Product Description
Her veneer was big city ... but one look and you knew that Toni Rassell's instincts were straight out of the river shack she came from. I watched her as she toyed with the man, laughing, her tumbled hair like raw blue-black silk, her brown shoulders bare. Eyes deep-set, a girl with a gypsy look. So this was the girl I had risked my life to find. This was the girl who was going to lead me to a buried fortune in stolen loot. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Bullet for Cinderella
My husband is a big fan of John D. MacDonald. He was surprised when I gave this to him for Christmas. Very good and fast to read

A Pleasant Mistake
I bought this book completely by accident, having never actually heard of John D. MacDonald. He wrote a preface for a book I had recently purchased so I did a search for him on the Kindle Store to see if I had heard of any of his works. But instead of pressing the 'more' link on the Kindle, I accidentally pressed 'Buy'. I did consider looking at returning it, but thought I'd hang the expense and read it anyway.

Boy am I glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, reading the book in one day. The thing I love about books of this era (1950's - I even had to look that up as I didn't even know when he wrote it) is that they flow well and just give good stories. Unlike some modern authors who take themselves way to seriously - the cleverness of the author seemingly taking a second place to the story - this book is without pretension nor arrogance.

Instead, what you get is a type of innocence - for want of a better term - that is refreshing. The plot isn't overly complex, and there are no great surprises, but it is wildly enjoyable. I wouldn't hesitate recommending it to anyone after a nice easy read.

I might have to make more mistakes in the future, because this one worked out for the better.

Looking Forward to More
This was a good story and a fast read.It is classic John D. MacDonald all the way.What I am really waiting for the Travis McGee series to be published for Kindle.I hope that's next.

as usual, a great read
I'm working my way through all the works of J.D. MacDonald that I can find. Finished all but one of the Travis McGees-- putting that day off when I'll have no more ahead of me. Also, his short stories-- Good Old Stuff, End of the Tiger, More Good Old Stuff. And the amazing long list of other titles, no longer in print but easy to find in most used book stores. The best of this last category so far are: April Evil, The Empty Trap, On the Run. I've read that Dead, Low Tide is also one of his best. Just beneath this tier are the usual MacDonalds-- great, plot-driven "pulp fiction," in the best sense of the term. A Bullet For Cinderella is in this group. Great escapist reading from THE master of the '50s genre mentioned above. As far as what to avoid, the least interesting McGee was Free Fall in Crimson. (The best was The Green Ripper.) Some take off right away-- The Empty Trap, for instance-- and some take a while, setting up character depth and story background-- The Last One Left, for instance. I found Barrier Island took too long to get started. I prefer the more plot-driven ones. A Bullet For Cinderella is certainly one of the good ones. ... Read more

Product Description
Featuring an Introduction by bestselling author Carl Hiaasen, here is another colorful adventure involving freewheeling gumshoe Travis McGee with millions and murder in a deadly Florida town by one of mystery's best-loved bestselling authors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Backwoods crime wave.
Conventional wisdom about the Travis McGee series has it that, unlike other detective novels of the same time period, women are depicted with understanding and sensitivity.McGee is often described as a knight errant who is there to save females from the harshness of the world.Many reviews of Travis McGee books give John D. MacDonald credit for doing groundbreaking work in the area of gender relations.

I happen to believe MacDonald was a great writer, perhaps one of the greatest novelists of his time.But I must take issue with those who contend the women characters in the Travis McGee novels are treated all that well or depicted all that accurately.On the contrary, there seems to be an underlying current of hostility toward women running through most of the Travis McGee series.
Nowhere is that hostility more apparent and more sustained than in the pages of this particular installment, The Long Lavender Look.

If a being from outer space had this Travis McGee novel as its only source of information, it would have to conclude that all females are either dumb bunnies, hookers, psychopaths or some combination thereof.It's impossible for one to read The Long Lavender Look and not marvel at the consistently negative waywomen are depicted.

John D. MacDonald was obviously a very complex individual whose definitive biography has yet to be written.When it is, I'll be the first in line to obtain a copy.

The Long Lavender Look - A Travis McGee Novel [Audiobook]
An excellent audiocassette [abridged] version of John D. MacDonald's gripping mystery - this time set in the Florida boondocks - with yet another superb narrative by Darren McGavin, whose ability to capture and communicate the essence of each character was (and remains) truly unparalleled.Great imagery, great suspense.I would most definitely recommend this one . . .

a look into a soul, with mystery attached, plenty of Florida detail
MacDonald does his usual excellent job here. McGee and Meyer accidentally get tangled in a web of intrigue in a central Florida county run with bleak efficiency as a tin-pot police state by the local Sheriff. While Meyer exits the scene for the comfort of a hospital room in Fort Lauderdale, McGee stays on at the request of the sheriff to untangle a brutal murder of a local bad-boy, with links to a decades old major racetrack robbery. Along the way, McGee falls for a local lovely, who also may not be what she appears, given her taste for acting parts from movies as she wafts through a dull life. But beneath the surface of the tranquility of the county, corruption and intrigue run as deep as the limestone sink-holes that dot the back woods. Plenty of action and a well-crafted puzzle, with MacDonald's usual philosophical asides that flesh out Travis McGee and his worldview: searching for happiness in a fallen Eden, while constantly questioning his own moral code. One of MacDonald's best efforts. Excellent Florida detail.

How Travis Gets the Girls
Guys, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I'll tell you how Travis gets all the girl action. There are some things you can do nothing about. Maybe you don't happen to live on a houseboat, and maybe you're not built like a linebacker. That's okay. There are two things about him that make women of my mother's generation swoon: 1) Women are people to him; 2) He doesn't actively try to get laid.

But here's the real reason Travis McGee is such a success with women: The girls tell him exactly what they want at any given moment! How many people do you know that can tell you exactly what they need emotionally and what you need to do about it? How many times have you been hangin' with Travis and the dame says something like (I'm paraphrasing here), "Dear, don't try to make love to me right now because we just ditched the dead body of my ex-boyfriend/neighborhood pimp/bad cop and I might just like it too much. Do you know what I mean? Is that sick and wrong?"

At that point, Travis not only makes her feel better by going all philosophical (more paraphrasing), "It's understandable that after touching a dead body you might like to celebrate life in the form of sex." But he goes on to turn the whole thing around and bring it back to his control. "I was leaving anyway. I've got some man-things to do that I'm not going to explain."

See, what you need isn't the big shoulders and the houseboat. It's John D. MacDonald setting up all your situations!

Don't get me wrong. I love this series. It's fascinating to me the way these people interact.

More scary rednecks in the Florida swamps
And a sheriff who turns out to be okay, strangely enough.

Travis makes the following pertinent observation about law enforcement as he's trying to get sprung from jail:

"...The law, in its every dimension of the control of criminals, is geared to limited, stunted people. Regardless of what social, emotional, or economic factor stunted them, the end product is hate, suspicion, fear, violence, and despair.These are weaknesses, and the system is geared to exploit weaknesses.Mr. Norm was a creature outside my experience.There were no labels I could put on him."

Turns out the situation calls for Travis's friend and occasional dockside neighbor in Lauderdale, Meyer, who helps McGee with access to a extraordinarily successful defense attorney...

...

For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]

Brian Wright
Copyright 2009
... Read more

Product Description
Keeping himself alive is something detective Travis McGee has always taken for granted -- until his search for a wealthy friend's missing yacht places him square in the center of the international cocaine trade. Following a trail that leads him from Miami's lavish penthouse suites to a remote village in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Travis finds himself the target of some of the most ruthless villains he"s ever met. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

A later episode, Travis McGee no longer prime time
But still great writing as Travis deals more with his mortality

In this story, McGee and Meyer even work with a DEA agent, who unlike any drug cop who ever existed in the real world, actually seems to be an sympathetic and mildly intelligent character. Then you find yourself with the three of them--and a very hot, sultry chick--somewhere in an especially hard-to-explain-why-anyone-would-be-there-much-less-them place... and you don't care some more. Their plan gets taken care of, and McGee returns to his Busted Flush, to unravel an especially poignant and personal riddle.

...

For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]

Brian Wright
Copyright 2009

Lady Caine.
The Lonely Silver Rain is the 21st and sadly the last of John D. MacDonald's highly successful Travis McGee series.Two stories are related at the same time.The first is an interesting tale of crime wherein a yacht is stolen, drugs are smuggled and a number of murders take place.The second story is more subtle and human in nature.An aging Travis McGee uncharacteristicly expresses regret as to how he has led his life and wonders what the future holds as it becomes increasingly apparent his days as a devil may care boat bum must soon come to an end.

As in most John D. MacDonald fiction, the prose is first rate and the plotting quite captivating.My reason for awarding The Lonely Silver Rain 4 stars instead of 5 is that there's a three chapter segment midway through in which Travis visits the Yucatan peninsula disguised as a cocaine smuggling cowboy.This portion of the book comes off as unnecessarily contrived and interrupts the novel's otherwise smooth narrative flow.But all in all, The Lonely Silver Rain is a very worthwhile read and an appropriate final installment to a long running series beloved by millions.

Mysteries as they should be
John D. MacDonald's TRAVIS McGEE series doesn't just offer good reading but great reading in the thriller/mystery genre. When modern day writers disappoint I like to return to the series to once again shake my head in amazement at how MacDonald's writing transcends time with keen insight to humanity, its virtues and, of course, its darker side.
McGee is everybody's favorite friend and MacDonald made him available to all of us. While THE LONELY SILVER RAIN is good book start at the beginning of the series and work your way through the title colors. If you can't find them on-line then used bookstores usually have a few at ridiculously low prices. Enjoy!

Farewell my Dear JDM
I read JDM for his musings, his rants and his take and insight.The stories are secondary.I have learned a lot about criminals, more than I wanted to know which makes you wonder how he researched his books.The reason I sought out JDM books was from seeing him referenced in other books one of which is Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews.She "gets" MacDonald and I love the romance of remembering him so fondly.

Love all the references to the pre-Disney Florida in his earlier books.

OH yeah, I liked this book, too.Travis is more in touch with his frailty and the changes that losing your invincibility brings.If you love JDM Travis McGee series you will love this one just as much.

