Customer Reviews

The deep blue good-by

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Home is the `Busted Flush,' 52-foot barge-type houseboat, Slip F-18, Bahia Mar, Lauderdale."

Is there any address in American literature so readily identified? Probably not. It's the home of Travis McGee, "knight in tarnished armor," and central character of the over-20 volumed series by John D. MacDonald.

With quite a following of readers around the world (my first McGee was while vacationing in Torremolinas years ago and needing something to read while soaking up the Spanish sunshine and absorbing the sangria deliciosa!), MacDonald's hero, along with his sometimes bizarre assortment of friends, enemies, and hangers-on, goes from one adventure to another. Each of the McGee books contains a color in the title, easily recognizable. And it's not purple prose either! MacDonald, a best-selling novelist for years, has more than just a storyline to carry his books. Certainly, McGee is his principal concern. He's "retired" most of the time--he only goes back to work when he sees he's running out of money. He'd rather stay aboard his houseboat and entertain his friends that work. He claims he's taking his retirement one day at a time!

"The Deep Blue Good-by" is the first in this series, published in 1964. It is amazing, too, that in reading it here in the year 2000, the book still stands as relevant now as it was then. McGee, as usual, finds himself befriending and then helping out Cathy Kerr, who has come to him in desperation. Her misfortune has been to meet up with Junior Allen, "a smiling, freckle-face stranger" with depravity on his mind and a more odious person you don't want to meet. There is also something about missing inheritance. McGee is unable to resist and from the moment he accepts the challenge, the reader is glued to the pages.

MacDonald's style is terse (some would say Hemingwayesque--one of MacDonald's favorite writes, incidentally) and moves rapidly, a pace easy to keep up with but one that if you blink, you might miss something. But who wants to blink when MacDonald is on a McGee crusade! The author's knack for piercing characterization, his ability to capture the landscape and atmosphere of "Lauderdamndale," and his penchant for a good story make this first episode one not to be missed. True, the McGee books ordinarily don't have to be read in sequence, it's still a good idea. Over the course of the series, naturally, an affinity toward complete understanding of Travis, and his good friend Meyer, keeps readers truly involved.

"The Deep Blue Good-by" is a "hello" to a great series!

Billyjhobbs@tyler.net

After reading all of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee books, I would say that The Deep Blue Good-By is the best way to meet the greatest character of the detective-story genre. Imagine the best qualities of Hammett's Continental Detective Agency Operative and Sam Spade, Chandler's Philip Marlowe, and Cussler's Dirk Pitt combined with a unique personality that is impossible not to love. MacDonald's characterization is unmatched in almost all authors I have read, and his story-telling skills are amazing. But most impressive are his social commentaries voiced by McGee in interior monologue; nearly all the nigh-cynical observations voiced by Mcgee were true in MacDonald's time as well as ours. If you love a good story, regardless of whether or not you like mysteries, you will love this book. One word of caution, though-- once you read this, you will be hopelessly addicted to the world of Travis Mcgee.

This is the first of the Travis McGee books and quickly establishes why they have been so popular for so long. From the opening page the atmosphere is totally relaxed as we are welcomed aboard Travis' houseboat, The Busted Flush. Travis works only when he has to, which means, just before he runs out of money. The rest of the time he spends lazing around the Florida waters, living the good life.

He is coaxed into action by the bad-luck story of a friend of a friend and quickly and professionally gets to work coming to her rescue. On the way, he acts as a knight in shining armour to a second woman who desperately needs help, going above and beyond the call of duty, firmly entrenching him as a helluva nice guy.

This book was written almost 30 years ago, yet it is fresh enough to make one believe that it is set in today's world. It's an excellent introduction to the world of Travis McGee and has certainly whetted my appetite for more. Travis McGee is the ultimate laid back hero who carries his flaws as humbly as his talents.

I read the entire series as they came out starting 40 years ago, and am now listening to the unabridged audiobooks with delectible slowness.

If you are lucky enough to be reading reviews to contemplate starting this series, you have a wonderful journey ahead of you. I think Travis McGee, along with Nero Wolfe, are the two best (albiet very different) characters ever in the mystery/crime genre.

Since it is now 43 years since this book was published, you will be astounded at the amazing contemporary nature of the books.

This is one of the more complicated plots with as many characters as any story in the series, perhaps as befits the first one written. It is a great story, but as MacDonald hits his stride around the third or fouth book in the series, the plots simplify, the number of characters goes down, and the depth of each charcter intensifies.

You can read other stuff about the plot, characters, et. al. The purpose of this review is to tell you that when you finally get to the 21st book in the series, The Lonely Silver Rain, you'll be writing a review like this and be looking forward to your second visit to The Deep Blue Good-by as you start the adventure all over again.

This is the first in the popular, long-running Travis McGee series of thrillers, first published in 1964. The next three in the series are Nightmare in Pink, A Purple Place for Dying, and The Quick Red Fox. There are 21 in total.

McGee is not exactly a private detective; he is a retriever of lost things. A friend describes his work thus: "if X has something valuable and Y comes along and takes it away from him, and there is absolutely no way in the world X can ever get it back, then you come along and make a deal with X to get it back, and keep half. Then you just... live on that until it starts to run out."

My interest in the crime and detective genres has mostly been in the earlier stuff, especially the 19th century, so this came as quite a shock: intense, brutal, sexual. The villain isn't trying to take over the world or unleash nuclear catastrophe; he is mostly an abuser of women. But it is the second greatest achievement of this novel that by the end this comparatively "small-time" bad guy has taken on nearly mythic proportions, becoming almost demonic in his evil vitality and seeming indestructibility. The memory of him will linger like a bad taste long after most world-destroying movie villains have faded. You will fear meeting someone like him in real life, and believe you could.

