Ross Macdonald

The desert air is hot with sex and betrayal, death and madness and only Archer can make sense of a killer who makes murder a work of art. Finding a purloined portrait of a leggy blonde was supposed to be an easy paycheck for Detective Lew Archer, but that was before the bodies began piling up. Suddenly, Archer find himself smack in the middle of a decades-long mystery of a brilliant artist who walked into the desert and simply disappeared. He left...

Lew Archer investigates the death of a wealthy matriarch found floating in her pool.

Lew Archer hunts a killer through the glittering, corrupt world of the Hollywood-Las Vegas axis -- crime, violence, gambling, male and female sex for sale -- a savage, luxurious jungle.

Hired by Carl Hallman, the desperate-eyed junkie scion of an obscenely wealthy political dynasty, detective Lew Archer investigates the suspicious deaths of his parents, Senator Hallman and his wife Alicia. Arriving in the sleepy town of Purissima, Archer discovers that orange groves may be where the Hallmans made their mint, but they’ve has been investing heavily in political intimidation and police brutality to shore up their rancid wealth....

"In a small college town south of Los Angeles, Lew Archer investigates three murders, two in the past, one in the present" --

On the home front, two wartime lovers reunite under a cloud of paranoia. In 1937 Munich, an American must be careful when he smokes his pipe. Robert Branch, a careless academic, makes the mistake of lighting up when the Führer is about to begin a procession, and nearly gets pummeled for his mistake. Only the timely intervention of Ruth Esch, a flame-haired actress, saves him. So begins a month-long romance between East and West - a torrid affair...

In the last days of World War II, a sailor discovers a transcontinental conspiracy. It is February 1945, and the war in the Pacific is nearing its climax. In Hawaii on his way to a new post, US Navy ensign Sam Drake stumbles across the girl of his dreams. Mary is a disc jockey, with a voice that's famous across the islands for playing late-night jazz that no young lover can resist. Before he can follow this modern siren home, they go to check on Mary's...

Private detective Lew Archer challenges the power and ruthlessness of an oil dynasty responsible for a spill on the Southern California coast.

"The first omnibus of novels by Ross Macdonald presents his famous detective, Lew Archer, in three stylish and explosive cases. They take Archer and the reader through the upper levels and lower depths of California society, casting a sardonic eye on Hollywood and its outposts in Las Vegas and Palm Springs." --