Audiobook Review: A Purple Place for Dying by John D. MacDonald

A Purple Place for Dying
Author: John D. MacDonald
Narrator: Robert Petkoff
Series: Travis McGee (Book 3)
Publication: Audible Studios (March 13, 2012)
Length: 6 hours and 14 minutes

Description: Travis McGee’s taking his retirement in installments while he’s still young enough to enjoy it. But sooner or later, his money runs out and he has to work. This time McGee’s lured out West to a strangely secretive meeting with a woman in trouble, in a place whose beauty hides some ugly, dangerous secrets.

Mona is in love with a poor, young college professor and married to a wealthy man whom she is convinced is stealing from her trust fund. So she does what any self-respecting girl would do: She hires someone to steal her money back so she can run away with the love of her life.

Travis isn’t sure he wants to help out until he sees Mona getting shot and killed out on the cliffs near her cabin. Now he’s a lead suspect in a plot to help her escape, and to clear his name, he needs to get to the bottom of things. But the murders just keep mounting, and for Travis, even working with Mona’s husband doesn’t seem to help matters. Will he be able to uncover the complex plot in time to save his own skin?

My Thoughts: When his money gets into the reserve, Travis McGee sets aside his retirement and goes looking for a lucrative job. This time he has headed out West to work for a woman named Mona who is convinced that her husband has stolen the money she inherited from her father. She needs money because she wants to run away with a college professor.

McGee is ready to say no since he doesn't like Mona and doesn't know what he can do that lawyers and accountants aren't already doing. But things change when Mona is shot and killed while standing next to Travis. By the time Travis walks down to the nearest phone and calls the sheriff a couple of hours have gone by. When he returns to the isolated cabin there is no body and no indication that anything happened. The police are skeptical especially since a couple looking like Mona and her college professor got on a plane for points South just the day before.

Travis knows what he saw and begins his own investigation. The college professor's sister is on his side since she can't believe that her brother would have run off without talking to her and he certainly wouldn't have run off without his insulin and supplies. 

Travis also convinces Mona's husband that things are not like they look at first glance. The husband has his own assortment of possible enemies and also has the Feds looking into his business practices which are decidedly shifty. Travis agrees to work for the husband because he likes him more than he liked Mona.

This was an engaging historical mystery filled with attitudes that sort of made me cringe while listening to the audiobook. Husbands using physical punishment on their wives wouldn't be acceptable these days and were likely illegal then too. Travis's attitudes to women would not make a desirable partner these days for most women. Not that he is looking for any relationship deeper than a sidewalk puddle after a summer rain. He's proud to be a beach bum and take his retirement in chunks while he is young enough to enjoy it. But when problems need an unconventional, maybe even illegal, solution, no one is better than Travis McGee.

I added this one on March 29, 2021. I think it was an Audible Plus title. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: Nightmare in Pink by John D. MacDonald

Nightmare in Pink
Author: John D. MacDonald
Narrator: Robert Petkoff
Series: Travis McGee (Book 2)
Publication: Audible Studios (March 13, 2012)
Length: 5 hours and 39 minutes

Description: From a beloved master of crime fiction, Nightmare in Pink is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat.

Travis McGee’s permanent address is the Busted Flush, Slip F-18, Bahia Mar, Lauderdale, and there isn’t a hell of a lot that compels him to leave it. Except maybe a call from an old army buddy who needs a favor. If it wasn’t for him, McGee might not be alive. For that kind of friend, Travis McGee will travel almost anywhere, even New York City. Especially when there’s a damsel in distress.

“As a young writer, all I ever wanted was to touch readers as powerfully as John D. MacDonald touched me.”—Dean Koontz

The damsel in question is his old friend’s kid sister, whose fiancé has just been murdered in what the authorities claim was a standard Manhattan mugging. But Nina knows better. Her soon-to-be husband had been digging around, finding scum and scandal at his real estate investment firm. And this scum will go to any lengths to make sure their secrets don’t get out.

Travis is determined to get to the bottom of things, but just as he’s closing in on the truth, he finds himself drugged and taken captive. If he’s being locked up in a mental institution with a steady stream of drugs siphoned into his body, how can Travis keep his promise to his old friend? More important, how can he get himself out alive?