The greatest achievement of the novel is of course its hero and narrator, Travis McGee. He's one of those highly intelligent, perceptive, tough, compassionate, opinionated, independent heroes with an eye for the ladies, who have an eye for him right back. What sets him apart from the herd is his great narrative voice, at least equal to that other great first person detective Philip Marlowe. In many novels description seems a necessary evil, but the descriptive passages here are a delight, and would be well worth reading in themselves even if there wasn't an intense, exciting, sweaty-palmed thriller attached to them. Like all the best writing, his is concise, precise, and able to find just the right detail to establish a character or place.

Sit back and relax. Start at page 1 and take the ride of your life with Travis McGee. This first book in the series is an excellent starting point for first-timers because all the ingredients for the McGee stories are here-a lady in distress, a stolen "treasure", and a brutal unrelenting villain. MacDonald had a talent for involving you so deeply that you find yourself going back to re-read passages that hit you hard the first time. Junior Allen is a perfect villain--A force of nature motivated by greed with an ever-deepening bent towards sexual brutality. This book contains storytelling so vivid that you feel the punches with McGee. This book, along with Donald Hamilton's Death of a Citizen, is the perfect example of the 50s-60s Fawcett Originals.

I'm an avid reader of mysteries and I thought I had a basic knowledge of all the prolific writers (even though I haven't sampled all their works). But when a friend recommended John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series, it wasn't even on my radar screen. I started this series with the first book, The Deep Blue Good-By, and was completely blown away!

Travis McGee is a combination of a Mickey Spillane and a Dashiell Hammett character. McGee is a beach bum who lives on the houseboat, cruises chicks, enjoys the good life, and does as little work as possible. When the money runs out, he acts as a modern day Robin Hood-helping those who have been swindled recover their losses (for a percentage, or course). But what makes McGee so much fun is that he is a lovable rake with an astute sense of the world and the people around him, which sometimes borders on brilliance. Having attending the University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse and Harvard, MacDonald is no slouch, either. Some of McGee's musings include:

"A woman who does not guard and treasure herself cannot be of much value to anyone else. They become a pretty little convenience, like a guest towel."

and

"A man with a credit card is in hock to his own image of himself."

The plot is fast paced, and will keep you turning pages as quickly as possible. And while McGee seems to solve at least part of the mystery, the ending isn't entirely happy. The Deep Blue Good-By is definitely a book with an edge. While written in the early 1960's, this story could have been written today except for the absence of cell phones and computers.

The only reason I gave The Deep Blue Good-By four stars instead of five is that at 144 pages, it is just a little light. But I am happy to have discovered this entertaining series, and have already started the second book, Nightmare in Pink.

This is the first of 21 books John Dann MacDonald wrote featuring Travis McGee, a sometime detective who comes out of retirement when he needs money to pay the bills for his modest houseboat in Florida. When Travis is on a case the houseboat is often rigged to detect unwanted visitors. Seldom is the unflappable McGee caught off guard on his boat or anywhere else, for that matter.

I've read all twenty-one books in the McGee series, at first not in order, but later systematically until I reached the last mystery, The Lonely Silver Rain. These books are a guilty pleasure. Sure, you could be doing something better with your time, but Travis McGee beats 80% of everything on TV. If you pick up one of these novels before bedtime, you might easily find yourself sleep deprived.

Travis McGee is a knight in tarnished armor. I think we like him better for the fact that, like us, he has lots of faults; but he is true to his friends and when he gives his word to a client, he is not afraid to put himself in harms way to resolve the case. Like Sherlock Holmes, he has a bit of the bloodhound in him and relentlessly follows the trail of clues and leads until the action packed end of the story.

Murder and mahem are an integral part of every Travis McGee mystery, but also thoughtful conversation with his economist friend Meyer and with McGee's own best friend, himself. He is a loner who is happy with his own company. He lives comfortably in the present until necessity or his own good will prompt him to act.

The magic of all the Travis McGee books is that we think we know him, we like him, and we are delighted to be taken along on his travels when he is on a case, but we are just as satisfied when we evesdrop on his quiet conversations with Meyer and learn something of the McGee philosophy. Disagreeing with McGee, not often enough probably, is part of the fun. I was disappointed when I put down the last mystery, but I know that, like the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, I'll come back for a second reading.

The second reading was as enjoyable as the first. In The Deep Blue Goodbye McGee almost meets his match with the always smiling, treacherous, and completely evil Junior Allen, who has stolen a bag full of precious gems from Cathy Kerr, whom McGee befriends and decides to help recover her property. Bad things happen to the good people McGee is trying to protect and his best efforts fall short of his goals and expectations. In a McGee mystery, things do not always work out for the best, just as in life. Twists and turns and unexpected surprises are in store for the reader who picks up this first of the Travis McGee series of books.

I've recently started re-reading this series - this time in order. While it's true you don't have to read the books in order, it does make sense to do so. Like all other mystery series, the author will refer to things (good/bad/whatever) that happened previously. Unlike others, John D. MacDonald will refer to them in passing & not rehash the whole story. If you want continuity, start here.

It's especially important to read this one, and the next - Nightmare in Pink - first. What happens in this book is referred to many times - as far ahead as Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper. Possibly further, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

This is a great book! John MacDonald is an amazing author who creates very vivid and easygoing characters. Travis McGee is my hero. MacDonald puts a unique spin on life and makes a very accurate portrayal of Florida in his story. A must read for any mystery lover. It's very easy reading and besides, Jimmy Buffett read the whole series so it must be good!