Quote:
Originally Posted by SensualPoet
The tales of Travis McGee -- a fiercely independent loner who earns his keep by his own rules as a salvage operator off the Florida coast -- span more than twenty years. Although commissioned by Fawcett Books as a formula series (each book title features a color), already veteran author John D MacDonald created a memorable, serious, tough guy character who easily gets under the skin ... in a nice way. You have to start somewhere and this is it - the 1964 published The Deep Blue Good-by.
Travis McGee lives at Fort Lauderdale on a house boat aptly named the Busted Flush -- he won it in a card game. McGee works only when he has to, taking salvage commissions before his money runs out. Not yet in need of cash, as a favour he talks to a friend of a friend, a dancer named Cathy Kerr, who has become involved with a very nasty man, Junior Allen -- a thief, an abuser, a taker, a bully. Just the whiff of Allen is enough to engage McGee's sense of injustice but when the trail quickly leads to a half-dead Lois, McGee is hooked, determined to track down Allen and repair the damage he's done.
I wasn't expecting to be so captivated: like Chandler's Philip Marlowe, Travis McGee is much more than tough guy and the tales easily transcend mere hard-boiled crime. This book is close to perfection: grittily likeable, plausible and plausibly flawed main characters (except for a very black villain); pacing through several changes of scene as the threads of the mystery are followed through; a prose style that is un-self-conscious, voiced in a rich baritone that's comforting ... one feels McGee's arms gently craddling you throughout.
First rate; highly recommended. Not, alas, available at this time as an e-book.
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nice, i agree. i've read all 21 of them, twice. here's a list:
* The Deep Blue Good-by (1964)
* Nightmare in Pink (1964)
* A Purple Place for Dying (1964)
* The Quick Red Fox (1964)
* A Deadly Shade of Gold (1965)
* Bright Orange for the Shroud (1965)
* Darker than Amber (1966)
* One Fearful Yellow Eye (1966)
* Pale Gray for Guilt (1968)
* The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper (1968)
* Dress Her in Indigo (1969)
* The Long Lavender Look (1970)
* A Tan and Sandy Silence (1971)
* The Scarlet Ruse (1972)
* The Turquoise Lament (1973)
* The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1974)
* The Empty Copper Sea (1978)
* The Green Ripper (1979)
* Free Fall in Crimson (1981)
* Cinnamon Skin (1982)
* The Lonely Silver Rain (1984)