Great lines from The Ivory Grin by Ross Macdonald

In a diner, ex-cop Lew Archer observes a sleazy private eye talking to a woman: "His mouth was working overtime, talking him back into his own good opinion."

Later, in a doctor's office, he faces a tough-looking nurse who points a pistol at him. He keeps calm and makes a request: if she won't drop the gun, could she at least put the safety on? After watching her change personae, he comments, "She had assumed a mask of respectability and a voice to go with it." Interviewing an old woman whose son has disappeared, he says, "Her hands twisted and plucked at each other like nervous scorpions."

Detective stories are often sociological documents. The world portrayed in the Lew Archer novels is shockingly real, a cold-bath reminder of society's glaring flaws.