Customer Reviews

Area of Suspicion

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One of MacDonalds standards; blending his expertise in business, human nature, and the shadow world of espionage in the cold war years. The characters are well developed, and the mechanics of the basic story line inform yet are not distracting. Classic trademark of the author is the timelessness of the prose; you have to pay attention to realize the book was written over 45 years ago. A good read by any standard.

John D MacDonald was famous for his Travis McGee books but before he started writing those, he was writing novels like Area of Suspicion (1954).

The novel centres around a man whose brother was killed and he returns to the city of the crime to clean up the affairs. Turns out that the death was suspicious and to make matters worse, the brother's wife is our heroes former girlfriend.

I don't think that MacDonald's strength lay in his action, it was the background to the stories and the fleshing out of the characters. MacDonald was a master at describing the scenery, much like James Lee Burke is today.

This novel is a typical MacDonald, it is well-written, interesting and worth reading but it does lack a little bit of substance.