The Wycherly Woman — Ross MacDonald

She was twenty-one, rich and beautiful. But her body was in San Francisco Bay. Archer searched from the seamy side of L.A. to the lowest of San Francisco's lower depths to find the bastard who'd dumped her there. He talked to innocent-eyed coeds, shady, seductive types, sleepy bellhops, and even to some nut who decided to add blackmail to the growing game of murder. About all he knew for sure was that the killer would strike again. When? The answer was a time bomb ticking away inside the head of a desperate murderer...