He calls himself a beach bum. Travis McGee lives on a houseboat in Fort Lauderdale and only works when he’s running out of money. Then he becomes a “salvage consultant,” helping someone who’s been robbed blind. He’ll steal back the money or valuables—for half the take. But this time is different. Travis’ commanding officer in the Korean War, badly wounded and confined to a hospital, asks him to help his little sister, whose fiancé has been murdered. He’s indebted to the man and sets out to New York City to look into the case as a favor. Little does he know that his life will become entangled with the young woman. Meanwhile, he’ll stumble into the middle of one of the most audacious and clever financial frauds the city has ever seen. And he will almost lose his life in the process.
Palatial mansions and multimillionaires are a novel experience
Most of the time, the cases that come to Travis involve low-life thieves and would-be master criminals on the fringes of society. But his mission to help Nina Gibson learn who murdered her fiancé will send him into some of the most lavish mansions in New York. And he will come face-to-face with people who command armies of servants and make decisions affecting hundreds of lives. It’s unfamiliar territory. But Travis is unfazed by powerful people. And his bravado will prove to be a mixed blessing, gaining him access to the hidden corners where ugliness reigns but nearly killing him when he learns too much.
This is not your grandmother’s Brand-X fraud
At the heart of Nightmare in Pink is a massive scheme to defraud a multimillionaire. But you won’t begin to guess how it’s done until the perpetrator-in-chief enlightens Travis, thinking him neutered for all time. It’s complex beyond imagining but brilliant. Perhaps something like this happened in MacDonald’s time, but I doubt it. The whole thing seems to have arisen from John D. MacDonald’s fertile brain. I wouldn’t recommend trying it. But I do wholeheartedly recommend reading about it. You won’t be disappointed.
MacDonald’s beguiling prose
John D, MacDonald was one of a kind. His prose sings like none other’s. Here, for example, is Travis McGee ruminating on getting involved with his best friend’s little sister, Nina Gibson . . .
“This emotional obligation did not fit me. I felt awkward in the uncomfortable role. I wished to be purely McGee, that pale-eyed, wire-haired girl-finder, that big shambling brown boat-bum who walks beaches, slays small fierce fish, busts minor icons, argues, smiles and disbelieves, that knuckly scar-tissued reject from a structured society, who waits until the money gets low, and then goes out and takes it from the taker, keeps half, and gives the rest back to the innocent.”
And here he is, lamenting the sprawling, crime-ridden mess that New York City has become . . .
“The old city was being filled with these tall tasteless rectangles, bright boxes which diminished the people who had to live and work in them. People kennels. Disposable cubicles for dispensable people. As I showered I wondered if perhaps these hideous new tax-shelter buildings, with people sealed into the sour roar of manufactured air, didn’t play some significant part in creating New York’s ever-increasing flavor of surly and savage bitterness—a mocking wise-guy stink of discontent. Ugliness creates more ugliness.”
It’s hard to imagine that anyone else would write like this.
About the author
The 21 novels of the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald (1916-86) were only about one-quarter of the books he wrote in a storied career that spanned nearly the whole of the second half of the 20th century. His output included not just crime thrillers but science fiction, nonfiction, and a huge number of short stories. He sold an estimated 70 million books.
MacDonald was born in Pennsylvania and died in Wisconsin. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University (BA), and Harvard University (MBA). He served as a staff officer in the US Army in World War II, leaving as a lieutenant colonel. MacDonald married and fathered one son.
For related reading
I’ve also reviewed The Deep Blue Good-By – Travis McGee #1 of 21 (Suspense authors look to this classic thriller series as a model).
You’ll find other great reading at:
- 10 top novels about private detectives
- 20 excellent standalone mysteries and thrillers
- Top 20 suspenseful detective novels
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