Customer Reviews

Bright Orange for Shroud

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I now believe that Travis McGee, like all great detectives, exists outside of time. How can a novel written over 30 years ago speak to us so directly without reference to its era?

In BRIGHT ORANGE FOR THE SHROUD, knight errant McGee rights wrongs committed by an impromptu consortium which exists to defraud and destroy its victim utterly. McGee flushes out the book's ultra-villain, Boo Waxwell, and does what he can to rectify the wrongs done to an innocent man. All, I might add, without reference to the Cold War, Carnaby Street, Hippies, or anything else which would have identified the book as a product of the Sizties.

MacDonald's villains are the seven deadly sins, with an occasional personification of evil from the swamps like rapist-murderer-extortionist Waxwell thrown in. A wonderful read which I highly recommend.

All the ingredients of a great McGee tale are present here, including the essential South Florida locale. It's hard to believe these stories were penned almost thirty years ago, and the rare "tells" that crop up are pretty funny. The typical is a wardrobe description replete with dacron sailcloth slacks, white denim jackets with wooden buttons, and the omnipresent pale yellow ascot. Of course, money matters are a giveaway. Like a wealthy murder victims toney "$30,000 home".

That said, few authors nail a modern detective yarn quite like John D. Read this book, or any other in the series, and you'll see what I mean.

I picked up "Bright Orange for the Shroud" based on a recommendation from Amazon. But I didn't need such encouragement: I am a big fan of John D. MacDonald and, especially, the Travis McGee series. My favorite MacDonald book is "A Flash of Green", but I've always come back to the McGee series. This one, full of that shifty Florida culture, its tennis court bombshell, and gallons of flowing booze, is archetypal MacDonald. And, as I say in each review, I sure hope more people out there are reading MacDonald's works.

Classic.Timeless.Perfect. This book probably captures the feel of Lauderdale and the seamy side of South Florida better than any other. The country club scenes are wonderful as Trav moves effortlessly from tennis jock to covering murder tracks. "Ol' Boo" Waxwell is evil incarnate, but nowadays he would be a popular guy on the Jerry Springer show.

Bright Orange for the Shroud, the fifth in his Travis McGee series, John D. MacDonald has really hits his stride. I have been reading this series in order, and each book gets better and better.

As always, McGee jumps in to help a friend who was swindled of his $250,000 inheritance (we're talking 1960's here). Arthur Wilkinson was scammed in a land deal by a crooked lawyer, a slick salesman, a brutal hoodlum, and even his own wife. McGee, Wilkinson and Chookie (Wilkinson's former girlfriend) combine forces to discover how the scam operated and to try and recover some of the money. Early on, we learn the identity of the bad guys, so there's no mystery here. But how McGee infiltrates this group to investigate their modus operandi is MacDonald at his best. When the situation suddenly goes out of control, you can't turn the pages fast enough.

Bright Orange for the Shroud doesn't follow the formulae of his previous books in that McGee doesn't develop a love interest. Also, there is less mayhem and murder, and more of the good guys are still alive at the end. In some of MacDonald's books, McGee travels the country, but McGee is best when keeping to his native Florida. His base of operation for this book is his own houseboat, The Busted Flush.

I can't believe this series was never turned into a television series or a movie. With the resurgence of interest in MacDonald, perhaps it's not too late.

This is one of the best in the McGee series, it's got a little of everything: high crime, sordid negotiations, action in the city and in the swamps, and all of it is wrapped around a really good, solid caper.

McGee helps Arthur Wilkinson get back the inheritance he lost in a real estate scam. In the process, he has a cool encounter with the head of a con ring, a washed-up lawyer, various tricky women and a swamp rat named Waxwell.

Though Waxwell and the book's climax owe no small debt to MacDonald's own "Cape Fear," this is still top-notch McGee and not a bad place for the uninitiated to start.

Travis McGee promised himself a trouble-free summer. But when the local nice guy turned up after having been nearly destroyed by a professional black widow, McGee reluctantly agrees to help. A tennis-playing brunette with a slightly shifty husband turns out to be more bait than anyone expected, and McGee goes hunting for True Evil in the form of this book's villain.

One of MacDonald's best McGee books, filled with the Florida detail and cynicism that are the series' trademarks. What makes it special is the almost unwilling belief in good that the main character nurtures in the face of so much human failing. One of those stories where nearly everything clicks.

I have read the entire McGee series and am now working my way through the unabridged audiobooks which were published by books on tape.

This is perhaps the simplest plot of the entire series. The fewest characters. No visit from Meyer, the economist.

Just three good guys, some medium bad guys, and one really memorable, but believable, super bad guy.

John MacDonald demonstrates that a uncomplicated and realistic plot with great and convincing characterizations is a much better read than a complicated, hard to believe plot. When you finish, you will muse that this could have been true, and suspect the author heard the germ of this story over a few beers in South Florida 50 years ago.

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.

"Bright Orange for the Shroud" is the first novel by John D. MacDonald I've read. It certainly will not be the last. This is a thoroughly enjoyable story. Written almost forty years ago, MacDonald was ahead of his time concerning the observations he made about booming Florida and America. If you are looking for a good thriller that is probably better than 90% of what's being written today, don't hesitate to pick this one up. I'll be getting the first novel in the Travis McGee series shortly. BTW, this book has one of the hottest sex scenes I've ever read, written before the days of sexually explicit language. Believe it.