Find a Victim
A Lee Archer novel

This is by no means the first good Lew Archer, but it is the first that feels like quintessential Archer to me, its characters confined to narrow psychological spaces and dwarfed by the immensity of family history. Except for a barely relevant--though exciting--shootout with hijackers, everything in......more

Ross Macdonald opened this novel with the following lines: "He was the ghastliest hitchhiker who ever thumbed me. He rose on his knees in the ditch. His eyes were black holes in his yellow face, his mouth a bright smear of red like a clown's painted grin." Some people might be put off by those lines.......more

I like to vary my reading. It's been a good while since I last read a hardboiled private investigator book. So, I went searching at my public library for a satisfying read. Find a Victim (1954) was the fifth title in Ross Macdonald's celebrated P.I. Lew Archer Mystery Series. I give it a big thumb's......more

More like Find a Plot, a smartass might say. Fortunately, my ass isn't that smart. I like my Archer like I like my women: sinewy, vaguely wicked, without an overabundance of exclamation points. This one reminded me of the last baloney sandwiched I downed: a little thin. It wasn't as bad as waking up......more