Ross MacDonald Books in Order

Ross Macdonald is a renowned American-Canadian crime fiction author, best known for his Lew Archer series set in southern California. Born in Los Gatos, California, Macdonald spent his formative years in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, where he began college before relocating several times with his mother and relatives due to his father's abandonment. This tumultuous upbringing significantly influenced the themes of broken homes and domestic problems in his work. Macdonald's writing career began with stories for pulp magazines, and he later attended the University of Michigan, earning a Phi Beta Kappa key and a Ph.D. in literature. He published his first novel, The Dark Tunnel, in 1944, initially writing under the pseudonym John Macdonald to avoid confusion with his wife, Margaret Sturm Millar, a successful author in her own right.