Customer Reviews

Travis McGee in a Tan and Sandy Silence

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Over the years I've read hundreds of novels in a variety of genres, but for pure fun and enjoyment it's hard to beat Travis McGee. Some of the books are better than others, but they're nearly all worth a couple of lazy summer days. They are the ultimate summer time, quick-read beach books. At their core, they're good mysteries. But Travis McGee is such a great character, with such a wry outlook on life, that often the mystery seems secondary to McGee's views on whatever topic author John D. McDonald has selected for his soap box. Most of them take place in Florida, (a Florida no one will ever see again given they were written mostly in the 60s and 70s) and all have a color in the title. Don't take them too seriously, just have fun in the sun.

If this was your first Travis McGee book, don't worry. Most of them are much, much better. This book suffers from an overload of the author's rambling commentary on society. After the introduction to jealous husband, you have to slug through 100 pages before you begin to get into typical Travis McGee action. The action is often illogical, and too often Travis - err - Gavin stumbles into old friends at the most unlikely places, bailing him out of trouble. Sorry, this one just didn't click for me. In many ways, it reminded me of the Pale Gray for Guilt story, but there was much less action in this book.

A Tan and Sandy Silence is certainly not the best book John D. MacDonald ever authored. In fact, some may find it way too dark and unsettingly disturbing. Others may object to it for a host of very legitimate reasons. But I daresay that even those readers who find themselves hating this Travis McGee novel still will have to admit it is a substantive, unforgettable read.
The unevenly paced narrative revolves around McGee's efforts to locate Mary Broll, a former lover whom no one seems to have seen in over three months. His search takes him to the tropical island of Grenada where the case takes on an entirely different trajectory. As others have already accurately pointed out, the novel starts off slow, climaxes with some very macabre events and has somewhat of a rushed ending. Along the way, the reader is treated to large helpings of Travis McGee's introspection on a wide range of topics having to do with modern life. After a while, this inner monologue, though at times clever, becomes tiresome and gives the impression of too much self-indulgence on author MacDonald's part.
Other objectionable aspects of this book include its incorporation of an excessive amount of amateur psychology into the plot and the fact that McGee never, ever fails to completely captivate members of the opposite sex.
The positive attributes of this book would have to include MacDonald's very evocative and original brand of prose and the presence of a number of characters who come off as quite believable.
John D. MacDonald was unquestionably a great writer, but A Tan and Sandy Silence is one of his lesser works. He was capable of much better.

Would there be a Carl Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey or Randy Wayne White without John D. MacDonald? Maybe, but it's not too difficult to find a dozen authors who owe a debt to MacDonald, who pioneered the Florida crime novel. Of course, it's one thing to be a pioneer, it's another to be good. Happily, MacDonald is both, as most aptly demonstrated in his Travis McGee series.

A Tan and Sandy Silence is the 13th in the series. It opens with McGee doing what he likes most, enjoying life on his houseboat, the Busted Flush. All is well till he is visited by Harry Broll, the boorish husband of McGee's old friend Mary Dillon. Mary walked out on Harry three months back after catching him with another woman. Broll is convinced McGee is hiding her. Broll is not so much interested in reconciliation as getting Mary to complete some paperwork essential to an investment.

McGee isn't hiding Mary, but he's also a little worried that she never contacted him. A bit of investigating eventually points to her hiding out on the island of Grenada (giving the island a drop of notoriety a decade before Reagan put it on the map with a minor military adventure). He still has enough doubts to go there, where he will find out about a scheme to deprive Broll of a lot of cash. At the heart of it is a typical MacDonald villain, an intelligent sociopath who McGee will underestimate.

This is another fun thriller with the usual share of Travis McGee cynicism about society that sets it apart from other novels of the era. MacDonald was a great storyteller, and this book, even if not the strongest in the set, is still good enough for any mystery fan.

I have been reading these books since the 60's and you cannot get a more enjoyable read. Travis McGee, his friend Meyer and the busted Flush, plus all the antics that go on make for one of the best book series I have ever read. Try one and I will bet you can't put it down!

There are two ecological messages but you need to read for youself. I don't write spoiler reviews. There is also a message about the housing bubble long before it happened.
The story brings in a couple characters far from the same old fla crowd. The story is well written, really violent, & holds interest until the end.

The first intimations of McGee's impending dotage are fascinating. Hearing him acknowledge he may be losing a step, may be a tad less intuitive..... Frankly, it's a little painful. The expected carnage of women continues as in most John D.'s books, but the level of intimacy is surprisingly low. In many ways this is the book that highlights McGee's relationship with Meyer and brings them closer together in their awareness of each other's abilities. Several reviews weren't very strong on this book. I disagree; I think it's one of his better runs with Travis.

This was my fourth or fifth Travis McGee novel, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, MacDonald is still MacDonald and the book is well written and engaging, but I thought overall "Tan and Sandy Silence" was lacking somehow. Maybe it's that this is obviously one of his later books and he was getting bored or tired, or maybe it's just something I didn't notice in his other books, but he seemed to take the easy way out a few times. For instance, when McGee interviews people the conversations don't seem realistic--the people volunteer too much information: If you just met someone and they asked what you knew about your next-door neighbor would you say, "Well, not a lot other than she just opened an account at the Blah-Blah Bank and her loan officer is John Blah"? (How convenient!) Also, there was an element of predictability that may have come from reading his other books; I knew certain characters were going to die, and even is one or two instances HOW they would die. Some of McGee's encounters seemed too coincidental and lucky, with old friends showing up at just the right time and place to save his skin. Finally, the ending appeared rushed and illogical and didn't tie up all the loose ends.

But even with all that, there was enough fun and suspense and McGee-ism to make this a worthwhile read. You could certainly do far worse.

Another Travis McGee book. This one seemed to take forever to get going, to set up the problem, and then as soon as you understood the problem, MacDonald popped you a good one, and the rest of the book was a catch-up from that moment. But that's the simple "mystery" of this McGee novel, and as such is never that special. The attraction of McGee, at least in these later books, are MacDonald's comments within them on the human condition, both specifically with regard to the Quixotish nature of McGee, as well as a general feeling of malaise which centers around money and violence. The McGee novels are as much about philosophy--ethics, particularly--as they are about mystery. Or maybe the point is that the philosophy is the mystery, and as we get to know McGee better, we understand more about his philosophy. I seem to remember the Spenser novels of Robert Parker to be similar to this as well. Are there other mystery series in which the character growth is as important, if not more so, than the particular story of the time?

I do not wish to write a review that says too much, spoiling it for a future reader. I just wanted to say that this one was a disappointment for me. This one was predictable, had Travis doing things that unpleasantly surprised me, and the ending was something cheap and quick. I never felt like I was "there" with him as I have in other books.

As far as being a tired effort from the end of MacDonald's career, "The Lonely Silver Rain" was written in 1985 and was much better in my mind. I would just save "A Tan and Sandy Silence" for later or last. Go through the ones that are just gold first.