I can't keep away

It has been so dark and gloomy today, even when it hasn't been pouring. There was also hail, sunshine, thunder and lightning.

I just feel like curling up with a good book, which I did do this afternoon, accompanied by a cup of tea and some shortbread. I then snoozed and felt refreshed

I like certain crime writing and Ross Macdonald has been a favourite author for a long time. I still keep looking out for his books, often to replace earlier copies I had given to friends to try. One of his key characters who featured in a series of novels was Lew Archer, played by Paul Newman as Lew Harper in The Drowning Pool (1975) and also Harper (1966, directed by Jack Smight) derived from the novel The Moving Target (1949).

I tried a few different shots and couldn't decide how best to present the cover of the book to best advantage. A simple situation threw up a host of possibilities rather than solutions.


From Wikipedia
Lew Archer is largely a cipher, rarely described, though in The Doomsters a sheriff mocks his 6'2" and blue eyes. As old failures plague him, we learn he once 'took the strap away from my old man', that he was a troubled kid and petty thief redeemed by an old cop, that he sometimes drank too much, that his ex-wife's name is Sue, and he thinks of her often.

His background is most thoroughly explored in The Moving Target: he got his training with the Long Beach California Police Department, but left (Archer himself says he was "fired") after witnessing too much corruption, and during World War II, he served in military intelligence in the United States Army, again mentioned in The Doomsters.

Archer's name pays homage to Dashiell Hammett: 'Miles Archer' was the name of Sam Spade's murdered partner in The Maltese Falcon.