The Deep Blue Good-By (Travis McGee Mysteries)

Product Information

If you asked Trav what his occupation was, he'd hand you a business card that reads "Salvage Consultant". In reality, he could be described loosely as a private investigator, with most of his business coming by word of mouth. His clients are usually people who have been deprived of something important and/or valuable (typically by unscrupulous or illegal means) and have no way to regain it lawfully. Trav's usual fee is half the value of the item (if recovered) with McGee risking expenses, and those who object to such a seemingly high fee are reminded that "Half is a lot better than nothing at all."The pattern for the series is set in The Deep Blue Good-by when a woman by the name of Cathy Kerr asks Trav for help recovering a dubiously-earned fortune that her dead father left hidden. Trav takes the case, and it leads to a smarmy but persuasive lowlife named Junior Allen. And in his effort to learn more about Allen, Trav meets Allen's latest victim, Lois Atkinson. Allen had wormed his way into controlling Lois’ life and money, and she was reduced to a nearly catatonic state by the time Trav came along. In addition to being a brute and a treasure-hunting rival for Trav, Lois reveals that Allen is also a serial rapist. Trav proceeds with his plan to recover Cathy’s fortune and ensure that Junior Allen meets justice. McGee’s elaborate plan includes trips to Texas and New York, and he doesn’t make very much money in the end, despite being somewhat successful in his salvage attempt. In true noir fashion, the author is not afraid of confronting McGee or readers with harsh realities. MacDonald’s terse, telegraphic prose is equally adept at conveying action sequences and Travis McGee’s offbeat, independent philosophical musings. And the musings are what make the McGee novels unique among hardboiled fiction, though they may prove off-putting to some readers. I’m not sure I go along with you there. So much of Marlowe depends on Marlowe’s narrative voice — the plotting is notoriously often Rube Goldberg — and yet good Marlowe screen adaptations have been made. Still, he parks his nihilistic world-view long enough to trap Junior with the help of a newly-confident Lois Atkinson and some help from a counterfeit jeweller.

Heavily influenced by Hemingway, MacDonald began his career as a pulp writer. In creating his memorable Travis McGee series the author - using a mastery of words and economy - fashioned colorful and evil villains, a flawed hero Travis McGee, numerous salvage exploits, plenty of gorgeous girlfriends, well crafted plots, as well as beautiful philosophical musings that describe the overall changes to Florida spanning the years 1964 - 1985. In this he appears to have created the fundamental root of a lot that has followed in this genre.When MacDonald created the character, he was to be called Dallas McGee, after the city, but after the Kennedy assassination he decided that name had too many negative connotations. He was searching for a first name for McGee when a friend suggested that he look at the names of the many Air Force bases in California. MacDonald's attention was caught by Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, and so he named his character Travis. [4] The Deep Blue Good-by is the first of 21 novels in the Travis McGee series by American author John D. MacDonald. [2] This book was published in 1964. Clues in the text place the action in 1962. So it was a time of transition--not yet the "'60s," which began in 1967, but the sexual revolution has begun and the times they are achangin'. It was a pretty confusing time to come of age. I was there. In his first adventure Trav helps Cathy, from Candle Key, in the Keys of course. Cathy, he helps Cathy. It's meant to be, it's in the stars, Trav.

The Deep Blue Good-by introduces readers to McGee, his place of residence, the Busted Flush (a houseboat he won in a poker game), and its mooring place, slip F-18 at the Bahia Mar Marina in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In the early chapters we learn that McGee is a bachelor, a man who can be friends with ladies as well as have a passion for them, and a man of principle (although they are somewhat at the mercy of his uncertain emotional condition and his circumstances at the moment; in McGee's own words, "Some of them I'll bend way, way, over, but not break."). You bet! The power of Trav has me under his spell, drawing me in. It's like music. It's his voice, telling you his story in a particular way. I could become addicted! I am dreary of the whole dreary deadening structured mess we have built into such a glittering top-heavy structure that there is nothing left to see but the glitter, and the brute routines of maintaining it. Lois Atkinson is at the end of her rope until Trav steps in and becomes even more determined to stop Junior Allen. MacDonald's books ought to be part of a writer's education on how to write. He's incredible with his poetic descriptions, how beautifully he paints a scene and creates a person, using words without going into cliché. And no, his words are unique enough that I don't recall reading them in anyone else's work. So no excuses that he was able to create the clichés later writers have to avoid!Travis McGee is a private hardboiled troubleshooter… He is tough but compassionate… He boasts nitty-gritty wisdom… He scorns the system… Chook reappears now and then in future McGee novels, and very surprisingly in the last ever McGree "The Lonely Silver Rain". But McGee sees his real job as being a sort of hardboiled ‘knight-errant’, usually aiding a nubile post-WWII damsel-in-distress. The pattern for the series is set in The Deep Blue Good-by when Cathy asks Travis McGee for help recovering a dubiously-earned fortune that her dead father left hidden. McGee takes the case, and it leads to a smarmy but persuasive lowlife named Junior Allen. And in his effort to learn more about Allen, McGee meets his latest victim, Lois Atkinson. Junior Allen had wormed his way into controlling Lois’ life and money, and she was reduced to a nearly catatonic state by the time McGee came along. In addition to being a brute and a treasure-hunting rival for Travis, Lois reveals that Allen is also a serial rapist. Travis proceeds with his plan to recover Cathy’s fortune and ensure that Junior Allen meets justice. McGee is an engaging character and I’m looking forward to reading the next two stories in this anthology, and also the forthcoming film version starring Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike (although this has been delayed as Bale has injured his knee). James Mangold will direct the film, and the script is being written by Dennis Lehane and Scott Frank. From a beloved master of crime fiction, The Deep Blue Good-by is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat.