Spring and Summer Collection Group Reads

[Lisa, Moderator]

Hi friends,

Well, it's snuck up on me again! Here we are, about ready to move into our next group of reads - Spring and Summer 2024. I just returned from a trip to Florida, and it got me thinking about what an interesting place it is - how many stories and tales are born within (Florida Man...) and what a great place it has been for many authors to set their crime and mystery novels. Including my all-time favorite, John D. MacDonald, whose book, The Drowner, we read in our very first collection.

So, I pulled together a list of novels in the wheelhouse of crime and mystery that are set in Floriday, to take us into the warmer months. It's an array of funny and dark, different eras, one true crime, and one that is a bit on the outskirts of this genre, but I think it's worth the stretch. Please take a look at the list below to see if the books on this list are fairly easy to access. I have more than 6 for starters, and we can strike any that are hard to come by.

The Deep Blue Goodbye (Travis McGee #1), John D. MacDonald
Skin Tight (Mick Stranahan #1), Carl Hiaasen
Killing Mister Watson, Peter Matthiessen
Rum Punch (Ordell Robbie & Louis Gara #2), Elmore Leonard
Cool Hand Luke, Donn Pearce
Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1), Jeff Lindsay
McNally's Secret (Archy McNally #1), Lawrence Sanders
The Corpse Had a Familiar Face: Covering Miami, America's Hottest Beat, Edna Buchanan

Here's to crime!

[˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜, Moderator]

The Deep Blue Goodbye and Darkly Dreaming Dexter are the 2 my library system doesn't have.

[Lisa, Moderator]

Oh no! That’s a travesty… or should I say a Travisty ;) I think that the Travis McGee series (Deep Blue Goodbye) is in paperback only, so might be less available in libraries.

[Susan_MG]

I live in Florida so investigating Florida stories will be fun. To my knowledge I have not read a single one of these authors, shame on me!

[Icewineanne]

I read most of these (except Dexter, Cool Hand Luke & Killing Mister Watson) decades ago. Enjoyed them at the time 😊

[Susan_MG]

I was having couldn’t locate The Deep Blue Goodbye but finally found it at my library. My copy title is, The Deep Blue Good-By, John D. Macdonald, printed 1992 in USA. This may help others if having a problem finding it.

[Lisa, Moderator]

Susan, thank you! I’ve probably read that book 8 times and I’ve not noticed that it was spelled that way.

[Pam]

All but these two are available on Audible.com:
Rum Punch and The Corpse Had a Familiar Face

[Lisa, Moderator]

Hello, friends,

I propose this order/grouping for our Spring/Summer reads. I doubled up in two months, as it looks like The Deep Blue Good-by might be hard to come by, so there's a second option in June. I grouped the two shortest in March. This way, we don't have to discard any, and people should be able to find at least one per month.

March
Cool Hand Luke, Donn Pearce
Rum Punch (Ordell Robbie & Louis Gara #2), Elmore Leonard

April
McNally's Secret (Archy McNally #1), Lawrence Sanders

May
Killing Mister Watson, Peter Matthiessen

June
Skin Tight (Mick Stranahan #1), Carl Hiaasen
The Deep Blue Goodbye (Travis McGee #1), John D. MacDonald

July
Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1), Jeff Lindsay

August
The Corpse Had a Familiar Face: Covering Miami, America's Hottest Beat,
Edna Buchanan

Florida, here we come!

Lisa