The Moving Target

Written in 1949 by Ross Macdonald, mystery.

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The first Lew Archer novel, the series that was going to define Ross Macdonald's career. Lew Archer is hired by the dispassionate wife of an eccentric oil tycoon who has gone missing. Archer must dig through a strange cast of Los Angeles characters, finding crime after crime before he can get to the job he was hired to do.

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This book would coin the location Santa Theresa, which was used instead of Santa Barbara. Sue Grafton would later set her phenominally successful alphabet series in this fiction town of Macdonald's.

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This novel would become the basis for the 1966 Paul Newman film, Harper, thanks in no small part to then rookie screenwriter William Goldman.

Related Topics:
Paul Newman - William Goldman

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Ross Macdonald (Kenneth Millar) originally titled this book The Snatch. When the book was published, he choose the pseudonym John Macdonald after his father, John Macdonald Millar. It is believed he didn't want to use his own name because his wife was already an established writer.

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