Pale Gray for Guilt (Travis McGee Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

by John D. MacDonald (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
With an introduction by CARL HIAASEN

JOHN D. MacDONALD

"...the great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller."
--STEPHEN KING

"...a master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer."
--MARY HIGGINS CLARK

"...a dominant influence on writers crafting the continuing series character."
--SUE GRAFTON

"...my favorite novelist of all time."
--DEAN KOONTZ

"...the consummate pro, a master storyteller and witty observer."
--JONATHAN KELLERMAN

"...remains one of my idols."
--DONALD WESTLAKE

THE TRAVIS McGEE SERIES

"...one of the great sagas in American fiction."
--ROBERT B. PARKER

"...what a joy that these timeless and treasured novels are available again."
--ED McBAIN

From the Publisher
6 1.5-hour cassettes --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Fawcett (February 21, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449224600
• ISBN-13: 978-0449224601
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #63,242 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 9 in The Travis McGee Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An intricate con game played for revenge., February 26, 2002

By	David J. Gannon (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series was one of the first truly successful "hard boiled detective" genre series to make it big at the mass market level of sales. Written mostly in the 1960's and early 1970's the books could come across as somewhat dated time period pieces except that MacDonald was a suspense writer of the highest order whose gritty, hard edged characters come to life on the page just as readily today as they did back when written.

In point of fact, these really aren't "detective" books at all; they are generally better classified as suspense novels. However, the formula utilized in the books, as well as the realistic, hard hitting writing style they displayed, set the stage for many a fictional detective series to follow.

McGee advertises himself as a "salvage" specialist. He's more a high-end repo man. If you've lost something of extraordinary value that you do not want the police involved in recovering, he'll do it for you-for 50% of the fair market value of the lost valuables. Once he's made a big score he reverts to being a beach Bum in ft. Lauderdale Florida where he lives on the beach in a houseboat won in a card game.

The Travis McGee novels break down basically into two types of story either (A) a "recovery" tale and (B) a revenge tale. The former is the far more common format.

Pale Gray for Guilt is one of the latter. Tush Bannon, one of Travis' old high school buddies, is killed by developers who want his land for a project, Travis swears revenge. Along with his sidekick, Dr. Meyer, a nationally known economist and fellow beach bum, McGee sets in motion a complicated and dangerous scam to entrap and bankrupt the killers.

On the whole I like the recovery novels better than the revenge novels, but this is one of the better of the latter sort. The plan is ingenious, the characters, as usual, well developed and the con victim so loathsome one is fully engaged in the effort to get the SOB.

This is probably not the best book to start out with McGee but, once hooked, this will make a very pleasant read.

A final note: MavDonald wrote many novels other than the McGee series-however, all McGee novels have a color in the title. If you're browsing for McGee, just select any novel with a color in the title, and there Travis will be.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Conning the Con Men, March 22, 2002

By	sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Tush Bannon, friend of Travis, a good and gentle man is killed horrifically by an anvil crushing his face and chest. First declared suicide-admittedly a peculiar way to do the deed--- later changed to murder. Tush owned a small marina whose acreage was a valuable parcel to the big bad business interests, and he was being squeezed out. He left a shocked and bereft wife and three young sons. Gallant Knight Travis rides to the rescue.

"Pale Gray for Guilt" was the 8th novel in the Travis McGee series, and I judge it as medium-good McGee. Published in 1968, it has an excellent contemporary flavor about it that captures the late `60s very well. The major flaw in the novel is the extraordinarily complicated sting set up by Meyer and Travis as revenge for Tush's demise. The big businessmen are set up to take a financial bath, and there are pages and pages devoted to capital gains, covering margins, selling short, etc. This has the effect of confining John Wayne to Wall St., not a happy or even very interesting state of affairs. However, Travis does get to expound, and wow his usual lusty women. (this one named Puss Killian-would such a name even be allowed today?) MacDonald allows Travis his special brand of sentimentality, "-went into the master bedroom and slipped out of the robe and into the giant bed and wished I wasn't too old to cry myself to sleep." No other tough private eye would ever be permited to think that way in print.

By the time this book was written, MacDonald had found his groove, though it was too bad he had to foist his interest in the stock market on Travis who, as we all well know, cares nothing about such things. It never happened again.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars don't mess with travis, January 14, 2003

By	Clem J. Robins (cincinnati, ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

...and whatever you do, read this one before reading "The Lonely Silver Rain". "Pale Gray" is vintage McGee, and a very fascinating exploration of the Big Con. There must be something more entertaining than these books, but I can't imagine what it would be.