The Deep Blue Good-By (Travis McGee, #1) in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Nov 27, 2010 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it really liked it

Shelves: ultimate-reading-list, crime, fiction, contemporary, mystery, novels

The book has blurbs on the back cover praising it from Stephen King, Higgins Clark, Koontz, Grafton, Kellerman, Parker, McBain--and I can understand why.

This is very much in the hard-boiled detective style--first person with a protagonist who deals with shady characters, a mysterious past with hints of personal pain--a femme fatale or two. But told with an unusual lyricism, quotable lines, snappy dialogue, and more than a touch of sensuality.

And the hero-narrator Travis McGee is intriguing and The book has blurbs on the back cover praising it from Stephen King, Higgins Clark, Koontz, Grafton, Kellerman, Parker, McBain--and I can understand why.

This is very much in the hard-boiled detective style--first person with a protagonist who deals with shady characters, a mysterious past with hints of personal pain--a femme fatale or two. But told with an unusual lyricism, quotable lines, snappy dialogue, and more than a touch of sensuality.

And the hero-narrator Travis McGee is intriguing and is embedded in an indelible setting. As the second line of the novel tells us his home "is the Busted Flush, 52-feet barge-type houseboat, Slip F18, Bahia Mar, Lauderdale." His ship is "named after the poker hand" which led to the streak that won it for him. He describes himself as a "boat bum" and a "retriever." He only takes jobs when he's running low on funds--he finds things stolen that can't be legally regained, and splits the proceeds when he returns them.

His latest project has him on the trail of one of the most despicable and memorable villains, Junior Allen, I've ever encountered in fiction--and that was the case before Travis finally catches sight of him about three-quarters through the book, just on the basis of the human wreckage Allen leaves behind in the form of abused women.

Travis himself is a complex mixture of the compassionate and tender with the ruthlessly violent; he calls himself "wary of all earnestness" but despite his cynicism has a streak of protectiveness and more than a hint of vulnerability. He's not politically correct--and some of his takes on women make me go "Huh?" Particularly when Travis seems puzzled why a raped, abused women should be traumatized since her rapist "had become her lover, and had, in time, induced sensuous response in her." Given her own reactions and description of her time with the man, not exactly how I'd see it... Nevertheless, there's something about the character that (unlike Chandler's Marlowe) makes me forgive the chauvinistic streak. (This was written in 1964 and is very much of its time.)

I'm certainly interested in seeing how McGee might develop in the later books of the series. On the other hand, so far just about every woman in this book is a victim or predator--if that's the case in the next book, well, I doubt I'll continue to read in the series. ...more

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