The Name Is Archer — Ross MacDonald

Someone's taken the big sleep at the Siesta Motel. There's a luscious blonde starlet who's pulled a vanishing act up in Santa Barbara. A genteel headmistress has found love's golden dream with a con artist. And who deposited the ice pick in the pretty boy's back? It's all in a day's work for L.A.'s finest private detective as he gets down to basics in his new office on the Boulevard. Nine intriguing cases await his personal attention, running the gamut from blackmail to larceny to murder. When he runs into trouble, he's got his gun to talk him out of it. He's a good talker. And, oh yes, the name is Archer.