8 February 2026
The Moving Target
Lew Archer #1
Mystery - 1949
Character
Lew Archer is a hard-boiled detective, and his client is a rich woman, married to a man she doesn't love.
Setting
It is Los Angeles and the nearby area in the 1940s, full of movie stars and danger.
Plot
The story is a mystery about a missing father, a naughty daughter, and the missing father's staff and associates.
⭐⭐⭐ ¾
The Moving Target by Ross MacDonald is an interesting enough mystery, although it isn't very original. The main character is a sort of philosophical detective, who also describes the breasts of all the women he meets in detail. Even I, perhaps the human least able to predict what will happen in a mystery, saw the ending coming a mile away.
The characterization for this one is pretty thin. This is another book in which all the characterization is in service of the plot. For example, the detective worked with a police officer in LA during WW2, and he previously worked with another character when that character was the DA. Both of those characters are useful in the story. Oh, and the main character is divorced. That's all the backstory we have. I don't really believe a lot of the relationships in the story, and with such flat characters, it isn't a surprise. What is funny, though, is that there is one couple who have both an interesting relationship and potential depth as people. They show up just for a few pages early on, but they are so interesting and fun that I think they are my favorite characters in the book.
The setting is perhaps the best part of the book, in that it actually has an interesting take on what is going on in California right after the war. Issues of immigration, strikes, and poverty - even if just part of the background - were really interesting.
The plot is complicated, but a lot of the elements aren't actually important, or at least are minimally so. By the end, as opposed to seeing it all come together or feeling that it was a tangled web of treachery, I felt kind of let down. And, like I said, the twist at the end wasn't a surprise for me.
Not only will I not read the book again, but I won't bother with any more by this author. The constant breast/nipple descriptions were annoying, but when the main character thinks that all evil in the world comes from women - even though a lot of the bad stuff that happens in the book has nothing to do with women - I was fairly put off. On top of that, the later books focus more on how screwed up families are, and I'm not interested in that.
Should you read this book? If you are on an airplane, have nothing to read, and it is in the seat pocket in front of you, then sure! Otherwise, I think you can do better. It isn't awful, just not worth the effort.
The characterization for this one is pretty thin. This is another book in which all the characterization is in service of the plot. For example, the detective worked with a police officer in LA during WW2, and he previously worked with another character when that character was the DA. Both of those characters are useful in the story. Oh, and the main character is divorced. That's all the backstory we have. I don't really believe a lot of the relationships in the story, and with such flat characters, it isn't a surprise. What is funny, though, is that there is one couple who have both an interesting relationship and potential depth as people. They show up just for a few pages early on, but they are so interesting and fun that I think they are my favorite characters in the book.
The setting is perhaps the best part of the book, in that it actually has an interesting take on what is going on in California right after the war. Issues of immigration, strikes, and poverty - even if just part of the background - were really interesting.
The plot is complicated, but a lot of the elements aren't actually important, or at least are minimally so. By the end, as opposed to seeing it all come together or feeling that it was a tangled web of treachery, I felt kind of let down. And, like I said, the twist at the end wasn't a surprise for me.
Not only will I not read the book again, but I won't bother with any more by this author. The constant breast/nipple descriptions were annoying, but when the main character thinks that all evil in the world comes from women - even though a lot of the bad stuff that happens in the book has nothing to do with women - I was fairly put off. On top of that, the later books focus more on how screwed up families are, and I'm not interested in that.
Should you read this book? If you are on an airplane, have nothing to read, and it is in the seat pocket in front of you, then sure! Otherwise, I think you can do better. It isn't awful, just not worth the effort.
Fiction: The Moving Target by Ross MacDonald
Lew Archer #1
Knopf, 1949-01-30
245 pages
Lew Archer #1
Knopf, 1949-01-30
245 pages