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The Crossroads
More than half a century ago, Papa Drovek opened his small grocery store at the junction of two country roads. As he bought more and more land, the roads became highways, and now the Droveks own a complex of hotels, restaurants, a truck stop, a shopping centre and two gas stations. Papa's eldest son, Charles, is president of the Crossroads Corporation. His son Leo enjoys his token job, and daughter Joan manages the commercial tenants' leases. But when younger son Pete's wife gets restless and lonely, she becomes an easy pawn in a sleazy scheme of robbery and murder. The target? Old Papa Drovek himself.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1959
About the author
John D. MacDonald
590 books1,468 followersJohn D. MacDonald was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, and educated at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Syracuse and Harvard, where he took an MBA in 1939. During WW2, he rose to the rank of Colonel, and while serving in the Army and in the Far East, sent a short story to his wife for sale, successfully. He served in the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations. After the war, he decided to try writing for a year, to see if he could make a living. Over 500 short stories and 70 novels resulted, including 21 Travis McGee novels.
Following complications of an earlier heart bypass operation, MacDonald slipped into a coma on December 10 and died at age 70, on December 28, 1986, in St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911-1989) and a son, Maynard.
In the years since his death MacDonald has been praised by authors as diverse as Stephen King, Spider Robinson, Jimmy Buffett, Kingsley Amis and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Thirty-three years after his passing the Travis McGee novels are still in print.
Following complications of an earlier heart bypass operation, MacDonald slipped into a coma on December 10 and died at age 70, on December 28, 1986, in St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911-1989) and a son, Maynard.
In the years since his death MacDonald has been praised by authors as diverse as Stephen King, Spider Robinson, Jimmy Buffett, Kingsley Amis and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Thirty-three years after his passing the Travis McGee novels are still in print.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
December 31, 2022
Like the Varaski family in MacDonald’s 1953 novel, the Neon Jungle, and like the Delavan family in Contrary Pleasure, the Crossroads features a strong patriarch who established a family business that the whole family, like it or not, is involved in. But, Papa Drovek doesn’t just build a grocery store as the Varaskis did, he figures out where the Highway interchange is going and builds a motel, a restaurant, a gift shop, two competing gas stations, a bowling alley, and storefronts to lease out to tenants, and even land for a car dealership. Everyone at the crossroads works for the Droveks.
The kids, now grown, live in four houses owned by the corporation just as with the Delavan family in Contrary Pleasure. Chip runs the business after the old man’s life fell apart with his wife’s untimely demise. Joan runs the leasing office. Leo dies what he’s told. Pete does as little as he can other than spending money and having a good time. Papa Drovek had an immigrant’s drive to lift himself out of poverty. The next generation as it so often happens doesn’t quite have the same drive. Chip’s wife Clara has turned to alcohol and is mostly lost to the world while Chip channels his energies into the business.
Much of the first half of the book traces their lives and that of their spouses, none of whom were necessarily the best choices. Setting out extensive biographies of his characters is something Macdonald has always excelled at. And, when the second half turns into a crime caper, you can see how the whole thing was a set up for what’s coming, including Papa Drovek’s habit of keeping the family fortune in cash. They say a sucker is born every minute, but with the background, it makes some kind of sense how this sucker is blackmailed and threatened into turning on the family and how she was putty in the hands of a master manipulator. It’s a classic caper, carefully plotted out, and bold by any score.
The kids, now grown, live in four houses owned by the corporation just as with the Delavan family in Contrary Pleasure. Chip runs the business after the old man’s life fell apart with his wife’s untimely demise. Joan runs the leasing office. Leo dies what he’s told. Pete does as little as he can other than spending money and having a good time. Papa Drovek had an immigrant’s drive to lift himself out of poverty. The next generation as it so often happens doesn’t quite have the same drive. Chip’s wife Clara has turned to alcohol and is mostly lost to the world while Chip channels his energies into the business.
