The Moving Target

A Lew Archer Novel

By: Ross Macdonald

Narrated by: Tom Parker

Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

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.

Amazing!

I am a huge fan of Raymond Chandler’s noir. This is even better if that is possible – fascinating characterization, picture of settings, and superb writing. Enjoy!

My Favorite American Noir Mystery Thus Far

The Moving Target is a really good American Noir Crime Mystery from 1949. It is set in California. The audiobook is very well read by Tom Parker. There are many very detailed descriptions of scenery which I had to either re listen to or reread on Kindle to gain the full appreciation of the writing. I have had some reader / listeners tell me they do not care about scenery. That might cause one to enjoy this audiobook less than me. I really took my time with it and really enjoyed it.

Some American Noir writers of the past use racial and gender vernacular that is now considered unacceptable. I found that most recently in a otherwise well written story by Raymond Chandler. This story under review by Ross McDonald contains less of that sort of language which also added to my personal reading pleasure.

I have been doing a wide ranging review of American Crime Noir from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s. I feel this is my favorite that I have thus far read from this period. Thank You...

Basis for the movie - Harper

Clearly this is the basis for the screen play for the 70s movie - Harper —staring Paul Newman. Good story - very enjoyable.

Good story

Kept me guessing, and there was compassion down to everyone, even the bad guys.

A good introduction to Lew Archer

This is my second Ross McDonald novel—I first listened to the third in the series, The Ivory Grin—both narrated by the best I know, Tom Parker aka Grover Gardner. It took a little getting used to detective novels of the late forties, but when I did, I thoroughly enjoyed these procedural. McDonald does sometimes seem fixated on women’s breasts, but I suppose that was the limit of sexual prurience acceptable at the time. He was presumably writing for a mass audience of males, which could explain his occasional sexism. All told this was a great mystery read, with the author’s flare for description giving a colorful picture of Southern California at that time. The actual mysteries are nicely knitted together.

Did not finish

I enjoyed this until about half way through. Then it just got too corny and overdone. It just wasn’t worth my time to finish it.