This 1957 novel from John D. MacDonald has the grandmaster hitting his prime. He had been writing novels since 1950 and would not start his Travis McGee series until 1964. Hugh McReedy is one of JDM's competent protagonists. A construction worker advancing in the field, he is reminded of an immat...
1 jun 15#43 from macdonald for me, travis mcgee #12...though i think this is the 9th or 10th mcgee story for me. trying to read them sequentially but i just finished Pale Gray For Guilt and the next in line is not available yet. 'til then, this.onward & upward.3 jun 15finished. good story. mcgee ...
21 jan 15, wednesday morning, 10:58 a.m. e.s.t.#28 from macdonald for me. just finished a great story, first one i read from this writer, A Single Shot, check him out.(1962) a key to the suite, john d macdonaldstory begins:the gentle hand of a girl pressed him awake, and he looked up along a tail...
I agree with most who think this is not up to JDM's usual high standards, though there is a lot to like in it, of course. The whole thing feels contrived (the differing points of view), and the central relationship, between junior college professor Lee Bronson and the ditzy, shallow Lucille, stra...
so this is maybe #6 or 7 from macdonald for me...paperback i have, fifth printing, march 1964 says the copyright is 1951. description says 1948. an early macdonald, regardless, hey?story begins:when the woman left his side he turned, in his sleep, toward the window.the late october sun slanted a...
8 jun 15#46 from macdonald for me, the 15th travis mcgee story. just finished One Fearful Yellow Eye, an excellent 5+ star story. i've noted in the last few stories that the "bad" guy isn't on the main stage much...but in the last...yes and no.15 jun 15...i'm back. now i am reading this one, havi...
#39 from macdonald for me...and this will be the 6th (i think) travis mcgee story...missed #4 was it? which is coming in the mail i believe. just finished A Deadly Shade of Gold which might be the best of the lot so far.25 may 15i start to read.strange, how the travis mcgee stories seem to get t...
With the fifth in the Travis McGee series, MacDonald really hits his stride. There was something really electric—sexy, scary, violent—in the air in 1965, the year this one was published; in fact there's a new book out about the year. Think of the early Emma Peel episodes of The Avengers, or the f...
Having never read anything previously by renowned author John D. MacDonald, I discovered his 1962 paperback "The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything" after reading about it in David Pringle's excellent overview volume "Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels." Writing about the novel in that vol...
3 jul 15#54 from macdonald for me and the last travis mcgee story, #21if you have only read macdonald's travis mcgee stories you have missed out on some great stories, a pile of them, they all rock & roll, they are as real as it gets and they are a joy to read. only the last 3-4 mcgee stories hav...
On the front of the book it informs me that this is a Travis McGee novel, A Nightmare In Pink. After 150 pages I finally realized that this was not the follow-up to The Deep Blue Goodbye I was hoping for. This a James Bond rip off. Double O'Dong in 50 Shades of Ballsack.Double O'Dong is irresi...
I'm a huge fan of suspense fiction, absolutely loving the surprising and unexpected twists and turns. I've read (and re-read) a lot in this genre over the years, but John D MacDonald (JDM) had escaped me. I'm not sure why. I had heard of the movie "Cape Fear", which was adapted from JDM's book T...
Full disclosure: this is one of my all-time favorite novels, one of my all-time favorite thrillers, and my favorite Travis McGee novel. Maybe I’m biased, but I don’t think so.You could begin the series with this book, and many people have. However, doing that gave some readers the wrong impressio...
Holy shit snacks. I can't believe I read the whole thing.First off, let's get one thing straight. Reading this was a dare. All parties involved, including myself, knew I would most likely despise this book and find it a vile-coated offering with a noxious nougat center. I started to shelve th...
I enjoyed this book. It lit up my imagination, lots of visuals came throughout the story. MacDonald had a writing style that I thoroughly enjoyed, many choice sentences that could have have stood completely alone, which in this day of age, where internet "memes" are all the rage, is a wonderful p...
Travis McGee had a wonderful, spur of the moment, love with Helena after her husband tragically died. He was much younger than her and she wasn't looking for a new husband, just a good time. Which Travis was able to give her on his boat while taking her traveling. When she left after that summ...
28 jun 15#53 from macdonald for me and #20 travis mcgee...one left after this one but the man wrote something like 70 novels so all is well and all manner of things are well. onward, ever onward. just finished Free Fall in Crimson if it matters...does one read influence the next. oh you betcha.3 ...
2o jun 15#49 from macdonald for me and the 16th travis mcgee story. if you have not read any of the other stories from macdonald, if all you've read is the travis mcgee stories, you're missing out. you owe it to yourself to read at least some of them. they're good stories. macdonald nails it all ...
8 jun 15yikes...lost my take, my notes, my index! no, still have that...on paper scratches, but had most of it generated here, had an audio listed of this story, too, for some reason. i blame atari. and smartphones, haunted by atari. plg. supply the missing vowel.this is an excellent story, 5+ st...
