The Way Some People Die by Ross MacDonald

MacDonald first published this one in 1951, I probably first read it around 1973.
Archer sets out on a "prodigal daughter" job, reminiscent of Hammett's "wandering daughter" job in "Fly Paper," but in the end it's more like The Maltese Falcon. MacDonald hasn't fully hit his stride yet, but this is solid hard-boiled fare, and still better than most. It whetted my appetite to redevour the rest of his work. ****
"If Dashiell Hammett can be said to have injected the hard-boiled detective novel with its primitive force, and Raymond Chandler gave shape to its prevailing tone, it was Ken Millar, writing as Ross Macdonald, who gave the genre its current respectability, generating a worldwide readership that has paved the way for those of us following in his footsteps."

-- Sue Grafton, from her introduction to Ross Macdonald: A Biography
I respectfully differ with Grafton: If Hammett blazed a hard-boiled trail through a literary wilderness, Chandler roared down it in a powerful pre-war sedan, and MacDonald paved it into a superhighway. Everyone since then has done little more than ride a bicycle around on it.
Check out this tribute page from January magazine.