The Deep Blue Good-By (Travis McGee, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 27, 2015 Steve rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-mystery-noir

Ooops. Forgot to write a review. Very good opening for the Travis McGee series. I found myself liking Trav a lot better on the ground floor. Little things that have annoyed in the three or four books that I have read out of sequence, such as McGee's fixation on himself and how he looks, his way with various disposable "bunnies," and his constant philosophizing, seemed softer, not as packaged. He has his flaws, and he seems aware of them. But he's a good guy. Maybe he won me over as he looked out Ooops. Forgot to write a review. Very good opening for the Travis McGee series. I found myself liking Trav a lot better on the ground floor. Little things that have annoyed in the three or four books that I have read out of sequence, such as McGee's fixation on himself and how he looks, his way with various disposable "bunnies," and his constant philosophizing, seemed softer, not as packaged. He has his flaws, and he seems aware of them. But he's a good guy. Maybe he won me over as he looked out an airplane window, musing over the open spaces, and how the "180 million" haven't yet discovered those spaces. Dude. We're over 300 million in my lifetime, and our border is a "Come On In" welcome sign.

OK. Enough of that. As some have pointed out, some of the women often come across as flat characters. But only some. The ones the count, victims of the villain Junior Allen, are very real and very damaged. Allen is a bad man, and a real risk of making this a one book standalone. There are mechanical characters and mechanical scenes that seem to dominate the first third of the book. (It was getting close to Meh.) But once McGee started to investigating the background of some soldiers, and the jewels they brought back from the war, things really kick in. Set in the early 60s Florida beach scene, this book is a fascinating cultural time capsule. Clearly MacDonald was no fan of the younger generation. It's not so much judgmental as it is a perceptive awareness that a cultural shift is occurring, and that concepts such as honor and duty and truthfulness, are just not now valued or even understood by some. And then there is Junior Allen. MacDonald can do Evil with the best of them. And the way he MacDonald rolls him out, by keeping him at periphery of the novel, is masterful. When he finally shows up, the Dread is firmly in place. In the end, this is an achingly sad book, and one that establishes some lasting psychological (and physical) scar tissue on Travis McGee. He made some mistakes, people suffered, and MacDonald, in his authorial wisdom, didn't try to paper those mistakes over. ...more

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Nov 01, 2014 Nanosynergy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, reviewed, series, mysteries-thrillers-espionage, 2014read, fiction-1960s

First book in the John D. MacDonald (deceased) Travis McGee series. This author's name kept cropping up in other books and interviews by writers in this genre. I had read that his writing has been an influence on a number of writers. Stephen King praised MacDonald's writing - particularly his book The End of the Night. And MacDonald's book, The Executioners (now retitled Cape Fear) is the book the movie Cape Fear was based on.

There are 21 books in the Travis McGee series, each with a color them ...more

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Apr 17, 2020 Andy Plonka rated it really liked it

Shelves: src

Travis is an interesting character. I may be forced to read some more of his exploits in this series.

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Apr 02, 2012 Patty rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Not a substantive book, but a quick fun romp.

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Jul 22, 2023 Pam rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2023-books-read, crime-fiction, florida

Have been wanting to reread this series ... but hesitated since I didn't know if it would be relevant so many years later. I was pleasantly surprised and will be reading on. 4.5/B+ ...more

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