22 dec 14, monday evening#12 from macdonald for me.(1967) the last one leftstory begins:at the small bon voyage party at the delmar bay yacht clud kip and selma had given howard and junie prowt a little brass plaque to affix to one of the bulkheads of the hojun. it read, "oh lord, thy sea is so v...
27 jun 15#52 from macdonald for me, the 19th travis mcgeee story. check out macdonald's other stories a rich lode of story well worth the read. before this i read The Green Ripper, a so-so story28 jun 15finished. good story. i liked it. in this one, mcgee is asked to discover what happened to ron...
18 may 15, #36 from macdonald for me, the 3rd travis mcgee story i will read and this is travis mcgee #3 just finished Nightmare in Pink...and been some time since i read the first, The Deep Blue Good-Bye20 may 15, finishedgood story. takes place out west state not named, esmerelda county, and t...
26 may 15...#40 from macdonald for me, the 7th travis mcgee story. just finished Bright Orange For The Shroud. onward & upward28 may 15finished. good story...not great, good. why? maybe because there are a number of deaths, some related to the larger scheme of wrong, some not related, and in the...
This book is flawed, but it hits some incredible peaks on the way to its somewhat disappointing conclusion. There are scenes that don't work, but there are also incredible insights into human nature and deep characterizations and observations. This was an ambitious novel for JDM and it has a lot ...
25 jan 15, sunday morning, 6:07 a.m. e.s.t.#30 from macdonald for me. just finished The Only Girl in the Game a good story set in las vegas(1954) all these condemned, john d macdonaldthere is a quote from decimus junius juvenalis, satire number twelve:they reckon death a blessing,yet make of life...
Narrative couldn't hold my interest for very long, so I ended up putting it down after 50 pages. Utterly predictable characters, situations, plots, and lurid prose style. Unlike The Deep Blue Good-by, in which MacDonald used a self-conscious "hardboiled" style in order to reflect back upon the ge...
Two novellas John D. MacDonald. Border Town Girl was originally published in Dime Detective Magazine as "Five Star Fugitive". Both are unmistakably from the pen of JDM but are completely different. Border Town Girl is a story of conflict and characters that reminds me of his Mexican Border thrill...
29 dec 14, monday morning, 6:41 a.m. e.s.t.#17 from macdonald for me. just finished The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything a story i enjoyed more than the 3-stars i provided and well worth a read. this must be one of the earliest stories.(1951) murder for the bridestory begins:it was one of those ...
Yes, I am reading a rambling memoir about some guy's cats. My favorite part is the story about the time his cat ate a whole rabbit and bloated up like a balloon and slept for a week!Someday I'll write a book like this.
17 jan 15, saturday afternoon, 4:41 p.m. e.s.t.#26 from macdonald for me. just finished A Man of Affairs check it out a good read(1958) clemmie, john d macdonaldstory begins:he liked to drink sparingly after dinner, but now he realized he had let chet burney force three of his extra-potent highba...
One of the lesser of JDM's offerings."FOR FIFTEEN YEARS THEY HAD BEEN MARRIED. Fletcher Wyant and Jane. They had built a perfect marriage - -two wonderful kids, a warm beautiful home, their own private never-ending love affair. Fletcher thought he knew Jane completely. No dark secrets. No hidden ...
I can remember the opening shot of Barbara Eden (playing Barbara Messenger) floating in the middle of the vast ocean (in a row boat?) of the made for TV movie Condominium (1980). So when I saw a copy of John D. MacDonald's novel of the same name, I had to read it.Condominium was a departure for M...
26 dec 14, friday afternoon, 12:56 p.m. e.s.t.this is #14 from macdonald for me...128 page paperback with the title you kill me..."previously published as you live once"copyright 1956 john d macdonald...original title: you live oncethis edition, january, 1961, you kill mestory opens:i have never ...
Besides his well-known "Travis McGee" series, John D. MacDonald wrote a large number of 'stand-alone' mysteries. This is one of the first of his I read.I like the way JDM writes. It takes a bit of getting used too---and of course, some of his books are better than others. They are getting ...
#42 from macdonald for me...just finished The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper...don't know if that is #8...this one is #9 and I've read 8 or 9 travis mcgee stories now. i have not found any spoiler type thingies from one story to another...although there is some merit to the idea of reading these...
saturday morning, 20 dec 14#11 from macdonald for me. just finished The Drowner, a story that has some flaws, still an okay story...and the flaws make it special. people make mistakes...they don't always get it right...or something is off. and now i'm on this one. slam the big door (1960) story b...
new year's day...1 jan 15, thursday afternoon 4:39 p.m. e.s.t.#21 from macdonald for me...just finished The Deceivers, a great story, check it out. (1961) where is janice gantry?, john d macdonaldthis one begins:sometimes the hot night wind brings bad dreams. it came streaming and steaming out of...