Lew Archer is the central character in a series of hardboiled mystery novels by American-Canadian author Ross Macdonald. Archer is a private detective who works out of Southern California in the 1950’s. His characteristics initially started out very similar to that of Philip Marlowe, although he would diverge later on. The novels The Moving Target (as “Harper”) and The Drowning Pool were adapted to film, starring Paul Newman as the renamed “Lew Harper.”

The Lew Archer character made his debut in the 1949 novel The Moving Target. The final novel in the series is The Blue Hammer, which was published in 1976. Below is a list of Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer novels in order of when they were originally published (which is the same as their chronological order):

Publication Order of Lew Archer Books

The Moving Target / Harper(1949)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Drowning Pool(1950)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Way Some People Die(1951)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Ivory Grin / Marked for Murder(1952)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Find a Victim(1954)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Barbarous Coast(1956)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Doomsters(1958)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Galton Case(1959)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Wycherly Woman(1961)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Zebra-Striped Hearse(1962)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Chill(1963)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Far Side of the Dollar(1965)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Black Money(1966)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Instant Enemy(1968)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Goodbye Look(1969)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Underground Man(1971)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
Sleeping Beauty(1973)Description / Buy at Amazon.com
The Blue Hammer(1976)Description / Buy at Amazon.com

Notes: The Moving Target was also titled Harper. The Ivory Grin was also titled Marked for Murder.

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