Much of the first half of the book traces their lives and that of their spouses, none of whom were necessarily the best choices. Setting out extensive biographies of his characters is something Macdonald has always excelled at. And, when the second half turns into a crime caper, you can see how the whole thing was a set up for what’s coming, including Papa Drovek’s habit of keeping the family fortune in cash. They say a sucker is born every minute, but with the background, it makes some kind of sense how this sucker is blackmailed and threatened into turning on the family and how she was putty in the hands of a master manipulator. It’s a classic caper, carefully plotted out, and bold by any score.
August 6, 2025
Robert Burns said it best:
When that fact becomes widely known, it's only a matter of time before the news draws some bad dudes who want to get their hands on it. The novel starts slowly as all the members of the family, together with their foibles, are introduced. It picks up speed when the heist occurs and when the case is finally solved.
If you are reading this book, don't give up hope. It speeds up considerably halfway through.
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ MenJohn D. MacDonald's The Crossroads is about a family who runs a large corporation along a highway in Florida, including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, a truck stop, a shopping center, and so on. The patriarch of the family, old Papa Drovek, likes to keep several hundred thousand dollars in cash.
Gang aft agley,
When that fact becomes widely known, it's only a matter of time before the news draws some bad dudes who want to get their hands on it. The novel starts slowly as all the members of the family, together with their foibles, are introduced. It picks up speed when the heist occurs and when the case is finally solved.
If you are reading this book, don't give up hope. It speeds up considerably halfway through.
August 29, 2025
A wonderful novel, with a crime attached. As good a place to start as any, if one is looking for a place to start with these Macdonald standalones
March 4, 2016
John D. MacDonald is best known for the Travis McGee series, but he wrote dozens of other novels, and if they are not all classics which will be read centuries hence, they are all at least competently written morality tales which nail certain aspects of mid-20th century American society, mostly having to do with money and the pursuit thereof.
This one focuses on a modest family-run business empire in an unnamed Southern state centered on the intersection of two major highways. The Droveks, three brothers and a sister, run a cluster of gas stations, restaurants, motels and shops built up by their Polish immigrant father, who was far-sighted enough to acquire the land in anticipation of the traffic the highways would bring. The family now has dough aplenty and an array of problems including straying spouses, wayward offspring and disgruntled employees. When one of the latter hatches a scheme to rob the now-retired patriarch of his cash stash at a local bank, things get really nasty.
The book has a satisfactorily hateful villain, but there's no Travis McGee to ride to the rescue; instead of a hero we only have the all-too human siblings and a couple of plodding coppers. That makes this more of a novel of manners than a ripping yarn, but then that's the quiet virtue of all MacDonald's work. He was the Henry James of the postwar American boom.
This one focuses on a modest family-run business empire in an unnamed Southern state centered on the intersection of two major highways. The Droveks, three brothers and a sister, run a cluster of gas stations, restaurants, motels and shops built up by their Polish immigrant father, who was far-sighted enough to acquire the land in anticipation of the traffic the highways would bring. The family now has dough aplenty and an array of problems including straying spouses, wayward offspring and disgruntled employees. When one of the latter hatches a scheme to rob the now-retired patriarch of his cash stash at a local bank, things get really nasty.
The book has a satisfactorily hateful villain, but there's no Travis McGee to ride to the rescue; instead of a hero we only have the all-too human siblings and a couple of plodding coppers. That makes this more of a novel of manners than a ripping yarn, but then that's the quiet virtue of all MacDonald's work. He was the Henry James of the postwar American boom.
September 12, 2022
Great book. Very slow burn throughout but that slow burn is also very, very hot. I really enjoyed this one.
January 6, 2025
Okay, I have read a little too much John D MacDonald in the past couple of months. It's time to switch it up to something else for a while. That probably plays into why I think this is a 3.5 star, but I gave it a 4. I'd probably of given it a 4 if I have not read so many of his books since summer, I am getting burned out on his writing currently.
