The Moving Target

A Lew Archer Novel

By: Ross Macdonald

Narrated by: Tom Parker

Like many Southern California millionaires, Ralph Sampson keeps odd company. There's the sun-worshiping holy man whom Sampson once gave his very own mountain, and the fading actress with sidelines in astrology and S&M. Now, one of Sampson's friends may have arranged his kidnapping.

As private eye Lew Archer follows the clues from the canyon sanctuaries of the megarich to jazz joints where you can get beaten up between sets, The Moving Target blends sex, greed, misdirected love, and family hatred into an explosive crime novel.

More mayhem? Try our other Lew Archer mysteries.

©1977 John Ross Macdonald (P)2001 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

An okay who done it

The narrator was great but the I found myself daydreaming while listening and forgetting what was happening. The story had a few twists but overall didn’t have much depth. I know the later novels in the series are more highly regarded so I’m going to stick to it.

Wish for a more captivating story

The book overall wasn't bad. The narrator did a great job portraying characters and keeping true to that oldschool detective vibe. I like the era the story takes place. however I personally found the story in and of itself not too interesting. I wasn't captivated by it but that was more because I personally was looking for something more sinister or gritty in a detective novel. Still I believe many will still like this, but it's a one and done for me.

Missing

Noir at it's best. Archer is hired to find a missing man, a man who is very wealthy. A man who is also a depressed alcoholic. Did he wander off or was he kidnapped? Like always, Archer has a multitude of suspects to wade through.

Suspense wonderful use of language

Excellent descriptions of surroundings and characters. Concise dialogue. Free lance investigator Archer delves deeply into the actions and thoughts of characters to take readers on a ride that may have them comparing people they know to those they meet on these pages.

I loved reading Ross MacDonald

and I love listening to Tom Parker reading! the only challenge is that the plot has a lot of intertwining lines and characters that can be a little hard to follow in the audio format.