Customer Reviews

Nightmare in Pink (Travis McGee, #2)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the second in the Travis McGee series, though it doesn't place itself chronologically -- ie, it doesn't refer to the events of the first book, and it does refer to other adventures, as if it's just another in McGee's long life. However, the next book in the series, "A Purple Place for Dying," does take place right after this one, so there is an advantage to reading them in order.

In "Nightmare" Travis goes to New York. If you can't deal with that, then this one's not for you, but otherwise it's a knockout. The suspense is great, the philosophizing feels amazingly current, and MacDonald clearly knows New York. The book is great mix of retro setting and modern-feeling plotting and characterization. If anything, it's smoother than "The Deep Blue Good-By," since it doesn't need to introduce anything.

The Travis McGee series is terrific. I'm still reading my way through it, but I haven't found any reason not to go in order. "Nightmare in Pink" is great.

Nightmare in Pink is my second Travis McGee (and the second in the series), and it is even more riveting than the first.

McGee gets a call from an old war buddy who is in a VA hospital. Mike Gibson is blind and disabled, and when he asks McGee to check something out for him, McGee acquiesces-mostly out of guilt. Mike's beautiful and younger sister, Nina, is engaged to be married when her fiancé is mysteriously killed in a mugging. While cleaning out his things, Nina discovered $10,000 (we're talking 1960's here) and thinks he was in on something shady. The police haven't been able to solve the mugging and they haven't been told about the money, so McGee agrees to snoop around. Unfortunately, the case is in New York City and this Florida boat-bum is literally a fish out of water.

Mike and Nina quickly join forces (in more ways than one) and uncover a complicated financial scam to rob the fiancé's former boss of millions. Of course, the closer they get to solving the crime, the more they expose themselves to danger. At one point, McGee is even drugged, kidnapped, and held against his will in a mental hospital, where he is subjected to experimental hallucinogens. How he escapes will have you on the edge of your seat.

McGee again continues with many profound observations. One that I especially liked is "A good listener is far more rare than an adequate lover."

Nightmare in Pink had only two drawbacks that I could see. As with The Deep Blue Good-By, this book is a bit light at 143 pages. Also, while the plot was riveting, it was also unbelievable in spots. But John D. MacDonald has a new fan, and I have A Purple Place for Dying up next.

Unlike the first Travis McGee novel, The Deep Blue Goodbye, which is set in Fort Lauderdale, McGee's stomping grounds and the place he likes to call home, Nightmare in Pink takes him to the Big Apple, where he is a sailor away from the sea and not altogether comfortable. His mission is to help the sister of a friend who finds herself with a dead boyfriend and ten thousand dollars she thinks are ill gotten gains.

With some shrewd detective work McGee determines that the boyfriend stumbled on to the scheme of a lawyer who is bilking his rich client of millions of dollars. McGee makes connections with the client's family, who commission him to find out what is happening and protect the family and estate. Easier said than done.

McGee thinks he has the case well in hand only to find he has been careless. His carelessness almost kills him. From the moment McGee finds himself trapped in his Nightmare in Pink to the exciting conclusion, the action is fast and furious with many innocent dead bodies along the way.

As is typical of a McGee mystery, loose ends are not always neatly secured. Sometimes bad things happen to the good guys. McGee is nothing is not a realist and he accepts what he must and has the scars to show for it. He is a survivor who will live to fight another day.

All the Travis McGee novels are quick reads and page turners. Once a reader has been initiated into the McGee philosophy and lifestyle with The Deep Blue Goodbye and Nightmare in Pink, the rest of the series is sure to be an attractive alternative to watching tv for diversion and entertainment.

If there is a weak link in the chain of Travis McGee novels, I have yet to find it. MacDonald's "Nightmare in Pink" 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. What makes it personally enjoyable is that it is set in my hometown of New York City! He seems at home here, in spite of what he says. I wish he'd hung around for a few more novels

This is the official 'second' in John D. MacDonald's series about Travis McGee, the slightly tarnished knight from Lauderdale, whose chosen steed is a 52 foot houseboat. Second also in setting the general pattern of McGee books - a friend convinces McGee to take the case of another friend, usually a beautiful woman, and McGee grudgingly comes to the rescue - sometimes out of a sense of honor, and sometimes just for the money.

