The purpose of this book is to study Ross Macdonald's detective fiction as an example of popular culture. The author applies cross-methodological approaches to Macdonald's novels specifically, H. Richard Niebuhr's ethics to The Underground Man, Freudian theories of society to The Moving Target and examines popular culture's social function in terms of Robert Merton's functional analysis of popular culture. In addition, the work includes an overview of hard-boiled detective fiction and a review of previous critical approaches to Macdonald, as well as a summary conclusion and an appendix on adaptations of detective novels to movies.