The End of Travis
Dragging my feet to finish this one `cause I know it is the last. I have come to know Travis McGee well, as all of us have who've read the novels. He and Meyer confide in me. I give him advice which he rarely follows. But that's OK because it seems he always comes out OK.
I have read J.D. MacDonald's Travis McGee books- all of them beginning with "The Deep Blue Good-By" over the past year and am now at the end of the line- "The Lonely Silver Rain." A truly good author sucks you in, makes you feel as though you know the characters and would like to have a Boodles on ice with them (or Plymouth in the earlier books). It's been 21 books in all and I don't know if Travis dies in this one yet (would be truly great writing if he did) but either way he will die for me and for all of us or just fade into the sunset after this final book.John D. died himself barely two years after publishing this one. Who knows if he knew the end was near?
But others have carried on. I only began reading MacDonald because an author I had been introduced to earlier, Randy Wayne White, had been referred to in reviews as "the rightful heir to John D. MacDonald." Having read all the Doc Ford books prior to embarking on Travis McGee's adventures, I can see that Randy borrowed much from Mr. MacDonald. I think he would have been honored rather than perturbed.
I could make you an ordered list of the Travis McGee books, but all you need do is buy the first, "The Deep Blue Good-By" (yes, I always thought it was "Good-Bye" too) and it has the list in the front cover for you. The only one I had difficulty getting was "The Empty Copper Sea." I speculate that this is because that book was made into a TV movie and the producers probably still own the rights.You can get it used on Amazon, or I will sell you my first edition for a nice price- nice for me, that is. But I'll only accept half of the value if I recover your lost copy for you (if you haven't read at least the first book you probably don't know what I'm talking about).
In honor of the Busted Flush, slip F-18 Bahia Mar I sail the Garden of Idun, rack 65, Home Port Marina whenever I can. She is smaller and runs a bit faster than the Flush, but my wife and I enjoy her no less. Cheers to all of you who love the sea and all she brings to our lives!
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good Selection
Of the 21 novels in the Travis McGee series, this collection is an excellent representation.The five books are from MacDonald's "middle period" and two of the five are among his best:"The Green Ripper," a dark and violent story of revenge against a supposed cult religious group, and "The Dreadful Lemon Sky," a skillfully crafted Floridian tale of follow-the-money.

The remaining three:"A Tan and Sandy Silence," "The Empty Copper Sea," and "Freefall in Crimson" are all solid contenders and may be a favorite.I particularly enjoyed all the visual imagery of "Freefall in Crimson."Travis gets involved with hot air balloons, takes his first ride and falls in love with the experience.You know someone is eventually going to fall, be tossed or otherwise have something particularly bad happen to him/her up in the air; but this just lends spice to the proceedings."The Empty Copper Sea" features intricate plotting and fine character development.To my way of thinking, "The Tan and Sandy Silence meanders a bit and Travis broods overmuch, but some folks count it as their favorite McGee.

I am subtracting a star from the otherwise great collection because it is full of typos, far more so than the originals.This is not a major deterrent for me, but some readers find it very irritating.The book is well bound with an attractive dust jacket and a good table of contents.A bonus is the left hand page always is entitled with the current story making it much easier to find your place.This would make a good gift for a MacDonald fan.

Fun in the sun
Over the years I've read hundreds of novels in a variety of genres, but for pure fun and enjoyment it's hard to beat Travis McGee. Some of the books are better than others, but they're nearly all worth a couple of lazy summer days. They are the ultimate summer time, quick-read beach books. At their core, they're good mysteries. But Travis McGee is such a great character, with such a wry outlook on life, that often the mystery seems secondary to McGee's views on whatever topic author John D. McDonald has selected for his soap box. Most of them take place in Florida, (a Florida no one will ever see again given they were written mostly in the 60s and 70s) and all have a color in the title. Don't take them too seriously, just have fun in the sun.

Goota Love That T. Mcgee
Having been a T. Mcgee fan for many years, I can say that having these 5 fine examples in one place has been great.I think I have gone through these 5 at least 3 times over the years, and I love them all -- especiallythe green ripper, which brings out a new, darker, side of Travis. ... Read more

Product Description
Private eye Travis McGee outwaits and outwits a deranged killer as he searches for a missing wife on a remote Caribbean island, where he also tangles with a baby-faced businessman with a taste for murder. Book available. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Up to snuff John D.
The first intimations of McGee's impending dotage are fascinating.Hearing him acknowledge he may be losing a step, may be a tad less intuitive.....Frankly, it's a little painful.The expected carnage of women continues as in most John D.'s books, but the level of intimacy is surprisingly low.In many ways this is the book that highlights McGee's relationship with Meyer and brings them closer together in their awareness of each other's abilities.Several reviewsweren't very strong on this book.I disagree; I think it's one of his better runs with Travis.

Middle of the pack, lesser Travis, but good enuf
So the consensus is thumbs down.

But, even though this isn't MacDonald's best, and even though there are indeed strong--I would say uncharacteristic--elements of misogynism in some of what Travis does to a particular woman for detective purposes, and even though the antagonist is so psychotically evil as to be unlikely to have survived past his teen years (much less prospered as a super-rich international corporate executive), and even though some of the McGee cultural observations seem pedestrian and heavy handed, it's still John D. MacDonald and Travis McGee.

As one of the reviewers remarks, it may not be one of MacDonald's best--perhaps his teenage kids were acting up or protesting the war in Vietnam and his wife was verbally abusing him in that timeframe (1971)--but it is certainly memorable.

...

For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]

Brian Wright
Copyright 2009

Love it or hate it, you will not forget it.
A Tan and Sandy Silence is certainly not the best book John D. MacDonald ever authored.In fact, some may find it way too dark and unsettingly disturbing.Others may object to it for a host of very legitimate reasons.But I daresay that even those readers who find themselves hating this Travis McGee novel still will have to admit it is a substantive, unforgettable read.
The unevenly paced narrative revolves around McGee's efforts to locate Mary Broll, a former lover whom no one seems to have seen in over three months.His search takes him to the tropical island of Grenada where the case takes on an entirely different trajectory.As others have already accurately pointed out, the novel starts off slow, climaxes with some very macabre events and has somewhat of a rushed ending.Along the way, the reader is treated to large helpings of Travis McGee's introspection on a wide range of topics having to do with modern life.After a while, this inner monologue, though at times clever, becomes tiresome and gives the impression of too much self-indulgence on author MacDonald's part.
Other objectionable aspects of this book include its incorporation of an excessive amount of amateur psychology into the plot and the fact that McGee never, ever fails to completely captivate members of the opposite sex.
The positive attributes of this book would have to include MacDonald's very evocative and original brand of prose and the presence of a number of characters who come off as quite believable.
John D. MacDonald was unquestionably a great writer, but A Tan and Sandy Silence is one of his lesser works.He was capable of much better.

A low for McDonald
This was about my 13th McGee novel and it was a disappointment. I'm hip to the Trav legacy, and aware that the author's condescension toward women, rock music and men with long hair was part of the McDonald DNA (sign of the times, probably). But this book just has too much of that. The villain's level of sadism is over the top and we are treated to a particularly vicious drowning murder of a woman. The land development scheme is baffling Trav accomplishes a physical feat in the ocean that is flat impossible and his rescue is an outrageous coincidence. Finally, the villain's comeuppance is out of a James Bond novel. Be warned.

Still, I'll probably get around to more McGee adventures. BTW, ever notice these common traits shared by McGee women: They're in glowing health, when they sit on a couch they tuck their legs under, when they concentrate they put the tip of their tongue in the corner of their mouth, when they eat they lick their fingers, when they sleep they snore softly and they yawn a lot. Man, do they yawn.

As to men, if they're fat and pale -- can't be trusted. If they're fat and hairy (like Meyer) -- salt of the earth.

Read this one last, or near the end
I do not wish to write a review that says too much, spoiling it for a future reader.I just wanted to say that this one was a disappointment for me. This one was predictable, had Travis doing things that unpleasantly surprised me, and the ending was something cheap and quick. I never felt like I was "there" with him as I have in other books.

As far as being a tired effort from the end of MacDonald's career, "The Lonely Silver Rain" was written in 1985 and was much better in my mind. I would just save "A Tan and Sandy Silence" for later or last. Go through the ones that are just gold first. ... Read more

Product Description
TRAVIS McGEE
He's a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He's also a knight errant who's wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out and his rule is simple: he'll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half....
With an introduction by CARL HIAASEN
JOHN D. MACDONALD
"....the great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller."
--STEPHEN KING
"....a master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer."
--MARY HIGGINS CLARK
"....a dominant influence on writers crafting the continuing series character."
--SUE GRAFTON
"....my favorite novelist of all time."
--DEAN KOONTZ
"...the consummate pro, a master storyteller and witty observer."
--JONATHAN KELLERMAN
"...remains one of my idols."
--DONALD WESTLAKE
THE TRAVIS McGEE SERIES
"...one of the great sagas in American fiction."
--ROBERT B. PARKER
"...what a joy that these timeless and treasured novels are available again."
--ED McBAIN
... Read more

Customer Reviews (41)

A true classic
I began reading the Travis McGee series back in high school, around the time teachers were assigning Bronte and Wharton. I was informed that the paperbacks I was reading were no more than `trash' and a far cry from the so-called literature I should have been reading. Needless to say, given the choice between the flawed but noble Travis aboard his houseboat, the Busted Flush, or Ethan Frome's angst,my attention remained in Bahia Mar, a fact that was clearly reflected in my grades. To this day I still believe teachers would have more enthusiastic students if they were to assign John D. MacDonald, and there is more within those pages about life, right and wrong, and how a talented writer can weave moral lessons and biting social commentaries seamlessly within exceptional storytelling and high adventure.

Through the twenty one Travis books the world changes and MacDonald captures the moments, through Travis's eyes he offers insight into those changes like a cautionary time capsule. But don't read this and think this substance in any way lessens the white-knuckled page-turning aspects of these thrillers because they are just that, thrillers in the finest sense. And this book is the perfect place to start, so dive in. These are books to be treasured, books to be read again and again.

THE FIRST TRAVIS MCGEE NOVEL
I have been reading older mystery/detective novels for the last year and quite naturally that would lead me to the legend, John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee.THE DEEP BLUE GOOD-BY is the first in the series, from 1964.It is still outstanding eve after all these years.I will certainly go ahead and read some more in this series.

