Name that book: a detective novel in Los Angeles
March 27, 2014 7:41 AM   Subscribe

Help me remember the title of this book?

I read a book a few years ago -- can't remember the name or author. It was a detective novel set in Los Angeles in the 1960s. A father hires a private eye to investigate his daughter's brooding artist fiance. The couple lives in a beach house and a recurring clue has something to do with a roving band of surfers who travel in a station wagon (?). I believe, in the end, the father turns out to be the "bad guy."

It could be Raymond Chandler, but I've googled with all my keywords and no titles ring a bell.
posted by Cwell to Writing & Language (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Sounds kind of like Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49.
posted by theodolite at 7:44 AM on March 27, 2014


Best answer: It could be a Lou Archer novel.
posted by Obscure Reference at 7:46 AM on March 27, 2014


Best answer: I meant Lew Archer. Ross MacDonald is the author.
posted by Obscure Reference at 7:52 AM on March 27, 2014


Response by poster: Thanks. That's it: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/371024.The_Zebra_Striped_Hearse
posted by Cwell at 7:57 AM on March 27, 2014


Best answer: It's The Zebra Striped Hearse
posted by dortmunder at 8:57 AM on March 27, 2014


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