I’ve read all of Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr novels as well as his Matt Scudder books. I’ve read almost all the Dortmunder novels (I’m saving the last one for a little bit since, well, since it is the *last *one) and I’m working my way back through the Richard Stark Parker novels. I’ve recently finished reading Robert Parkers Jesse Stone novels. Now I’m looking for a new detective series.
My mom was a big Travis McGee fan, but she’s no longer around for me to seek her opinion. Here’s my question. Is there one title that would best introduce me to the character? Or, should I read them in order?
It’s been a lot of years since I read about Miss Agnes, and the Busted Flush, but I don’t recall the need to read them in a particular order.
Be forewarned some of the descriptions of Florida are dated, with a capitol dated. Still a good read.
I think just about every one explains the origin of the “Busted Flush” and how Travis plans to take his retirement a little bit at a time. I probably read about eight or ten of them before his regular hair’s-breadth escapes from death took their cumulative toll on my willing suspension of disbelief.
I don’t really remember one story from another anymore, but you can’t beat “the Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper” for title.
I second the Tim Dorsey recommendation, and raise Carl Hiaasen.
The Green Ripper was my introduction to McGee, and it’s an odd place to start, but not a bad one. It’s kind of like coming into the Discworld novels with The Hogfather, there’s that sense of a larger background to the work without actually showing it much.
It led me to buy all of them and several of John D.'s other works, but you can start pretty much anywhere and know right away whether it’s going to be to your taste or not.
If you like hard-boiled that have a very gritty underside, try Lawrence Block’s Scudder series. They need to be read in order, the characters develop, he gets new sidekicks and loses friends, etc. I prefer the earlier ones, I think he goes a little wimpy after he joins AA and overcomes his alcoholism. I know that’s an awful thing to say, but I can’t help it. The plots got nastier afterwards, but the character was less interesting.
I read all the Travis McGee and I don’t think they need any particular order. Yes, there are bits where a friend from before gets killed or involved in something, so there can be a little bit of not knowing what happened before, but it’s pretty trivial. They’re fun, I don’t think they’re great. Some are much better than others, but (alas) I can’t remember one from 'tother. I assume there’s some sort of TMcG website that might help you pick one of the better ones to start with…
I’ve read all of the Travis McGee novels (and a lot of other John MacDonald novels and stories) and the writing is vastly superior to that of most other detective fiction (with political and environmental commentary that, if not precisely modern is advanced for its time and still mostly relevant).
If there’s one book that exemplifies the Travis McGee series and stands out as one of the best, I’d select Pale Gray For Guilt. It’s got it all - glaring injustice, elaborate scam, sexy broads and extremely enjoyable revenge.
The first of the series is not the best, and in the last ones I think Travis was starting to get a bit jaded and saddled with overly complex plots. The first one I read (by chance) was The Green Ripper, which is good but not at the top of the heap.
I was surprised to find that my mother, an inveterate mystery reader early on but who hadn’t been into the genre for many years, took up Travis McGee novels late in life and found them very enjoyable. I’ve toyed with the idea of writing my own sequel (Travis battles a formidable old enemy and a bad case of skin cancer acquired through years of accumulating a deep-water tan, with his friend Meyer enlisting the aid of the Gnomes of Zurich) but some things are better left alone.
One of my favorite experiences (ever!) was listening to Darren McGavin reading the books. He used a slightly breathy tone, coming across as world-weary but intensely invoved. It was the most… well, synergistic… matching of reader to character I’ve heard. McGavin WAS McGee.
You HAVE to hear him. Unfortunately, I’ve only seen these on cassette, and only (sacrilege!) abridged – although they cut to another narrator telling you what happened: “While Meyer researched the missing coins, Travis [spent 10 pages] wandering the docks] where he ran into The Bad Guy…”
I’ve listened to hundreds of mysteries on my iPod, and been wowed by the work of Dick Hill, Frank Muller, Barbara Rosenblatt etc… but rarely does that “synergism” happen so well.
Second-best “synergism”: George Guidell as Jim Qwilleran in **The Cat Who… **books. Which I’d also recommend, Iif you’re listening to the books. Or the “A is for Alphabet” series by Sue Grafton, read by Judy Kaye.
I loved the McGee novels, but I made the mistake of reading them in a short period one after another and three flaws are starkly revealed when this is done.
The plots and plot development are awfully similar in many of the books.
Meyer becomes tiresome. No matter what problem McGee encounters it turns out that Meyer knows a big shot from the old days who can help out.
Coincidence plays a major role in most of the novels. For example, McGee is looking for someone and will go to a town he has never before visited and when he gets in a taxi and starts talking to the cabbie, it will turn out the cabbie remembers driving the missing man somewhere. Later in the day McGee will drop into a random bar for a drink and discover that the bartender also knows the guy. And it goes on and on…
I enjoy most of the mystery authors who have MacDonald (or similar sounding) surnames. I think you will enjoy most of the Travis McGee stories, but as has been said they will get a hair repetative at some point, so I suggest the other two Macdonalds also. Ross MacDonald is even more similar to Block (at least in the Mathew Scudder mysteries) than John D. And for a similar detective to Bernie R. take a look at the Fletch series (also by yet another spelling of Mcdonald).
I too love all of Block’s creations. All uniquely different, but all entertaining.
True of most mystery authors. A friend asked what I had in my back pocket, and when I admitted that I often had a Dick Francis book back there, he replied:
“Ohhh, is that the one where the protagonist is an Everyman character? An ordinary guy who, through a Quirk Of Fate™, is suddenly thrust into a mystery?”
I picked up on where he was going with this: “Who’s not necessarily a jockey, but whatever his job is, it turns out to be horse-racing-related?”
“And, even though he’s way out of his depth, he somehow finds reserves of energy and resilience …”
“… and heretofore unknown skills and unplumbed reservoirs of determination!”
“And Clean Living wins out in the end, and Justice happens!”
Forget the naysayers above. I still own all the Magees and have reread them several times each. Do they have similar plots? Yep? Similar responses from Magee? Yep. But do the characters grow and change? Yes, they do, and Meyer considerably. There’s a certain amount of similarity in any series character’s stories — that’s why people buy them, to see familiar tropes rung on different circumstances. One of the attractions of the Magee books are that MacDonald gives insight into the way many different things work, whether it’s a high-end stamp dealer or a corrupt cartel of road construction outfits or a South American drug smuggler. Great fun, good insight, and a powerfully talented author.
My dad got me started reading Travis McGee 25 or so years ago. At the same time I was also reading Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe, and Murphy/Sapir’s Destroyer series with Remo Williams. I kinda lost interest though after Sapir dropped out for a while. I think that Nero Wolfe was the only series out of the three that I’ve re-read a couple times. They never get old for me.
But most of my Travis McGees and Remo Williamses are stashed away in boxes in case I ever feel like a little retro action.