One of Best Writers in this Genre
I messed up a long time ago. I began reading MacDonald's McGee series but did not do so in any order, nor did I record which ones I'd read. So now, though I'd love to pick up the ones I missed and read them, I can't recall which ones they are. In any case, every one I've read in the series of 21 volumes are true page turners. McGee is not a formal detective...he's more of an erstwhile private investigator who takes care of the terrible fixes his friends and acquaintances get themselves into. I happen to live in Florida, indeed in the backyard of where McGee kept his Busted Flush so I often notice landmarks and such. Often, writers are condemned or at least rebuked for inserting social or moral commentary into their fiction. And most can't make it work---it comes across as stiff and stilted. However, MacDonald pulls it off admirably. In fact, I've come to value Travis McGee's commentary almost as much as the racy adventure. McGee is not portrayed as a particularly moral person. In fact, at times he seems more like a playboy with a standard of morality he's set up independently of God or anyone else. However, his thoughts about life are fascinating and extremely insightful at times. In any case, I've read a lot of MacDonald's other novels, and, for the most part, I think the McGee series is his best stuff. Just don't do what I did. Record which of the 21 books you've read and read them all the way through to the Lonely Silver Rain. Have fun.

Introducing Travis McGee!
To many modern readers, even modern mystery readers, the name of John D. MacDonald is almost unknown, and even those who've heard of him may not have read him.MacDonald died over twenty years ago and only had one really successful movie adaptation of his works, Cape Fear (based on his book The Executioners).Yet MacDonald was not only really good, he was also a big influence on many current writers.On my copy of The Deep Blue Good-By, the authors praising MacDonald are some of the biggest in fiction, including Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Sue Grafton, Donald Westlake, Robert Parker and Carl Hiaasen.

Of the seventy-plus novels that MacDonald put out, the ones that stand out is his one foray into series fiction, the Travis McGee novels, and The Deep Blue Good-By is the first McGee novel.McGee lives on a houseboat called The Busted Flush in Fort Lauderdale, where he enjoys his retirement in bits and pieces:whenever he runs low on money, he takes on another job.

What type of work does he do?He describes it as salvage work:for people who've lost things that cannot be retrieved through normal means, he will get the things back for half their value.As the story begins, he is living the comfortable life, but that ends when he is convinced to help a dancer named Cathy Kerr, who's convinced that a hidden family fortune was stolen by Junior Allen, an ex-con who was in prison with Cathy's father.Few do villains better than MacDonald, and Junior Allen is definitely a piece of work, leaving a trail of physical and emotional pain in his wake.

At the time The Deep Blue Good-By was written, John MacDonald was churning out books pretty quickly (often several a year).At times, the haste shows, but the opposite is also true:it is an indication of MacDonald's skill that even at his rapid writing pace, he could still produce quality work.If you've never tried John MacDonald, this is a good place to start.

Slip 18
THE DEEP BLUE GOODBYE-BY is the introduction to one an enduring character of mystery fiction, Travis McGee.
McGee's lost ladies find in a scared man a source of help for their problems. McGee recovers lost fortunes for half the recovered amounts plus expenses. We will follow him through many searches, long for more stories, and express a faith in a world seen and experienced by McGee as the Busted Flush rides at anchor at Slip 18.
With McGee, we're never disappointed: the good guy wins, but sometimes the expenses run higher than the recovery.
HaintsWriting as a Small Business ... Read more

Product Description
Another bestseller starring Travis McGee, a real American hero--and maybe the star of a new movie franchise! Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Taking on scary ignorant rednecks and users
Some of the action finds McGee and his client(s) in the Florida Everglades, which provides a vehicle for MacDonald to give us some environmental sensibilities:

"...The ecology is changing with egret colonies dwindling, mullet getting scarce, mangrove dying of diseases born of dryness.
But it will take a long time to kill it. And years from now foolish men will still be able to kill themselves off within miles of help, hopelessly lost among islands which all look alike. It is a black land, and like every wilderness in the world, it punishes quickly when a mistake is made, quickly and with a casual, savage indifference."

There are a couple of other good passages en route to the satisfying conclusion.

...

For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]

Brian Wright
Copyright 2009

Greed Loses
A Travis McGee is an essential for all fans of the detective story. BRIGHT ORANGE FOR THE SHROUD is number six in this enduring series where Travis takes the Busted Flush to the Gulf Coast of Florida to help two friends recover an inheritance and their lives.
Step into the world of a battered knight who seeks his personal grail while aiding the less fortunate. John D. MacDonald's McGee is the quintessence of every one's dream to get away from it all, but discovers "it all" is hidden in the battered kit bag.
A McGee fix for detective fans is the same a Christie fix for cozy mystery fans, the masters always keep up coming back and wishing there were more.
Nash Black's stories are now available on Amazon Kindle.

Not for the squeamish.
In Bright Orange for the Shroud, intrepid investigator Travis McGee uses brains and brawn to restore dignity and self respect to Arthur Wilkinson, a former McGee acquaintance who has lost everything in a real estate swindle.Not only did Wilkinson lose every last cent he ever had but he must live with the knowledge that one of the swindlers was his own wife.

This is a page turner of a novel that is part sting operation and part action adventure.Much of the book's interest quotient derives from the presence of Boone Waxwell, a menacing criminal who will remind readers and moviegoers of the villian in Cape Fear, another John D. MacDonald creation.

The action unfolds entirely within Travis McGee's beloved home state of Florida and is chock full of lush descriptions of the beaches, swamps and waterways that go to make up the Sunshine State.Bright Orange for the Shroud is an excellent example of crime writing.One that holds up well even after 40+ years.Recommended to fans of hardboiled crime.

Timeless good read
I really enjoyed this more classic McDonald book.I had just finished 'Dress Her in Indigo' and was very disturbed by that book.It was too dark for me, too mean, violent and too much senseless descriptive sex and musings thereof.Also, too many characters to keep track of most of them left you wondering at the end what their pertinence was, but I digress, this is a review of 'Bright Orange for the Shroud'.With the name of this book I couldn't imagine what it would be about and was completely surprised with the book and when the meaning of what it meant was revealed.It was all pretty sad.

This book took me back to the days of the "land deal" when you went to Florida in those days you were sure to be sharked by someone hustling you off to some "free" steak dinner to then con you into a purchase of a lot in one of these phony developments.Looking back on it I can't understand why nothing was done about it and why Florida was allowed to be raped by so many con artists.It was in a way a bad place, a taken advantage of place seems to be so to this day.It's all rather depressing which I think is what drove McD to write and muse about it and it colored his whole life and thoughts.To see such destruction so fast, so close up and to be there when poverty, ambivalence, shock, disbelief and naïvety prevented much being done about anything by the locals, was pretty sad indeed.

So anyway, it was a really good book and one this time I could relate more to the characters.One thing about Travis is that he seems attracted to sleazy women, they disappoint him, turn him off in the end and this keeps him free and clear of commitment...clever.One other observation is that Trav claims to have a "Calvinistic" conscience that keeps him from letting himself go too long out of shape physically but doesn't seem to apply to having a steady job with same work ethic.Pretty funny!

Very dark
A friend of Travis McGee has been fleeced of all his money by a group of con artists. McGee promises to try and recover the pilfered money. Originally his plan is to con the cons, but he soon realizes that one of the gang is capable of murder.

This is a very good entry in the Travis McGee series (the sixth, I believe). In `Bright Orange for the Shroud' McGee faces one of the most brutal and memorable antagonists in Boone Waxwell, a local Floridian who is familiar with all the swampways, and is rumoured to have buried a few bodies there. The result is one of the darker and more violent of the McGee novels I have read.
... Read more

Product Description
With an introduction by CARL HIAASEN

JOHN D. MacDONALD

"...the great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller."
--STEPHEN KING

"...a master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer."
--MARY HIGGINS CLARK

"...a dominant influence on writers crafting the continuing series character."
--SUE GRAFTON

"...my favorite novelist of all time."
--DEAN KOONTZ

"...the consummate pro, a master storyteller and witty observer."
--JONATHAN KELLERMAN

"...remains one of my idols."
--DONALD WESTLAKE

THE TRAVIS McGEE SERIES

"...one of the great sagas in American fiction."
--ROBERT B. PARKER

"...what a joy that these timeless and treasured novels are available again."
--ED McBAIN ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

the best travis mcgee novel of a great series
to read john d. macdonald's travis mcgee series is to truly study at the feet of the master of detective fiction. i love donald hamilton(matt helm) and lester dent(doc savage),but john d. macdonald was the best. his editing style superceded the great a. conan doyle(sherlock holmes)and his rank in greatness is equal to that giant of detective fiction. there are other great detective/police novelists of course,but his works are one of the very few keystones for comparisons of the good writers of this dynamic genre. this novel in particular is a quality college course in bringing an aggregation of fictional components to high fidelity reading state. a true gem in fictional literature.

Notify the SEC.
A surefire way to bring an interesting, smoothly written narrative to a screeching halt is to introduce a complicated subplot involving stock manipulation.When the reader is forced to stop reading and locate pencil, paper and a dictionary of financial terms in order to bring him or herself up to speed about what is transpiring, that magical bond between fiction writer and audience is broken.
Pale Gray for Guilt is installment number 9 in John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series.It starts off with a grisly murder.The victim, a hard working family man, happens to be one of McGee's oldest and dearest friends.After McGee identifies the two men most likely to be responsible for his friend's death, he sets out on a mission of revenge.With a little help from his economist friend, Meyer, McGee sets up a rather hard to follow real estate swindle designed to financially ruin one of the two men.Then, this time with a huge amount of help from Meyer, he puts in place a plan to artificially run up the price of a publicly listed stock in order to damage the net worth and, more importantly, the reputation of the other man.Simultaneously, this self same adventure in stock manipulation will bring financial security to the murder victim's widow.
Needless to say, all of this proves too complicated for most readers to really follow or believe and consequently mars what is otherwise a pretty good hardboiled, hard edged crime novel.

