Lew Archer Books in Order

Hired to recover a stolen portrait of a striking blonde, Lew Archer stumbles on a painter who vanished into the desert decades earlier. Two present day murders mirror an old killing, and the search for the artwork becomes a study of obsession, fraud and shifting identities.

An offshore oil spill, a missing young woman and a stranger found floating off a private beach collide in Lew Archer's path. Drawn into the affairs of a rich, volatile family, he follows a trail of addiction, ransom notes and long suppressed memories.

As wildfire races through the hills above Santa Teresa, Lew Archer agrees to help a neighbor recover her young son from his estranged father. He instead finds the man murdered and the boy missing, and the hunt leads back to another killing fifteen years before.

A seemingly simple burglary at the Chalmers' hilltop mansion brings Lew Archer into a family obsessed with an old scandal. As he searches for their missing son and a box of letters, Archer uncovers a decades old killing that keeps spilling fresh blood.

When a runaway teenager and her unstable boyfriend snatch a local industrialist, Lew Archer is hired to get the man back alive. What looks like a foolish kidnapping soon exposes buried crimes, damaged parents and children paying the price for decisions made long ago.

Jilted lover Peter Jamiesen hires Lew Archer to investigate the mysterious Frenchman who has swept Virginia Fablon off her feet. Archer's probe into the suave stranger's past uncovers old gambling debts, a suspicious suicide and the dirty flow of money between country club and casino.

A reform school hires Lew Archer when troubled teenager Tom Hillman disappears, only for a ransom demand to arrive at his wealthy parents' home. Tracking the boy leads Archer into wartime grudges, ruined friendships and the corrosive bargains behind the family's success.

On the day after his wedding, a young husband asks Lew Archer to find his vanished bride. The search for Dolly Kincaid links a counselor's murder, an old killing and a botched trial, forcing Archer to untangle twenty years of guilt and misdirection.

Colonel and Mrs. Blackwell ask Lew Archer to investigate their daughter's charming but suspicious fiancé. When the young couple vanish, Archer follows them from California beaches to Mexico, trailed by a zebra painted hearse and a string of deaths that may all be tied to the same past mistake.

Oil tycoon Homer Wycherly wants his missing daughter Phoebe found, but Lew Archer quickly discovers that the girl's glamorous, secretive mother leaves more trouble in her wake than answers. The hunt for Phoebe uncovers mistaken identities, blackmail and a family fortune built on lies.

Twenty years after heir Anthony Galton ran off with a disreputable bride and a chunk of the family fortune, his dying mother hires Lew Archer to find him. A headless skeleton, an eager young claimant and old underworld ties turn the search into a puzzle of identity.

Escaped mental patient Carl Hallman begs Lew Archer to look into the suspicious deaths of his powerful parents. As Archer follows clues through the family's ranch and orange groves, he finds coverups, political ambition and tragedies that refuse to stay buried.

Summoned to an exclusive beach club in Malibu, Lew Archer is hired to protect a nervous manager from a violent husband searching for his missing wife. The trail through movie lots, gambling dens and ruined lives shows how Hollywood dreams curdle into blackmail and murder.

Lew Archer stops for a wounded hitchhiker on a desert road and is drawn into a small town boiling with robbery, corruption and family feuds. A hijacked liquor truck, a missing woman and a rising body count force him to sort victims from killers.

An expensively dressed woman hires Lew Archer to shadow her former maid, claiming theft. When the young woman is found with her throat cut, Archer uncovers a knot of small town prejudice, gangland money and a vanished heir everyone seems to be lying about.

Asked to track down a missing nurse named Galatea, Lew Archer finds her tangled up with drug dealers, crooked cops and drifting ex-soldiers. The case sends him crisscrossing Southern California as a simple missing person inquiry turns into a violent heroin war.

An anonymous letter accusing Maude Slocum of adultery brings Lew Archer into a coastal town ruled by oil money. When a body turns up in a swimming pool, his search for a blackmailer becomes an inquiry into greed, marriage and local power.

When millionaire Ralph Sampson disappears after a flight into Southern California, private investigator Lew Archer follows a trail from canyon mansions to seedy bars. The search exposes smuggling, blackmail, and the ugly bargains that built Sampson's fortune.