John D. MacDonald. As a young teenager I absorbed quite a few books on my parents shelves: among these were books by Jack Higgins, Ed McBain, Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley, Len Deighton, Dick Francis, John D. MacDonald, Wilbur Smith, and others.
I vaguely remember the MacDonald books: the main character lived on a houseboat in Florida and undertook some assignments to get money back from people who’d been foolish enough to get defrauded in various ways. Along the way, many women were bedded and then shunted off, so that in the next book there would be new characters, new women. It was sort of like Ian Fleming’s James Bond, but without the international spy stuff.
Random House recently released all of the the Travis McGee books in matching trade paperback editions. By chance, I came across a copy in a used bookstore of one of these books in early 2024, and the memories flooded back. Since then, I’ve slowly been trying to acquire the books in this series. In actual physical bookstores they appear to have all but vanished, even in a couple of specialty mystery bookstores that I visit now and then. I’ve found a couple in used bookstores, but to complete the set, alas, I’ve had to look online.
Of the 21 books in the Travis McGee series, at the conclusion of the year 2025 I now have 11. That means the clock is ticking to acquire the last ten books in the series, before a different marketing exec decides to change up the design or the rest go out of print and become impossible to find (or someone decides to edit out certain parts to make the books less “problematical” in newer editions, like what’s happened to Agatha Christie books and others).
Each of the Travis McGee books include a color in the title. This might have been the first time a series of books featuring the same character that did this; an inspiration to many later series, no doubt. MacDonald weaves the title into each story. Sometimes this is obvious, sometimes only alluded to, such as in Nightmare in Pink and The Scarlet Ruse.
According to Wikipedia, “Following his 1945 discharge from the army, MacDonald spent four months writing short stories, generating some 800,000 words and losing 20 pounds (9.1 kg) while typing 14 hours a day, seven days a week.” He eventually sold 500 (!) short stories to various fiction magazines. In 1964 he published the first Travis McGee novel, The Deep Blue Good-by. This became his gold mine, and he wrote 21 novels in the series. He died in 1986 at the age of seventy, before he could finish the 22nd in the series. A rumor posits that “for years that MacDonald was planning a 22nd book to be titled A Black Border for McGee” where McGee would die. I doubt that would have happened, but who knows. I’m happy that the estate has refused offers from other writers to continue the series.
McGee is an interesting character. His history changes slowly over time, from a Korean war veteran to a Vietnam veteran. He’s a cynic and opportunist, a determined womanizer, yet with certain morals about who he beds and why. He moves from Florida to New York, to Arizona, to Hawaii, to Mexico, yet he’s always anchored to his boat. Various friends of his and women that he loves almost all seem to die in spectacular or sad ways. He gets shot, drugged, and beaten up, yet always seems to bounce back. According to MacDonald (orMcGee), sex and boat trips tend to cure a lot of hangups.
I’m currently trying to re-read (and read) all the books. So far I’ve have not been able to do so in perfect order, which isn’t a a requirement for the casual reader. The Random House editions contain introductions from other writers, such as Lee Child (whose name appears on almost all my books so far). This is a testament to MacDonald’s influence. There’s a sense that some of his attitudes towards women won’t work in today’s environment, but the tension and skill in terms of plotting and location is undeniable. The books are undeniably a product of their times, a product of MacDonald’s worldview. Still, what an interesting time it was, and how long ago it seems now, even though the books were written between 1964 and 1986, years in which I grew up and experienced, although not in the same sphere as Travis McGee or John D. MacDonald. I’ve got 10 more to find, as I’m almost through reading my current stack of titles.
