Blue City
Ross Macdonald
 Twenty-two year old Johnny Weather has returned from the army, having served in the European Theater in the Second World War, only to find his estranged father long dead. His father was a leading factor in the corruption of the town and an important person, but the police seem more than happy to let his murder remain 'unsolved', as does everyone Johnny encounters. As he tries to dig up the murderer, he fences with a motley list of strange characters and hustlers, everyone from the astonishingly cruel man who took over his father's night club, to his father's ex-wife, who's more than willing to seduce Johnny to keep him off the subject of his father. Although the book never names the state in which the fictional town is located, many references are made to the city being located in the Mid-West, apparently within an easy drive to Chicago. The entire book is set over a very short period of time, creating a frantic pace to the novel.