Standard in many Travis McGee novels is the scenario wherein McGee takes an emotionally scarred damsel in distress and restores her psychic well-being by boincking the living daylights out of her on an idyllic cruise lasting several weeks. When this highly effective therapy is over, therapist and client both happily go their separate ways.Thankfully, that nausea inducing scenario is missing from Pale Gray for Guilt and I, for one, am very grateful.Instead, MacDonald introduces the intriguing character known as Puss Killian.Puss is Travis' latest ladyfriend du jour but she is portrayed as a very strong individual and is given a lot of interesting things to say.(Faithful Travis McGee fans will hear about Puss Killian again in The Lonely Silver Rain.)

Generally, Pale Gray for Guilt is well written.It features some interesting characters and several surprising and, at times, thought provoking plot twists.A worthwhile read whose positive attributes outweigh the negative.

Superb
I love the way I feel like I've fallen into the world of Travis McGee when I start reading one of John MacDonald's novels. I can feel everything, see everything, as though I was there. Outstanding.

Avenging a friend's killing with style and kindness
Travis takes it very personally, and conspires with friends of the widow to recover a large amount of money through a clever ruse in the stock market.The financials are way over my head, but we get some vintage McGee insights on the path to wealth recovery and salvage. The following is a memorable rumination on the nature of death:

"I looked out of the jet at December gray, at cloud towers reaching up toward us. Tush was gone, and too many others were gone, and I sought chill comfort in an analogy of death that has been with me for years. It doesn't explain or justify.It just seems to remind me of how things are.
Picture a very swift torrent, a river rushing down between rocky walls. There is a long, shallow bar of sand and gravel that runs right down the middle of the river. It is under water. You are born and you have to stand on that narrow, submerged bar, where everyone stands. The ones born before you, the ones older than you, are up upriver from you..."

It's a pretty long soliloquy--actually, when you read it carefully, it seems a bit strained--but I appreciate McGee's sensitivity to a universal concern, especially for a man of action who's probably still in his 30s.

...

For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]

Brian Wright
Copyright 2009

The great MacDonald
While I still find "Flash of Green" to be my favorite MacDonald book, there's something so appealing about the Travis McGee series that keeps me coming back to them. And "Pale Gray for Guilt" has such an engaging opening sequence of events, and such an array of fascinating characters, that you cannot put this mystery down. I just hope that MacDonald continues to gain in popularity, as I feel he is horribly overlooked. ... Read more

Product Description
"A knight in slightly tarnished armor, " "the thinking man's Robin Hood, " McGee lives alone on his boat, the Busted Flush. Rejecting the modern world, adhering to a timeless sense of honor and obligation, he is more and less than a private eye. From the author of The Deep Blue Good-by. Original. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Nightmare in pink
I like the way the author tells us about his alter ego, Travis McGee.Here is a man taking his retirement while he is young and more able to enjoy it.Every once in a while he has to go to work to support his habits.He finds someone who has been taken advantage by the villan.McGee will get back what every he can and then takes a 50% split of the retrieved goods or money.The story of how he won his house boat and how it get its name was interesting too.Every once in a while, the author will go off and vent his frustrations about some change in American mores.It makes an interesting read, particularly when you consider these books were written forty to fifty years ago.

Travis The Mad Man
The second John D. MacDonald novel featuring Travis McGee presents our hero as a true "Mad Man", stuck in the same early 1960s milieu as the classic television series but also under the influence of narcotic subtances. Will he recover? A better question, given he's such a jerk, is who cares?

Published in 1964, "Nightmare In Pink" places McGee in New York City in the midst of its "Fun City" period. A Korean war buddy asks him to look in on his troubled sister. Travis isn't so preoccupied by her predicament to note her "hand-span waist, and the rich swell of goodies above and below."

The problem with a book like "Nightmare In Pink" isn't sexism, or the fact it's horribly dated in parts, or that the first-person tough-guy narration is smug and distancing. I'm primitive enough to overlook such faults. The problem is that the story isn't that good.

Nothing in the book comes as a surprise. It's pretty standard even for those whose reading of genre mystery fiction doesn't extend much past the many satires. By Chapter 2, Travis is slapping little sister around, which of course excites her and brings her over to his side. Being a man of standards, he doesn't sleep with her until Chapter 6, and in the process provides her with the best sex of her life. Oh, am I giving too much away?

[REAL SPOILERS FOLLOW]The overall story is about a giant embezzlement plot, with McGee's involvement leading to an enforced stay in a mental institution. Though McGee doesn't really solve the case (a third party actually moves in while McGee is still imprisoned) he does manage to kill a few innocent victims. The killing that prompts McGee's involvement in the first place is later revealed to have been a ridiculous coincidence. This makes McGee the only one in the story guilty of killing anyone, though with the excuse given that he was drugged up by his captors at the time.[REAL SPOILERS END]

One thing that bothers me here is how easily various characters talk to McGee, despite it being in their best interest not to. Some MacDonald presents as jaded outsiders, which works okay. Other times, he gets what he's after by getting someone drunk, which never works in real life. People can't remember where they parked their car when drunk in real life, or even if they actually were driving a car in the first place, but in this book they are able to expound on their employer's sexual history without any sense of restraint.

There's even a clichéd revelation scene: "I wouldn't be telling you this if there was the slightest possible chance of you telling anyone else...So, if you care to ask questions?"

Why do bad guys do this? Why not just kill their would-be victim? Especially if the would-be victim might wind up killing more people than you ever planned on? "Nightmare In Pink" is a lame and callous genre exercise dated from its inception, lacking even the craft of a novel that excites a sense of nostalgic recognition today. It's a bitter, insoluble little pill better left alone.

SECOND TRAVIS MCGEE
NIGHTMARE IN PINK is John D. MacDonald's second book in the Travis McGee series.This book came out in 1964 but shows little age. Being in New York instead of Ft. Lauderdale isn't as exciting but the dialogue is crisp and witty and this second book helps us get to know McGee.As always, read the series books in order. Great character and wonderful classic series.Very Highly Recommended

A Florida beach bum in New York
I recently read an article that compared Ian Fleming's James Bond with John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee.Both series came to prominence around the same time, and both would be considered "men's fiction" of the era, with the heroes getting into various adventures and sleeping with various women.The parallels are rather limited, however:Bond is actually a tamer character than McGee and less given to true cynicism.And though Fleming is good, MacDonald is better (and with slightly less dated views, the McGee books age a bit better too).

Nightmare in Pink is the second novel featuring McGee and MacDonald is clearly hitting his stride, giving his lead character more definition.We learn early on that McGee is a veteran of the Korean War (which puts his age in this 1964 book at somewhere in his thirties).McGee had a friend in the war, who was severely wounded while McGee was on leave; survivor's guilt has put McGee in Mike Gibson's debt, so when Mike asks for a favor, McGee is ready to help out.

He goes to New York, a city that doesn't really agree with his beach-bum persona and visits Mike's sister, Nina, who is still grieving over the death of her fiance.McGee helps her look into the murder and in the process uncovers an intricate embezzlement scheme.He will also help her emotionally (one of the common themes in 1960s era men's fiction is that all a damaged woman needs to get better is the love of a good man, whether Bond or McGee), but he will also run afoul of the embezzlers, putting himself in a truly nasty situation.

It's a credit to MacDonald that even though I'd read this book before (albeit twenty years ago) and I knew McGee had to survive (no spoiler here:there are still a lot of books in the series to go), I still found McGee's predicament suspenseful.Then again, it's no surprise:MacDonald is an excellent storyteller.As a result, Nightmare in Pink is another fine entry in one of the all-time great crime fiction series.

Little Sister
A dying friend sends Travis McGee to New York to help his baby sister in NIGHTMARE IN PINK by John D. MacDonald. This is the second in the beloved series, but a good read that is not dated.
Little sister, Nina Gibson has grownup and takes Travis by surprise as he remembers the little girl whose picture her brother carried in his billfold.
New York streets and the world of advertising give this novel an extra punch, but Florida seems more like home for McGee.
The stories are best read in order to watch Travis grow and change, but each can stand alone.
Nash Black, author of Indie finalists WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and HAINTS. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not a Travis McGee series member
By the author of the Travis McGee Series, whom I by and large like, but not one of the rainbow! ... Read more

Product Description
MUST HAVE COPY.... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING USABLE ON COVER....MARKED BOTB. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

A Purple Place For Dying
Classic Travis McGee.Character may be a bit dated in his outlook (written in 1964) but still very engaging.Compelling plot with intriguing twists & turns; unexpected but satisfying ending.Still one of the best continuing series authors; others are always gauged against MacDonald.

Early McGee
'A Purple Place for Dying' is the third of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series. In this one McGee is out of his familiar haunts of the Florida coast and has traveled to the dry, rocky American Southwest to help a woman who wants to divorce her husband and needs some dirt dug up on him (she suspects him of embezzling her trust fund, as well a some other shady deals). McGee is not inclined to take the job, when a unseen gunman kills her. Although McGee now has no client and could return to Florida, he's not the kind of guy to let someone get killed in front of him without doing something about it.
John D. MacDonald is an excellent writer, no other writer I have read can transmit the sense of menace and fear that he can. His dialogue is very sharp and his characterization is excellent. One of my favourite series.

Purple Place for Dying and others.
I ordered 3 "Travis MacGee books and all were great.They were new as indicated and were a great read.The other titles were:
The Quick Red Fox
Bright Orange For a Shroud

No purple prose here
For a series that focuses on a Florida-based hero, through the first three Travis McGee books, only the first book - The Deep Blue Good-By - takes place in the Sunshine State.Nightmare in Pink had McGee off to New York to deal with the perils of the big city.A Purple Place for Dying goes in the opposite direction, with the dangers of a small, isolated community.

As the novel opens, McGee has come to the Southwestern town of Esmerelda at the request of Mona Yeoman.Mona is a troubled lady who wants out of her marriage with her husband Jasper, a wealthy man who owns half the town.He doesn't want a divorce and she can't run away:Jasper has apparently stolen her inheritance.She wants McGee to get it back, but before he can turn her down, she's murdered by a sniper.

McGee calls in the cops, but by the time they get to the scene of the crime, the body's gone.The most likely suspect would be Jasper, but McGee believes the man is innocent.Furthermore, unlike with Mona, Jasper and McGee actually get along.Although the wise thing might be to go back to Florida, McGee hates loose ends, and that means doing his part to prove Mona's dead, find the killer and figure out the reason why she was killed.In addition, Mona's lover John Webb is also missing (and presumed dead) and McGee goes to the aid of John's sister, Isobel.As is often the case in these men's-fiction novels, Isobel is beautiful, damaged and capable of being healed by the love of a good man.

