Recommended reading - Find a Victim (1954):

Find a Victim (1954).
By Ross Macdonald.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0446358924
ISBN-13: 978-0446358927

Description:

The hitchhiker rose to his knees on the side of the dark road. When Archer stopped the car and got to him, he knew he was in for a ride – for this boy was dying of a gunshot wound. In a matter of hours, Archer would be suspected by the law, hired by a target-shooting trucking magnate, and propositioned by an adulterer’s wife. A hijacked load of hootch and a band of sinners are on the loose in the hills and desert around this nice Southern California town. So is this L.A. private eye, who keeps getting blood on his hands…

“[The] American private eye, immortalized by Hammett, refined by Chandler, brough to its zenith by Macdonald.” – New York Times Book Review.

A selection of the mysterious book club.