In turn his son reappears and Archer exposes his true identity. In doing so he brings to consciousness the failings of past lives and their impact on the present. The past is inescapable and Archer searches people's lives to bring about a kind of resolution to their past failings which have returned to torment their children. The suppression of the truth leads inexorably to crisis. A missing person or object triggers the investigation and a multitude of repressed secrets surface.
Murders pile up as the pretence of the past is protected.
Archer exposes the illusions people have to maintain to continue with their lives. The conclusion to the narratives both 'solve' the crime and brings to realisation a 'truth' which reverberates back through the book. Black Money , in fact, feels like something of a watershed in the series. Macdonald's favourite book, The Great Gatsby . It lampoons the American Dream and how it can go horribly wrong.