The book starts out, a family owns a bunch of businesses in town. A diner, hotels, the starlight lounge, and a other properties and business. Just like many small town American towns, there are usually a few people who own half the town. But in this town, at the crossroads, a crime mystery exists.
Now I haven't finished reading it yet, about 30 more pages, but I like how he describes the setting. The people, the characters. There were not many characters, if any that I will remember after putting this book down. Lots of parts I found were hard to follow, or connect what MacDonald was conveying.
Here is what I remember:
The cheap polish owner, the girl who marries chip in Mexico, some guy who used to be the bartender who gets fired for stealing and wants to get back at the Devaks, a woman who owns a cosignment shop who sleeps with Chip?, Chip's drunken wife. A bank robbing scheme and fleeing to Mexico.
I don't know, maybe this book really didn't do anything for me. I just hate to admit that I didn't like one of MacDonald's books. This is my second foray away from the Travis McGee books and this one didn't really do it for me. 3 stars.
The book starts out, a family owns a bunch of businesses in town. A diner, hotels, the starlight lounge, and a other properties and business. Just like many small town American towns, there are usually a few people who own half the town. But in this town, at the crossroads, a crime mystery exists.
Now I haven't finished reading it yet, about 30 more pages, but I like how he describes the setting. The people, the characters. There were not many characters, if any that I will remember after putting this book down. Lots of parts I found were hard to follow, or connect what MacDonald was conveying.
Here is what I remember:
The cheap polish owner, the girl who marries chip in Mexico, some guy who used to be the bartender who gets fired for stealing and wants to get back at the Devaks, a woman who owns a cosignment shop who sleeps with Chip?, Chip's drunken wife. A bank robbing scheme and fleeing to Mexico.
I don't know, maybe this book really didn't do anything for me. I just hate to admit that I didn't like one of MacDonald's books. This is my second foray away from the Travis McGee books and this one didn't really do it for me. 3 stars.
September 30, 2024
Macdonald is one of those writers who are simultaneously very good and very bad. His plotting is usually confident and delivered with a propulsive drive. He handles action well, with a coordinated fluidity. His prose, especially his descriptions of place, are as good as any ever written. That’s his true strength as a writer, his ability to write prose poems evocative of a place and time. He’s bad when dealing with human relationships, which are paint by numbers. His dialogue is often terrible, especially between men and women, embarrassingly sexist and flat. The good usually outweighs the bad though. I especially like the non Travis Magee novels. Condominium is I believe his best novel, a superb description of corruption and no one has handled a hurricane better, describing its implacable ferocity.
November 30, 2023
Other reviews referring to this as a 'slow burn' are correct. Good solid foundation laid and then light it on fire about 2/3 of the way into it. This is the 43rd John D. book I've read and it's a solid 4 for me. The ending is a little bit too neat and tidy but I get the sense he's writing for his audience and hey, he wants to sell some books. No harm there. The writing is really good and a glimpse into his mind five years before the release of the first 3 of the McGee series. This is not a starting point to dive into JDM but a good one to read to feed the need for some MacDonald fiction.
August 14, 2018
Another in my attempt to read through the JDM ouvre this summer. Certainly can see why it was said he is a trove of detail about the times he was writting of. All kinds of little and useful detail. Written at a time when the highwy rest stop was just coming into its own and before the interstates displaced a lot of them. It had a ‘happy ending’ in that things turn out OK for most of the good guys.
Character portrayal was diverse enough to make them seem real and believable.
Character portrayal was diverse enough to make them seem real and believable.
October 9, 2020
MacDonald is a favorite authors. His main characters are in any books. But he was also a storyteller with stand alone books. Crossroads uses all of the twists and turn familiar to his detective tales as he weaves a story around people caught is problems beyond their control.
June 2, 2021
One of my favorite JDM novels.
September 3, 2021
A tale with a good sense of story.