Despite the lack of a Florida setting, A Purple Place for Dying is another fine book by John MacDonald.MacDonald was never much for whodunits, but this book comes reasonably close:you might not be able to figure out the killer before McGee, but that's not really necessary:this is still an entertaining, fast-paced read by one of the greatest storytellers of his time.

Gripping.
A Purple Place for Dying, entry number three in John D. MacDonald'shighly successful Travis McGee series is even better than the two that preceed it.This is a well crafted murder mystery that takes place in the deserts and mountains of the Western US, a world removed from the Ft. Lauderdale marina Travis McGee calls home.

Emotional tensions run deep in this compelling story of death and betrayal.The many characters are multifaceted and the ways in which they relate to one another are complex.This book bears John D. MacDonald's distinctive touch.The detailed and loving descriptions of nature. The interesting insights into human behavior.And of course the unrepentant and, at times, exasperating misogeny of Travis McGee, the last of the male chauvinists.

In some ways, A Purple Place for Dying unfolds like a Ross Macdonald novel, saturated as it is with dysfunctional families, unfulfilled lives and disturbing secrets guarded decade after decade.
Bottom line: A page turner of a mystery with lots of meat on its bones.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
From the author of A Purple Place for Dying and The Deep Blue Good-by comes the republication of the bestseller starring Travis McGee, a real American hero. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

The beach bum and the movie star
After a couple books away from his home base, Travis McGee is back on the Busted Flush in The Quick Red Fox.While lounging about on his houseboat, he is recruited by Lysa Dean to deal with a blackmailer.Lysa is a big-time movie star with the ego to match, but McGee is too grounded to fall for her standard seduction techniques; he does take on the job, however, and is paired with Lysa's assistant, the more interesting Dana Holtzer.

The blackmail photos date back to a party a year or so earlier when Lysa had partied too hard and gotten involved in a drunken orgy (the exact act is never specified, but the reader can guess what's in the pictures).Travis starts to track down the others involved in the party and finds that several of them have died under circumstances that may be suspicious.He and Dana will crisscross the country looking for answers (so much for staying in Florida).

This is once again another very good McGee book.By this fourth novel, John MacDonald has pretty much hit his stride, and the results are good for the readers.

A thoroughly engrossing page turner.
The Quick Red Fox is entry number 4 in John D. MacDonald's highly successful Travis McGee series and is most certainly the best of the series to that point.
On this occasion, McGee is hired by a famous screen actress for the purpose of preventing some embarrassing photographs secretly taken at an orgy from ruining her career and reputation.As McGee criss-crosses the U.S. accompanied by the actress' ice maiden of a personal assistant, he learns some very interesting things about the other orgy participants and the disreputable photographer who took the pictures in the first place.
The narrative to The Quick Red Fox is unfailingly compelling as McGee encounters character after character whose lives have been irreparably shattered under a host of different circumstances.Each chapter is a page turning adventure in reading chock full of fascinating characters and unexpected plot twists.
This is not a "feel good" novel.Its underlying theme is that human corruption will invariably lead to ruined, shattered lives.MacDonald's dedication to this theme is so unflinchingly complete within the pages of The Quick Red Fox even the usually unflappable Travis McGee himself ultimately becomes a victim.Highly recommended.

Speaking his mind on various cultural conventions
As with virtually all of his works, MacDonald has Travis speak out against and in favor of various cultural realities (these will occupy much of my reviews on this page).The following two segments occur close to each other, as Travis and Dana home in on one of the suspects in Southern California.This first hits home with virtually anyone of the freedom persuasion:

"...I get the feeling that this is the last time in history when the offbeats like me will have a chance to live free in the nooks and crannies of the huge and rigid structure of an increasingly codified society. Fifty years from now I would be hunted down in the street. They would drill little holes in my skull and make me sensible and reliable and adjusted." -- 96

...

For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]

Brian Wright
Copyright 2009

OK read.Nothing exceptional.
I picked this book up from the library.I chose it mainly because some group on some mystery site selected it in their 100 best.

After reading it I can't imagine it being a 100 best anything.It was a good read and a throwaway book at best.It's a typical paperback PI short novel.

I found the relationship between the main character and the woman he beds to be quite a bit unrealistic.Especially when she gets hit in the head and this causes her to dump him.Great reasoning there, but we must keep our hero unemcumbered musnt we?

It was a bit short on action.And when we finally do find out who did it, it seems a bit contrived to me.The lesbian thing was silly and wouldn't be allowed in a book published today.Not PC for sure.

Overall it was easy and fast to read.It is the only one of MacDonald's books I have ever read.I am going to try The Dreadful Lemon Sky because it is considered by a lot of lists to be a classic PI book.If it is more of the same then that is probably it for me for this author.

Saving not-so-maidenly damsels in distress

"Suddenly I knew what she reminded me of. A vixen. A quick red fox. I had seen one in heat long ago on an Adirondack morning in spring, pacing along well in front of the dog fox with a very alert and springy movement, tail curled high, turning to see if he still followed, tongue lolling from between her doggy grin."
- McGee's first impression of red-haired sex symbol Lysa Dean

A mutual screenwriter friend in San Francisco, one of two real male friends Lysa has, recommends Travis to her to resolve a very sordid blackmail problem: after wrapping a movie a year and a half before, she'd taken three weeks holiday with a now-departed boyfriend who, apparently out of spontaneous boredom, brought in several casual acquaintances of both sexes for fun and games, which a month later turned up in a series of very candid anonymous photographs.

Lysa paid off the anonymous photographer at the time, her reputation for professional reliability being a little too precarious and her conservative fiancee being *far* too rich for her to risk either by sending hired muscle after the blackmailer. But now a set of copies of the photos have begun turning up in Lysa's mail with threats that suggest a potential sexual predator has gotten hold of a set of prints and created new negatives, and that Lysa's life as well as her reputation may be at stake this time.

Travis' job is to find the blackmailer and account for all the photographs and negatives rather than to protect Lysa, who is *not* the female lead this time out. (Travis has a streak of the prude in him.) Instead, Lysa's confidential secretary/personal assistant, Dana Holtzer, is assigned to accompany Travis, assist, and monitor the situation. Travis misreads Dana at first as a repressed prude not worth his respect and is set firmly straight to his great embarrassment; she knows a *lot* more about some kinds of tragedy than he does.

Yet another fine example of Travis' adventures as a knight in tarnished armour; not only is Ms. Dean a far-from-innocent lady fair, but Dana has some very complicated issues herself, though of a more wholesome variety. Travis comes to respect Dana as being worth at least ten of her employer.

The story is a kind of morality tale, in a way, as Travis tracks down the other players in that orgy in the land of eternal summer and finds a trail of broken relationships and torn-apart lives, each tragedy apparently unrelated to the rest save that the kind of people who'd be involved in that sordid holiday might be expected to come to grief. Each is an interesting and individual problem, apart from the puzzle of how the blackmailer happened upon Lysa's indiscretion and why a second set of photos has now turned up.

Points of interest:
- Lysa turns up years later in FREE FALL IN CRIMSON with a separate problem and further information about how certain events played out.
- MacDonald does *not* turn Travis' cynical insight loose upon the Hollywood culture in general, but there's plenty of philosophical musing along the way.
- Meyer is mentioned in passing, but doesn't actually appear in a book until DARKER THAN AMBER, to the best of my recollection.
- Interesting photographer friend of Travis' is introduced in passing as a consultant.
- Rather negative portrayal of some female homosexual/bisexual characters herein may offend some readers. ... Read more

Product Description
An insane criminal threatens to destroy a family, and the police are powerless to protect them.
For fourteen years convicted rapist Max Cady nursed his hatred for Sam Bowden into an insane passion for revenge. He lived only for the day he would be free -- free to track down and destroy the man who had put him behind bars.
Murder was merciful compared to what Cady had in mind -- and what Cady had in mind was Bowden's innocent and lovely teenaged daughter . . . .
"A powerful and frightening story." -- The New York Times
... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Shocking snorefest
After seeing both great movies this was based on, I was shocked at how dull the writing is.Interesting on a thematic level (as one reviewer was generous enough to put it), but otherwise this is strictly by-the-numbers.Absolutely NOTHING happens until the last 20 pages and even then the action is scant.Maybe this was hot stuff back in the day, but I found it one of the most overblown books I had ever read and not enjoyable at all.It reads like the type of pulp crap that many writers churned out back then for a quick buck, but others like Thompson, Willeford and Westlake did better (I think).Beware...you have been warned!

A Compact Thriller with Good Character Development
This tidy novel by John D. MacDonald would probably be lost today in the tidal wave of 20th-century thrillers and mysteries, if it weren't for the 1962 movie version with Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck (and the 1991 remake by Martin Scorsese, which I have not seen).While the book has a bit less action than the movie, it does develop the characters in much more interesting ways.The Sam of the book, for example, is more human and less steely jawed than Gregory Peck's portrayal, while his wife has more of a take-charge attitude than Polly Bergen displayed.We also learn more about the villain than the 1962 movie revealed.

The plot and various details of the setting are quite different from the 1962 movie.The setting is not specific (and has nothing to do with the Cape Fear River).The climax and the events leading up to it are especially unlike the movie (a nice surprise).

One other aspect of the book I need to comment on: MacDonald's portrayal of law practice is a little off the mark.First, in a conversation with one of his law partners, Sam is told that he's the token honest man in the firm, that every law firm has one, and that most lawyers are continually bending the rules. In reality, most lawyers are very particular about the rules; the rule-benders and corner-cutters are the minority.Second, at one point Sam calls his partner to "ask" if he can take a week off.Law-firm partners (especially in a small firm like Sam's) are all "bosses"; they don't need to ask each other for permission to take time off.(They may ask another partner if s/he wouldn't mind covering a matter while they're gone, but that's not what Sam was doing.)In any event, those are minor quibbles.

fun, suspenseful .. yet forgettable
'Cape Fear' by John MacDonald equates to so many mystery novels found on supermarket shelves nowadays.That is, there is a formulaic plot, some honest to goodness suspense, and one getting the sense of reading the book before (, or perhaps seeing it on television).Although the book is set in the 1950s and has a dated feel to it, I still found it suspenseful and the story largely credible.