This time the 'asker' is Mike Gibson, a war buddy of McGee's who now lives as a permanent resident of the veteran's hospital. The 'fixee' is Nina, Mike's sister - distraught when her boyfriend (Howard Plummer) dies in a mugging. Nina finds a large bundle of money in a closet and becomes convinced that Howard was up to no good. Now Mike wants to help her out of her depression, even if she is unwilling. McGee, as usual, to the rescue.

As you might expect, Plummer's death was not what it seemed, and McGee finds himself enmeshed in a spectacular fraud that is bilking a company of millions while sending its victims to a mental ward. Which is where McGee winds up as well, in a nightmarish twist that plays like 'On Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.' Dropped into a hole from which there is no way to escape, McGee must fight for survival against a medical staff determined to steal his mind from him.

Perhaps the beauty of this story, other than MacDonald's powerful writing, is that it turns the 'tough-guy detective' genre on it's ear for a bit as McGee struggles with induced insanity, falls in love, and barely survives by the skin of his teeth. This is a tough-guy with plenty of weaknesses and soft spots. McGee, who serves as narrator, doesn't try to explain away his moments, good and bad, but reports them with a straightforward touch that makes him and easy favorite.

While this may not be the best of the series, for some reason it rings true and is one of my favorites. It predicts many of the themes and tricks that will go on to be imitated time and again. But never with quite the élan than MacDonlad has.

This 2nd of the Travis McGee series takes place in New York City where Travis fits about as well as Crocodile Dundee. John D. has not quite found his way with Travis yet, and it shows.

Travis is enjoined to look out for a buddys little sister in the big bad city. Little sister is a babe (surprise!) and has her share of troubles. Her fiancé has just been murdered, and she has found a stash of $10,000 that she fears he scammed. Nina is distressingly a will you respect me in the morning type of young lady that rings no truer now than it did in the early 60s, and Travis famous philosophizing is really put to the test, however enchanted he is.

Nightmare in Pink is worth the price of admission just for the middle third of the book where Travis is captured in a private mental hospital and loaded with psychedelic drugs. His hallucinatory terrors are brilliantly and horrifyingly described, and the after-effects linger through the entire book.

The plot is a convoluted financial scam that MacDonald loves, but doesnt suit Travis too well (Meyer is not yet on the scene). Also cold, urban settings are not kind to a knight errant beach bum. Grade C-

John D. MacDonald's salvage consultant goes to New York City to help out the kid sister of an old friend. She's a babe, of course, and McGee helps her unravel a complicated financial scam while curing what ails her with some of his own, patented expert hay rolling.

Along the way, he makes a major error and winds up trapped in a crooked mental hospital straight out of "Shock Corridor" but with nurses delivering doses of refried LSD and brain melting sedatives.

This is a creepy installment. An early rant by MacDonald, about how one day a minor altercation on the streets of New York will lead to a riot that will wipe out the city, sets the tone; things get really nasty when Trav slips and falls into the clutches of the scheming Dr. Varn -- I don't think MacDonald was much of a recreational drug user but his descriptions of the wrong kind of hallucinations do a good of depicting a bad trip.

Before McGee escapes, some pretty terrible things happen to him; he also has to resort to some seriously dirty tricks and, by the end, he's a basket case. This being only the second outing by McGee, it's odd to think that MacDonald would bang up his tough guy hero so badly, so early. Which makes "Nightmare in Pink" a great, chilling read but probably not the best place for a new reader to begin.

Trav is in New York to track down another scam. This time somebody is keeping a millionaire business man on ice in a mental home in order to consolidate their hold on his empire. Although it starts off slower than usual, the climax with McGee on hallucinogens trapped in the hospital is a vivid account of a waking nightmare as he struggles to maintain his sanity,escape the evil doctor, save the girl and foil the villains. Great summer reading!

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.

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.