My Thoughts: Mike Gibson was an Army buddy of Travia McGee's when they both served in Korea. Mike was blinded and otherwise injured and is in a VA hospital. He gives McGee a call and asks for a favor: his sister's fiancé was mugged and died, and he wants Travis to help her out. 

Travis will do anything for his old friend and heads off to New York City. Travis is taking his retirement a little at a time. He takes a job when he needs some money and then retires until he needs funds again. He's a sort of knight errant in tarnished armor. He'll help someone who needs him in exchange for half of what he recovers. 

Nina Gibson has some questions about her fiancé. After his death, she finds $10 thousand in a shoe box and doesn't know how he came by the money. As Travis begins to look he discovers a complex financial scheme going on. Some con artists are taking a wealthy guy for millions which means that Travis might have gotten in over his head. 

Travis stumbles into trouble and finds himself in a hospital where illegal experiments are going on. He's been dosed with an LSD-like potion and learns that the wealthy guy had had the same thing done to him before he had a lobotomy. 

He manages to get out, leaving a trail of bodies behind him, and gains a bit paycheck from the wealthy guy's wife. He also gets the girl - at least temporarily. 

Travis McGee is a character I first met in 1972 when I was riding Greyhound busses between graduate school and my hometown. He was an interesting sort of hero. He has a strong moral center, but it isn't conventional morality. His attitude toward women reads more than a little chauvinistic at a 50 year remove. But still, if a person is in really bad trouble, Travis McGee would still be my choice of a hero to call upon. 

I enjoyed this walk down memory lane. The narration was well done.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: The Deep Blue Good-by by John D. MacDonald

The Deep Blue Good-by
Author: John D. MacDonald
Series: Travis McGee (Book 1)
Narrator: Robert Petkoff
Publication: Audible Studios (March 13, 2012)
Length: 6 hours

Description: 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.

Travis McGee is a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He’s also a knight-errant who’s wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out, and his rule is simple: He’ll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half.

“John D. MacDonald was the great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller.”—Stephen King

McGee isn’t particularly strapped for cash, but how can anyone say no to Cathy, a sweet backwoods girl who’s been tortured repeatedly by her manipulative ex-boyfriend Junior Allen? What Travis isn’t anticipating is just how many women Junior has torn apart and left in his wake. Enter Junior’s latest victim, Lois Atkinson.

Frail and broken, Lois can barely get out of bed when Travis finds her, let alone keep herself alive. But Travis turns into Mother McGee, giving Lois new life as he looks for the ruthless man who steals women’s spirits and livelihoods. But he can’t guess how violent his quest is soon to become. He’ll learn the hard way that there must be casualties in this game of cat and mouse

My Thoughts: THE DEEP BLUE GOOD-BY is the first Travis McGee mystery. It was written in 1964 and introduces Travis McGee who is a knight errant with really rusty armor. He lives on a houseboat he won in a poker game and is taking his retirement when he has the money. He'll help those in trouble when the law won't -- but he works for half of what he recovers.

Cathy Kerr comes to him with an interesting case. She knows her daddy brought something back from the War and hid it but then was sentenced to life in prison for killing an officer. After her daddy dies, Junior Allen comes around and moves in on her and her sister. He wants what her daddy hid. Along the way he wants to rape and brutalize Cathy and other women too.

Travis takes the job and begins to backtrack Cathy's daddy to figure out what he had hidden. He also discovers another of Allen's victims in divorcee Lois Atkinson who is near to death from Junior's attentions. Travis becomes Nurse McGee to take care of her and try to build back what Junior Allen destroyed.

This was a fascinating series beginning. McGee is a great character who has dropped out of the society of his day and has a keen eye for people. He doesn't trust much. Not politics, not credit cards, not the daily grind that occupies so many. He is tough on the bad guys and tender with the helpless victims and a proponent of tough love. He's trustworthy but not someone to build long-term plans with. He keeps his distance and tries to remain emotionally detached. 

I first read this book somewhere around 1972. My paperback copy has a $.60 cover price but a notation inside the cover says I paid $.40 for it. I bought the Audible version when it was on sale for $5.00 the other day. Listening to this one brought back the time when I read it and the time when it was written. It hasn't lost anything in excitement and action and intriguing characters. 

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.