So what about the story?Well it is only roughly similar to the film adaptations.We have and "Ozzie & Harriet"-type of family who are stalked by a crazed psychopath and sexual predator.It seems that "Ozzie" was instrumental in sending Mr Psycho to the clink because he witnessed him raping a teenager.Fast forward fifteen years and we have our wholesome family, now with a nubile fifteen year old daughter, scared witless.But in the end they do collect their wits in order to survive (...sorry, no spoilers).


Bottom line: a reasonably good read that probably would have gone out of print if not due to the legacy of the film adaptations.

Enjoyable, but Minor
CAPE FEAR is an entertaining novel written by John MacDonald in 1957.It's essentially a story about a civilized man whose family is being threatened by a murderous psychopath.The central theme of the book is how far the man will go to protect himself and the ones he loves.

MacDonald is certainly a highly skilled and intelligent writer, but CAPE FEAR left me somewhat cold.It's not very suspenseful or gripping, and I didn't feel the characters (especially the main character's children) were very well developed.A lot of the dialogue is pretty stilted.It's an interesting book on a thematic level, but I wasn't very engaged by it.

In short, CAPE FEAR is an enjoyable way to spend a few hours, but I wouldn't recommend it to a modern reader looking for fast-paced thrills.

Enjoyable Read
This is a good read and MacDonald has an easy to read prose style. This is an enjoyable but not gripping book. I liked it but it is not a grab you by the shirt collar suspense book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

JDM at his best (and that's very good indeed)
A Key to the Suite takes John D. MacDonald away from his traditional stomping ground - primarily because it features (and empathizes with) the sort of suited corporate figures that his protagonists tend to loathe.

A Key to the Suite takes place during a business convention for a fairly nondescript bits & bobs sort of conglomerate corporation thingy. Like many of JDM's best, it employs a host of narrators - from the young up-and-comers on the local team to the out of town 'fixer' to the local manager with his job in danger to the over-educated prostitute with a heart of gold...

This cast comes together tightly in one short, tense weekend - careers, marriages, and all the trappings of life are on the line for these men and women. To these men, their livelihoods are their lives, and the absurdities of corporate life are vitally important rituals to them.

A Key to the Suite is overall quite dark - this is not a triumph of the human spirit, more a steady degradation.Everyone in the book is weak and flawed - redemption is difficult to find and impossible to grasp. The characters are more real - and more empathetic - for it.

Disclaimer: This contains all the normal trappings of the time - it is easy to find painful issues with the gender and sexual politics. Unlike many of JDM's weaker novels, I don't think these prevent the book from being an effective and emotive piece of literature. This really is JDM at his finest - making 'everyday' life into a strangely philosophical piece of drama.

Chamber music in a minor key
This is my very favorite John D. MacDonald book so far. It is a slim book, filled with terse descriptions of unfortunate characters behaving as they are programmed to behave while justifying their greed, ambition, moral blindness and vengeful stupidity. As each character sets his own traps, s/he is pulled closer to a pre-destined demise. Can the corporation force an honorable worker to become a Judas, a hatchet man? Can popularity save an aging henchman from being sucked into his own whirlwind intrigues? Can S_E_X atone for the loss of dignity? Can a call girl regain her loveabilty through dignity and fair play or atone for her rashness through mortality? What do you THINK? Of course not! EVERYBODY PAYS! Nobody wins!
A KEY TO THE SUITE is juicy, glossy entertainment stripped of pulp and held under a moral microscope.It isn't Harold Robbins, folks. If you read the narrative too fast, you'll miss the beauty of the writing. If you read it more than once, you'll find that there's still more meat on those bones. This book is a KNOCKOUT!

Could have been much more...
Good, intense writing that draws you in with typical MacDonald style - quite an accomplishment when you consider the book was published in 1962.Terrific tale of a sales convention and a sexual liaison and attempted blackmail.MacDonald has managed to make the story almost timeless by careful avoidance of too much detail of cars, locations etc.

The book is something of a cop out though - it is too short.MacDonald kills off one of the central characters and brings the story to an end too quickly.I would like to have seen the illicit relationship extended until after the main character returns home and the further complications that would certainly have added.Would have made a more realistic and satisfying story and extended what was a good read... ... Read more

Product Description
McGee is hired to find the truth behind a man's disappearance. Is the man accused of murder guilty or the victim of an elaborate hoax? 2 cassettes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

No way for this to be fresh in 2007
I really wanted to like this book, but it really doesn't hold up well enough after 30 years for me to recommend it.There is very little suspense in it. After I discovered that even Agatha Christie just kept writing the same book over and over, I gave up on mysteries altogether. There are some main problems with them: 1) How different can a murder mystery be than all the others 2) In a series of books, like a TV series, the hero can be battered, but never really faces the possibility of death, unless it's the last in the series, and that is announced before you even read it 4) Television mysteries became so popular since the 70s ( and especially in the 70s) and ripped off all elements of writers like MacDonald that for a 45-year-old man (me) picking up The Empty Copper Sea, published in 1978, in 2007 there is no way for this to be fresh.I have to admit that some elements of this took me back to my junior year in high school ('78) but there were three Billy Carter jokes in this novel and that kind of thing just attached it too carefully to a fleeting time in history.The reason to read this book is if you have read many or all of the other McGee novels and you want to read the one in which he deals with the self-doubt and reanalysis of middle age.It's all about the character.Even the Macguffin of this book is that nearly everyone in it is having a midlife crisis.There is plenty of male fantasy going on (McGee has no trouble bedding women much younger than he, and they are never homely, fat, or crazy like in real life).Most disappointing of all for me was that the mystery wasn't that mysterious. SPOILER ALERT: MacDonald makes nearly everyone in the novel so convinced that Hub Lawless skipped to Mexico that it's obvious he didn't, and when one character says that, it sticks out like such a sore thumb that you know the guy is dead one way or another.MacDonald also makes weird decisions about what miniscule details to put in and what big scenes to leave out.He chickens out of sex scenes like an embarassed nun and lays on the blood and gore like a 14-year-old.He also writes in a fairly old-fashioned way that just doesn't stand up.I'm sure that before every TV private eye and mystery show stole much of his good material this was an entertaining book (the title is beautiful for one thing), but the passage of time and the evolution of crime fiction has not really been kind to John D. MacDonald.Much of the political and social concern he tries to put in the novel through his characters (Meyer's hilariously out of date rant about angel dust) has been deflated by history.Even in 1978 it was cornball to refer to marijuana as "grass" and it instantly makes his characters such squares that it's hard to think of McGee as this street-toughened, shadowy, crime-fighting advocate of the down-trodden when he sounds so out of touch and country clubby.I was hoping that delving back into the mystery genre with one of the greats would be a nice experience, but the truth is that if you read any literature outside this genre, the characterizations you come to expect from top-notch writers like Faulkner, Pynchon, Wallace, Amis, McGuane, Franzen, Chabon, et al, really make a novel like this seem more like a fluffed-up pamphlet in which you start looking for paragraphs you can skip over.Or in other words, like a script for a TV show, not a novel.

New copies available?
Can someone, anyone, explain to me why it is impossible to get a "new" copy of this mass market paperback?This book was supposedly re-issued in the mid-90s with the other 20 McGee books...you can find new copies of the other 20 anywhere (including on Amazon), but you can't find a new copy of this book anywhere (again, including on Amazon).

I don't get it.Does this have something to do with the movie studio withholding rights to publish or something (I know this is one of the McGee books that was made into a movie)?Again, would someone please shed light on this matter for me...I'd love to get a new copy.

Excellent as always
John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee books are something that current authors should try to emulate. They are usually 250 pages long, actually give the reader food for thought and tell a good story. There is no padding in the book, no gratuitous sex scenes (although Travis meets heaps of women) and violence is kept to a minimum.

In this novel, Travis is approached by an old friend in need of help. The story centres around the search for a man who has gone missing, presumed dead but doubts have arisen over the possible large insurance payout and rumours that the man is hiding out in Mexico.

This leads to Travis and Meyer setting out to gather more information and at the same time, making interesting observations about the human condition (a trademark of MacDonald's writings).

Warmly recommended.

Beach Book Extradinaire
What could be better than a beach book where a large chunk of the action takes place--you guessed it--on the Beach? Travis and pal Meyer endeavor to clear the name of ship captain, Van Harder.His client, Hub Lawless, was lost at sea and Harder was accused of being passed out drunk at the time of the accident.Van claims he was doped, not drunk, and now has lost his license and means of livelihood.Meyer engineers a neat scam whereby he and Trav get access to all the powers-that-be in Timber Bay, the town where the unfortunate Mr. Lawless was a king pin.His disappearance has left the town holding the bag and severely depressed.There is a serious question whether he engineered his own disappearance, and the insurance company is holding up the payment of a $2 million policy to the widow.

The book is fast paced with excellent dialogue, and if that isn't enough--Enter the Girls!First Trav hooks up with the lady piano player in a bar.He and MacDonald dance around for a few pages trying to absolve Trav of taking advantage of the dreaded, non-sensitive One Night Stand.Then come two good-time girls, Mishy & Licia who were on the boat at the time of the disappearance.Licia, though lovely, has a teeth problem.Much to her dismay one crude fellow told her "with teeth like that, you could eat a Big Mac through a venetian blind." (Not our Trav, of course).Then, saving the best until last, Gretel who brings Trav to his knees in instant adoration.I always get nervous when Trav finds true love; they seem to have a very short life span.

"The Empty Copper Sea" is vintage Travis McGee with more turns than a corkscrew and surprises to match.MacDonald sets up one of his trademark scenes of macabre horror right when you least expect it.He wipes that smile off your face, just in case you thought this was going to be only a lighthearted ramble.Recommended.

One of the best
Over the years I've read hundreds of novels in a variety of genres, but for pure fun and enjoyment it's hard to beat Travis McGee. Some of the books are better than others, but they're nearly all worth a couple of lazy summer days. They are the ultimate summer time, quick-read beach books. At their core, they're good mysteries and this is one of the best. But Travis McGee is such a great character, with such a wry outlook on life, that often the mystery seems secondary to McGee's views on whatever topic author John D. McDonald has selected for his soap box. Most of them take place in Florida, (a Florida no one will ever see again given they were written mostly in the 60s and 70s) and all have a color in the title. Don't take them too seriously, just have fun in the sun. ... Read more

Product Description
When Travis McGee's friend Meyer lent his boat to his niece Norma, and her new husband Even, the boat exploded out in the waters of the Florida Keys. Travis McGee thinks it's no accident, and clues lead him to ponder possibilities of drugs and also to wonder where Evan was when his wife was killed....

"Proves again that MacDonald keeps getting better with each new adventure."

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

explosive stuff
Have read all Travis & co books I do not know how many times over, yet am buying new copies if one of the titles is lost somewhere. I cannot explain what makes me go back to the slip in Fort Lauderdale over and over again. There is something in Mr. MacDonald's writing that has me in its grip and I cannot pry me loose. Try it yourself - you have been warned.

A predator becomes prey.
Cinnamon Skin by John D. MacDonald is entry number 20 in the popular Travis McGee series.
Early in the narrative Norma Lawrence, niece of Travis McGee's friend the economist Dr. Meyer, dies in an explosion at sea.Soon after that McGee and a heartbroken Meyer leave Ft. Lauderdale to take on the seemingly impossible task of finding Norma's killer.The trail, an exceedingly faint one, takes them to several cities and towns in Texas, the outskirts of Utica, NY and ultimately to Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
MacDonald has McGee and Meyer perform some very clever detective work along the way while introducing a number of interesting supporting characters. More than just a detective story, Cinnamon Skin succeeds in delivering some very interesting takes on human nature as the captivating plot unfolds.
This is a very well written novel.Fascinating characters, evocative prose and a page turner of a plot all make Cinnamon Skin a must read for mystery lovers and fans of great fiction in general.Highly recommended.

An excellent Travis McGee outing (may contain spoilers)
For fans of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series, this entry will not disappoint. This was the second-to-last McGee novel that MacDonald wrote, and it has been my experience that they kept getting better and better as they went along (the first of the series were good, although a little chauvinistic and dated due to being written and set in the early 1960's).

What makes this novel so compelling is that villain is incredibly fascinating. The story is not so much a typical whodunit mystery, as McGee knows fairly early in the book who the bad guy is, but rather a character study of a complex and superbly realized antagonist. In this case, the culprit concerned is a charismatic and manipulative sociopath who seduces women, marries them, and kills them for their money. The story is propelled mainly by McGee's search for this elusive monster and the gradual unwraveling of the events that made him the way he is.

I whole-heartedly recommend this book. The only reason it lost a star is because I found MacDonald's dialogue to be unremarkable in the sense that most of the characters talk pretty much the same way. In other words, he doesn't really know how to do voice.

Standard McGee
To paraphrase a cliche: Travis McGee books are like pizza; even when they're not great, they're still pretty good.

But usually the major narrative faults don't fully occur to me until after I've finished them. During "Cinnamon Skin," though, I was noticing them left and right.

The main villain -- a chameleon who marries women, drains their money and murders them -- is pretty old hat.The story is extremely low on action (one clumsy fight; one badly sketched death by auto accident; one shoot-out that ends rather ludicrously).And did this book really need the appearance of a well-connected Mayan princess?Well, maybe... but it strains credibility.

"Cinnamon" isn't without its virtues: It's cool to see Meyer get such a big supporting role; cool, also, to see the rare sight of McGee clearly botching a relationship and, later, baiting his ex in a pretty high school way.He's not the fresh tough guy he used to be and even, at one point, gets mad at younger characters for moving too fast for him.

This was the first McGee I'd read that was written in the 80s.It's funny because whenever I visualize MacDonald's novels, I always see them in stark, CinemaScope, Technicolor terms.I visualize them existing in much the same, bright, 60s, go-go world as "Point Blank" and "Harper," with the later jaunts perhaps resembling "The Parallax View."So it was funny to me to read references to things whose appearance in the pop culture world I remember: McGee actually reads "Cujo" at one point, and grouses about the loser kids at a videogame arcade.Startling at first, but eventually pretty amusing.

Free-standing, but a sequel to FREE FALL IN CRIMSON
"My God, McGee, can't you come up with something more original?"
"I thought it was."
"It's a song, you idiot. Piel Canela: Cinnamon Skin. They sing it all over Mexico."
- sometimes a compliment just doesn't work

CINNAMON SKIN begins on an ominous note; McGee's gentle, scholarly friend Meyer, a year after the events of FREE FALL IN CRIMSON, is still suffering from having broken in the face of some very heavy threats by a particularly murderous psychopath. (As CINNAMON SKIN is self-contained - McGee summarizes Meyer's situation for his current, unusually long-running girlfriend Annie Renzetti at the start of the book - it isn't necessary to read CRIMSON first, although since it introduced Annie as well as Meyer's problem I'd recommend having it handy at least to read afterward.)

However, just as the reader may begin to suspect that this book will follow a predicable formula - Meyer helps McGee with a salvage operation, regains his self-respect - two separate plans to try to help Meyer out yield unexpected results. An old friend and colleague has arranged for Meyer to give a talk in Canada, while Meyer's only living relative, his niece Norma, arranged to visit with her new husband Evan Lawrence, and thanks to crossed wires Meyer's out of town for part of Norma's visit while she and Evan stay aboard his houseboat, the JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES.

Consequently, when Meyer's boat is bombed and lost with all aboard while on a fishing jaunt, Meyer himself isn't there. He's lost the last of his family, his home, and nearly everything he owns thanks to a self-proclaimed terrorist attack - but *that* snaps him out of his frozen depression. He's determined to see Norma avenged, and McGee (of course) is in on this from the start.

But the facts don't add up. The supposed Chilean outfit that claimed responsibility doesn't seem to exist, and nobody else involved in Meyer's only Chilean-related project has ever been threatened. Who was the intended victim? Hacksaw Jenkins, a straight-arrow charterboat row captain known to stay away from drug action? Norma, a rising young field geologist for a Texas oil company? Evan, a footloose good ol' boy?

The scene quickly moves from Florida to Texas as Meyer and McGee begin digging into the recent past of Norma and Evan. The necessary formalities of settling Norma's estate quickly set them on the beginning of a very long trail, where the missing pieces are the most significant of all: missing people, and missing money. The most notable settings in the book are Texas in high summer (various places, Meyer and McGee do a lot of driving without many fast-talking scams) and Cancun (which was a very new development at the time of the action of the book).

Several nice touches, a few of which I'll mention. McGee's relationship with Annie, the very successful manager of a hotel in Naples, has issues other than his long field trips for his job: *her* job involves working for a large company, with up-and-out promotion prospects. Various discourses all over the map, from a brief chat with a farm equipment supplier on the smartest farmer in his county (who works his land with mules) to time-shares in Cancun to various grieving relatives of several people who surely would hate for the state to take several years to try this case and then call it second-degree.

I rather enjoy Michael Pritchard as a reader for unabridged McGee stories, but tastes may vary.
... Read more

Product Description
Travis McGee is too busy with his houseboat to pay attention to the little old man with the missing postage stamps. Except these are no ordinary stamps. They are rare stamps. Four hundred thousand dollars worth of rare. And if McGee doesn't recognize their value, perhaps Mary Alice McDermit does, a six-foot knockout who knows all the ways to a boat bum's heart. Only it's not McGee's heart that's in danger. Because a syndicate killer has put a contract on McGee. A killer who knows something about stamps . . . and even more about McGee.


From the Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

A cruel deception.
It starts off not unlike a Sherlock Holmes type mystery.How is it possible to steal a valuable and substantial stamp collection from a secure safe deposit box while substituting similar stamps of much lesser quality?But the reader soon learns that the brain teaser aspect of The Scarlet Ruse represents only a small portion of what the book has to offer.
In this, the 14th installment in the Travis McGee series, author John D. MacDonald describes a number of frightening events which pit McGee against both a member of Miami's mob and a sociopathic murderer.What makes this novel stand out from others in the Travis McGee series is the fact that, for once, the all knowing, all prescient McGee's instincts fail him miserably.Only belatedly does he realize that he himself has been expertly conned.
The Scarlet Ruse is a fast, compelling read which showcases the usually superhuman McGee in a different incarnation.MacDonald has rather surprisingly given him imperfections and vulnerabilities which in turn make him a much more likable protagonist.
One of the better Travis McGee offerings.

A Change in McGee
THE SCARLET RUSE by John D. MacDonald returns Travis McGee to his fans, but there are subtle shades of difference. McGee to lose his parking place at slot 18, the Busted Flush without a home--sad.
We read McGee to find stability and change makes us uncomfortable, even the needed lady is not as she pretends.
Nash Black, author of Indie finalists WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and HAINTS.

John D Macdonald-- Master story teller....
Great book. When John D. passed, we lost a gripping and insightful weaver of great fiction.

The Scarlet Ruse
I love all of the Travers Mcgee novels and now own all of them, this one is as good as the rest.
I guess collecting all of the series speaks for itself, but here in Australia it's dificult to find them. Over the years I have looked for them whilst on holidays, but was able to get the remaining books from AMAZON and that has pleased me no end.

A rare MacDonald miss
I think this was the 20th book I've read in the Travis McGee series, but it's the first one I didn't like that much. There were the usual profound nuggets of McGee wisdom and philosophy ("Today, my friends, we each have one day less, every one of us. And joy is the only thing that slows the clock.") But MacDonald belabors the intricacies of the plot and declaws the tension when McGee starts asking far too many "What if...?" questions. ... Read more

Product Description
This anthology features some of the most famous authors writing at the peak of their careers! Volume three of Master of Noir has the following ten great stories: THE KILLERS by JOHN D. MACDONALD, ATTACK by ED McBAIN, JUST WINDOW SHOPPING by LAWRENCE BLOCK, SIX FINGERS by HAL ELLSON, STRANGER IN THE HOUSE by THEODORE PRATT, MAY I COME IN? by FLETCHER FLORA, COP FOR A DAY by HENRY SLESAR, PRECISE MOMENT by HENRY KANE, GRAVEYARD SHIFT by STEVE FRAZEE, BAIT FOR THE RED-HEAD by EUGENE PAWLEY ... Read more

Product Description
"McGee has become part of our national fabric."

SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER

Beautiful girls always grace the Florida beaches, strolling, sailing, relaxing at the many parties on Travis McGee's houseboat, The Busted Flush. McGee was too smart--and had been around too long--for many of them to touch his heart. Now, however, there was Gretel. She had discovered the key to McGee--to all of him--and now he had something to hope for. Then, terribly, unexpectedly, she was dead. From a mysterious illness, or so they said. But McGee knew the truth, that Gretel had been murdered. And now he was out for blood...


From the Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Great storytelling.
The Green Ripper, entry no.18 of 21 in the Travis McGee series, is an example of storytelling at its best.It's a tale of revenge told in straightforward fashion with just the right amounts of intrigue and action to qualify it as a real page turner.

Early on in the narative, Gretel Howard, the great love of Travis McGee's life becomes the victim of a sinister murder.McGee becomes emotionally distraught and can think of nothing else other than exacting revenge. Following the only lead he has as to the identity of Gretel's killers, McGee travels to California. Here, he links up with a group of well disciplined religious cultists that does double duty as a terrorist cell. Single handedly, McGee gets the better of the terrorists, thereby sufficiently satisfying his need for revenge.

The Green Ripper is a nicely paced, compelling novel which captures the reader's interest in Chapter 1 and holds it till the very end.MacDonald's take on the nature of latter day terrorism has proven quite prescient.I was surprised to see the term "targets of opportunity" in a book written in 1979.
One of the best of the Travis McGee series.Highly recommended.

Different From All Other Travis McGee Books
I am a huge fan of John MacDonald, and of the Travis McGee series in particular. So giving this book a bad rating is actually kind of painful to me. But I really didn't like this book, and -- given my general bias in favor of all things MacDonald -- I think it important to state my reasons. If you're already a MacDonald / McGee fan, then by all means read this book. But know what you're getting into. And if you're just coming to the McGee series, please start with one of the others. "The Deep Blue Goodbye" was the first in the series, and is a fine place to start. But almost any of the other books will do. I started with "A Tan & Sandy Silence," a heartbreaking book that is also a magnificent piece of writing; you'd do worse than begin with that one.

Since I would cheerfully give 5 stars to every other book in the Travis McGee series, it may seem strange that I down-rate this one so dramatically. It's especially odd since this book garnered more critical praise than almost any other in the series (including major national awards).

My problem is, simply, that this book just seems flat-out alien, an intruder into the Travis McGee series that just doesn't belong here. The first 20-25% of the book, to be sure, DOES seem like vintage McGee. But then it veers wildly away, onto an arc of a story that takes him far, far from his Florida stomping grounds, far, far from the moral underpinnings of the series, and far, far from the mystery genre that is his usual haunt. It seems to owe more to Rambo than to McGee.

The story in a nutshell: McGee has finally found love. Many times in prior books, MacDonald has McGee claiming that he isn't into the "Hugh Hefner thing," while nonetheless having him bed 2-4 beauties in every novel. This time it's different: McGee really is smitten, ready to marry and settle down. But then she's gone, killed in an apparent accident. But of course she was actually murdered. Through his grief, McGee figures it out, and figures out a lead to find the bastards and deal with them.

(This much is on the cover. Spoiler alert: you'll have to skip the rest of this review except for the very last paragraph if you want to know nothing more of what happens).

McGee traces them back to a religious cult. Shedding his entire identity -- and much of his personality -- he sets out to infiltrate said group. He gets into their Pacific Northwest compound, insinuates himself into their midst, figures out what's going on, and then as they close a noose on him he takes them all out, every last one. Leastways, every last one in that compound, although it's suggested that the group is international in scope.

Up until just a ways after the death of McGee's lover, this does seem pretty much to be a traditional Travis McGee book in tone and style. But then it changes, radically, into something different. There is a lack of finesse, and a surfeit of Rambo-esque confrontation. And almost none of it is in the least ways plausible. I can accept the idea that McGee would be dead set on revenge. I can accept (with some difficulty) the idea that McGee is so skillful that he can assume an entirely new identity. I cannot accept the way in which he gets into the cult's compound. I can't accept the way he is spared and allowed to join (while another member is murdered -- for seemingly trivial reason -- in front of him). I cannot accept the way that the group conducts itself (I know something about how cult groups operate, having once written about a real one myself, and this seemed all wrong throughout).

I cannot understand the explosion of unremitting violence at the end which -- again -- would be more suitable for one of those hopelessly dull-witted TV shows where the bad guys invariably fight to the death and the good guys never once show anything like PTSD (how about the execrable Walker: Texas Ranger TV series as an example?)

And I cannot accept the absurd, and rather anti-climatic, ending in which federal law enforcement allows McGee to walk away from a blood bath with but a casual interview in the field, his beloved anonymity preserved. Yeah, right, that happens ALL the time. (Except for The Green Ripper, MacDonald imbued the entire series with a dead-on sense of place and reality. Both big things and tiny details were rendered with loving precision -- they were REAL! -- which invariably allowed for easy suspension of disbelief when the stories, occasionally, took what in another writer's hands would be a bizarre turn).

Bottom line: dedicated McGee fans should read it -- naturally -- as it is part of the canon, and with a few portions that are classic MacDonald / McGee, well worthy of your efforts. Newbies to the series, however, should start elsewhere in the series.

Early Terrorism
THE GREEN RIPPER by John D. MacDonald was published in 1979, which is 31 years ago. Yet much of the story seems taken from today's headlines and current terrorism thrillers.
This isn't your standard McGee story, but a preview of much that we have learned about cults and fanaticism during the past 30 years since the story made its debut. Maybe we don't care for a McGee who steps out of character and becomes someone we don't recognize. The ability to chart the future through fiction is one of the skills that made MacDonald a much missed master of the heroic detective genre.
Meyer as a character shines in this story.
If you haven't read THE GREEN RIPPER, read it. If you have read it, then read it again.
Nash Black, author of Indie finalists WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and HAINTS.

An all time great
John D. MacDonald is arguably one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century, and the Travis McGee series certainly proves why.His ability to transport the reader to another time and place with just a few short lines is uncanny, and isn't that what escapism fiction is all about? Green Ripper is one of my personal favorites, and I have purchased many different editions over the years as I always seem to be loaning out copies that never make their way back home to me.MacDonaldis superb, McGee is immortal, and the Green Ripper is one of the best.

McGee as Bond
Not my familiar McGee guy.ButI did like his honest assessment of what a tackiness the dated Busted Flush seemed to be taking on as time was marching on and the lessened fulfillment of the lifestyle he was living as he was growing older.However one distressing aspect of the later MacDonald books is that he was becoming affected by the toehold that "political correctness"(though not the stranglehold of nowadays) was starting to have on the times and unconsciously reflected in all thought, word and deed.The appeal of the MacDonald books was the astonishing lack of political correctness to get a real picture of what was what instead of what should be what according to who lately is demanding it be so.

Just McGee's luck that in the late 70's women were coming into their career minded age and the house husband and Mr. Mom were getting to be the thing.Perhaps McGee could have lived in retirement with his new glamourous, successful, determined wife eventually pulling down some serious K for the rent and groceries and then he could ride off into the sunset as a permanent adolescent that would be fun for the kids he would be staying home taking care of.All except that she gets killed and then the plans change again and after settling that score he gets to return to his former lifestyle after that silly moment of thinking about moving on.

I'm not sure why McDonald didn't make this a separate book with new central character.It doesn't really fit the series and I wouldn't have bought this book had I known how far removed it was from the other books both in geography and appeal of the story.I much prefer the McGee who was in the small stakes salvage business and not trying to save the world. ... Read more

Product Description
A great bestseller starring Travis McGee, a "real" hero. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Among the ruins.
Dress Her in Indigo is one of the best of the Travis McGee series.The plot, while complex, flows smoothly as author John D. MacDonald makes the most of the rich Mexican settings against which the lion's share of the narrative unfolds.
Sent south of the border by a grieving father, desperate to know what led to the tragic death of his daughter in the remote mountains of Oaxaca, McGee and Meyer encounter a sordid world of drugs and exploitation with multiple innocent and not so innocent victims.
Contributing to the considerable appeal of Dress Her in Indigo are the presence of a number of interesting plot twists and the fact that McGee's well known tendency to regale the reader with his unsolicited opinions on multiple topics is kept to a non-annoying minimum.
Highly recommended.

Dress Her in Indigo - A Travis McGee Novel (Audiocassette)
Beautifully narrated by Darren McGavin, a master of the craft: John D. MacDonald's words are delivered in a vividly dramatic manner - the tension is palpable, the images and emotions are sharp and clearly defined . . .

Not the best but still McGee
As another reviewer stated, too much violence. Must have wanted to do a bit of hippie bashing(also a bit too sensational grabbing). Still it is McGee and not a totally bad read. Green Ripper is the best one I've read.

Troubling times gone by
I have read several of the McGee series with my favorites the ones that aren't so erotic or violent.This one seems to have a lot of both in it and I'm not sure why.I guess as time went by for McD it seemed more necessary or maybe it was a reflection of the times that the vlolence and sex became more diviant, cruel and prominant.I much prefer the earlier books when there was more of a campy necessary point to the violence and more of a visual behind closed doors than a full out play by play bedroom scene.This book was awfully heavy on that stuff and took up many pages. It's sort of depressing.But I did find this book very intriguing especially as McD really paints a scene and you feel as though you can not only imagine the sights but hear the background noise of the busy city.I lived this era although on the younger side of when this was written compared to the characters I am glad that era is over.I really did not like the hippie era and was sorry that it was my generation's contribution.I felt scared in my own time of all the drugs and strange opinions running counter to all that had been safe and secure in society.They didn't really have an answer just wanted to "drop out" but made nothing any better by doing so.It's interesting to note this era was followed by the yuppie and preppy eras, lol.

I did feel that there may have been too many characters in this book and that the problems of the "girl" the story centers around were never really made clear.Why was she the way she was and to the extent?Many people have tragedy in life but don't resort to such self destruction.All in all a good book a little out of character for JDM in some of the more graphic areas.

McGee still going strong.
If there is a weak link in the chain of Travis McGee novels, I have yet to find it. MacDonald's "Dress Her In Indigo" is yet another great tale in the long list of books of the McGee cycle, and I have read more than a dozen of them. This one has the same driving pace, magnetic and realistic characters, and acerbic wit as any other in the series. ... Read more