August 24, 2022
Another well done character driven novel by MacDonald. Gritty and suspenseful, a nice read of one of his earlier works.
August 12, 2023
Not his best…
This one has some good stuff, but not as much as you’d expect from this great American author. Still worth reading, especially at the low cost of Murder Room books.
This one has some good stuff, but not as much as you’d expect from this great American author. Still worth reading, especially at the low cost of Murder Room books.
September 14, 2023
A classic JDM 'ensemble' set in a highway truck stop, with lots of bedhopping and a little-too-clever caper.
December 19, 2024
las cosas vienen más o menos como lo esperable, hasta que un tipo se harta de ser un perdedor, le pega varios golpes a una mujer y con eso la convence de que convenza a otro a robar un banco.
October 7, 2007
I found this book disappointing, but that is in a sense my fault, as I hoped a couple of the characters would turn out better than they did. It is a crime story, not a mystery, as
we see the crime from multiple viewpoints including those of the people who commit it. The central crime is stealing over $250,000 from Anton (Papa) Drovak, father of a clan who own
a highway motel/shopping/dining complex (the Crossroads of the title). One of the criminals traps the others into helping him and then betrays them; he is eventually caught by competent policework, but the solution of the crime is not the focus of the story. Much of the story involves the
rather depressing personal relationships of the Drovak clan, which are not directly relevant to the crime.
we see the crime from multiple viewpoints including those of the people who commit it. The central crime is stealing over $250,000 from Anton (Papa) Drovak, father of a clan who own
a highway motel/shopping/dining complex (the Crossroads of the title). One of the criminals traps the others into helping him and then betrays them; he is eventually caught by competent policework, but the solution of the crime is not the focus of the story. Much of the story involves the
rather depressing personal relationships of the Drovak clan, which are not directly relevant to the crime.
December 20, 2015
#66 from macdonald for me...just finished Area of Suspicion
and away we go
21 dec 15 finished.
good story. interesting, the way the "bad guys" maintain a hold on another, male on female in one case...something i don't believe i've ever seen portrayed quite like it is here...and female on male in another case, something i've seen time and again in fiction.
no index...yet...maybe later.
too, macdonald several times narrates a long paragraph or two, things happening in and around the crossroads, introduces a number of characters whose only function seems to be their passing, literally or figuratively. onward. ever onward.
and away we go
21 dec 15 finished.
good story. interesting, the way the "bad guys" maintain a hold on another, male on female in one case...something i don't believe i've ever seen portrayed quite like it is here...and female on male in another case, something i've seen time and again in fiction.
no index...yet...maybe later.
too, macdonald several times narrates a long paragraph or two, things happening in and around the crossroads, introduces a number of characters whose only function seems to be their passing, literally or figuratively. onward. ever onward.
January 18, 2021
Non-Travis McGee crime thriller from the popular author. Written in 1959 some of the depiction of female characters is not all one would wish for, but MacDonald writes with compassion and emotional investment for everyone in the novel, male or female, good or bad, core character or someone who literally passes through in a single paragraph.
Read
August 4, 2008a time-killer. takes the family-business saga of contrary pleasure and plugs in a heist subplot. the heist is pretty lame, involving the theft of the contents of a safety deposit box; a similar scheme was handled better in one of the mcgee books. some decent characterization.
March 29, 2015
She also detected in Sylvia that unavoidable coarseness of outlook, that unmistakable hardening of the texture of the emotions which is the inescapable fate of every woman who has been used by too many men, too casually. (p. 97)
July 17, 2008
Very good. Much happens at the Crossroads.
August 6, 2009
This writer is a great revelation!
March 26, 2011
A great slice-of-life look at an entrepreneurial family, with a brutal crime in the mix. It's MacDonald at his very best, a fine thriller.
November 27, 2015
Great vintage noir.
December 14, 2015
Great story. Nice slice of modern history.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews