom of my mind. I felt that I had witnessed a partial death.” [for more information on this racial reality, see my Notes & Highlights:
A Portait of Bert Williams].

End of the Train, Down in Tia Juana. Ensign Drake. “I felt free from fear and extraordinarily light, but I was beginning to lose my interest in things. I saw everything clearly, without conscious emotion, with the wan objectivity of a cynicism which is reached at the bottom of despair.” … “There was a chilly dawn light in the sky. A withered grey mist hung on the forsaken mountains. The earth looked tired and unlovely, spent by its gross passions. I knew it would look that way to me for a long time wherever I was. I wanted to get to sea again.”

The ending was certainly over the top, the passages contain more than a modest amount of purple prose, but the willingness for the author to tackle significant topics, the betrayal of love and country, racial disparities and causes, is quite telling, and an admirable start -IMO.

[James Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chester Gordon finally makes an appearance about 3/4 of the way into the story.

A mix of Saboteur and Strangers on a Train with a dash of North by Northwest. Imagine a two-part Magnum, p. i./Equalizer crossover. Written by Patricia Highsmith and Raymond Chandler. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles. Filmed in black and white.

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnes už neexistující nakladatelství Tamtam se kdysi pustilo do vydávání tak-trochu-známých autorů... a pak méně zásadních titulů od těch hodně známých. Knížka, která u nás vyšla jako Smrt v patách patří do té druhé skupiny. Je to jedna z prvních Macdonaldových knih, ještě bez Lew Archera... a má blíž k dobrodružné válečné špionážce, než ke klasické kriminálce. Hrdina se pohybuje v různých prostředích, ustavičně ho někdo mlátí přes hlavu nebo omdlívá a potácí se v něčem, co začíná jak obyčejná sebevražda rozhlasové moderátorky a mění se to v souboj s japonskými agenty a do toho ještě s černou organizací hlásající podřadnost bílých. I když se Macdonald snaží o nějaký přesah, ještě mu to tolik nejde. Stejně tak to zrovna nepřekypuje zajímavým postřehy... a pachatel je jasný zhruba od strany pět. (Tedy, jeden ze zhruba padesáti pachatelů.) Zbytek knihy se jezdí vlakem a různě se přechází z místa na místo.
Je fakt, že i když jsem Rosse Macdonalda četl, byl pro mě pořád ve stínu ostatních tvůrců - Hammeta, Chandlera, Johna McDonalda... Přišlo mi, že jeho věci jsou hodně postavené na atmosféře, na emocích a takovém tom sociálním pnutí. Ale ať to bylo cokoliv, tady to není.
Je to prostě klasická pulpová drsná škola z doby, kdy byly ulice plné zrádných japončíků a jiných nepřátelských agentů, kteří posílali zprávy ven těmi nejbizarnějšími způsoby. Tady musím uznat, že ten způsob je tady docela zajímavý, jenže to, jak na něj hrdina přijde, je dost přitažený za vlasy - prostě potká kouzelníka, který mu prozradí svůj trik... a ten je čirou náhodou stejný jako používají agenti.
Prostě jedna z těch knih, který by se měly nacházet pouze v zažloutlých paperbaccích, kde si člověk tu naivitu užije.

[Maryanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Ross Macdonald’s second novel and dates from his time during WWII, as in the first book, The Dark Tunnel. The character’s interest and plot are centered on a number of connected murders involving an international spy ring, leaked information through wartime codes and a secret society. The story is divided into three scenarios where Ensign Sam Drake starts in Hawaii at a navy party, a holiday leave in Detroit followed by a railroad journey to Southern California and ends in Mexico with numerous murders in each phase of the trip. The mystery is solved with a tenacious investigation into the betrayal, nefarious masquerading and surprise revelation. There is racism in the novel which was overtly evident and accepted at the time.

[David C Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very young book by the writer who would become Ross Macdonald. Pure melodrama with a wartime setting, a spy ring and a shadowy group of African American militants called Black Israel. Very overwritten and kind of crazy. If you know your melodrama, you’ll know who the really bad guy is fairly early on. The episodes of race and racism actually make this a piece of evidence for racial attitudes around World War II. Anyway, Millar/Macdonald would go on to better things.

[Neil Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read this several times and re-read it because I am blogging on his novels. It's an early book that could have used a rewrite, but I admire his courage in writing a mystery centering on race relations at the time--1945. Note that it is not a Lew Archer novel.

[Rodger Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. The main character encounters a number of deaths (suicide? murder?) in multiple locations in a short period of time. Those apparent coincidences are plot points that any experienced crime fiction reader is going to question. The main character, who seems like a test version of Lew Archer, questions the deaths and attempts to link them, but misses the most obvious commonality.

One of the reasons I read this book on vacation is that we were in Michigan and the book is partly set in Detroit. This trip, our plans changed at the last minute and we didn't go there, but we did spend one night in the Detroit area in late May on our way to Canada. In 2023, by contrast, we attended a Tiger game, went to a local brewpub, and visited the Detroit Institute of the Arts.

[Jack Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early MacDonald

This was only his second novel, published before he started using the MacDonald pen name (real name Kenneth Millar), and before he created Lew Archer. Pretty good yarn about a GI getting inadvertently involved in an espionage ring towards the end of WWII.

[Otto Penzler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The early works of Ross Macdonald, published under his real name, Kenneth Millar, are hidden gems that precede his iconic Lew Archer novels. Trouble Follows Me takes place during WWII and involves Ensign Sam Drake, a young journalist/naval officer. On the last night that he’s stationed in Hawaii, a young woman is found murdered at the party he had attended. Throughout the rest of the adventure, Drake uncovers various connections to the murder, including a racist conspiracy, and must go to great lengths to uncover and expose the truth.

[Rob Smith, Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good mystery involving the navy and some bad guys. Much as would become tradition with Ross MacDonald,the book starts one way and transforms into something else. As Ross was just
starting and figuring things out, he lets the ending a bit obvious. In between are all sorts of travel and various characters leading all over the place. Eventually it all comes together. Though, Ross leaves a number of loose ends that are unanswered.

I found it odd travel is written in a few words and then extensively drawn out in a another spot. All to move the plot, of course, but inconsistent.

The plotting is well thought out. As with Ross, it's over thought out to confuse the reader. That leaves the actually book wanting and I'm back to loose ends.

The characters, especially considering how may there are are very well written. As are the settings.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 6 out of ten points.

[Michael Fredette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trouble Follows Me is an early novel by Ross MacDonald (his second from 1946) and features as it’s protagonist Sam Drake, a Navy Ensign. Drake finds himself ensnared in a web of murder and conspiracy which follows him from Oahu, HI. to Detroit, MI. to Emporia, KS. to Tijuana, which involves a radical Black liberation group, called Black Israel, who are aligned with the authoritarian Axis Powers. Ultimately, the conspiracy isn’t explained especially well, and the details about Black Israel are scant, but Trouble Follows Me offers glimpses of Ross MacDonald’s greatness to come.

[John Bunyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this story better than The Dark Tunnel. There is mystery, espionage, action, romance.

Sam Drake gets sapped, beaten up, and drugged : a PI trifecta and he’s not even a detective.

The difficult part of this book is the racism. Very rough offensive language and very white supremacist attitudes. Drake and a couple other characters are opposed to this and support better treatment and fairness toward Black people. But they are not totally innocent. It seems to be a historically accurate depiction of race relations in the 1940s, however.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the way the novel is broken up into parts, and I enjoyed the Transcontinental train section. Otherwise, it's bad. Lots of problematic dialogue in this one; it hasn't aged well in terms of its racism or sexism that appears immediately in the first few pages. And the story in general doesn't make a lot of sense. Ross Macdonald was under 30 when he wrote TFM, and thankfully he improved significantly with subsequent novels.

[Mary C. Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mysterious deaths as WWII meats its end

Well-written, good story, plenty (too much?) of action but more entertainment than real insight. Good pick for beach read or distraction during a long flight.

[Jim Sargent]

An excellent Ross MacDonald mystery from 1946, when he was still writing as Kenneth Millar. The characters are nicely drawn, his writing is excellent, and the tale keeps one hanging until the end, as a novel should.

[Ray Hubley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An underrated writer who deserves to be better known - not quite the stylist that Chandler is, perhaps but lithe and intelligent in his plotting. This book, dated in some of its racial postures, is a good example of Macdonald's terse language, spry turns of phrase and sharp pivots.

[Raime · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another counter-espionage thriller, this time with a race relations theme, the handling of wich I would call at times silly, at times almost passable. The part with a train journey (about one fourth of the book) was good and very entertaining, other parts just okay.

[Mark Zadrozny · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first Ross Macdonald. Has a Detroit angle and partial setting during the last year's of WWII.

[Holly Dolezalek]

Ah, the days when novels could rely on Communists and fellow-travelers for their (duh) villains. But at least it's far more intelligent and inventive than some of the others from the same era.

[Girard Bowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but not of the quality of his Lew Archer books, which were written later.

[John Magee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, this one was pretty weak. But it was fun guilty pleasure.

[Duncan McCurdie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An early Ross Macdonald, originally published under his real name, from 1946. A hard crime novel with aspects of the spy novel too. Almost a cross of Ambler and Jim Thompson. Probably a bit ahead of it's time but it has a real anger and rawness to it that Macdonald would later hone into his celebrated works. A must read for anyone interested in late war and post war America and Macdonald fans.

[Ronald Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ross MacDonald (pen name for Kenneth Millar) is an excellent writer of noir type novels. In this one, the protagonist, Sam Drake, a military man during WWII, is in Oahu when he meets a woman named Mary. A friend of hers apparently commits suicide by hanging herself at a party. They then travel to Detroit where another death occurs. On a train ride to San Diego, yet another death happens. Sam falls in love with Mary but feels the need to figure out how these deaths are related, despite her pleas for him to let the matter rest. Would have been give stars but makes some very racist and misogynistic comments (acceptable at the time this was written) that put me off some. Still overall a suspenseful story well told.