The Moving Target
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The Moving Target is a 1949 mystery novel, written by Ross Macdonald.
This novel is the first novel featuring the character of Lew Archer, who would 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.
This book invented the fictional city of Santa Teresa, which was used instead of Santa Barbara. Sue Grafton would later set her successful "alphabet novels" in this fictional town of Macdonald's.
This novel would become the basis for the 1966 Paul Newman film Harper, thanks in no small part to then-rookie screenwriter William Goldman.
Ross Macdonald (Kenneth Millar) originally titled this book The Snatch. When the book was published, he chose the pseudonym John Macdonald after his father, John Macdonald Millar. It is believed he didn't want to use his own name as his wife was already an established writer.
