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Travis McGee #7
Darker Than Amber
Travis McGee never shies away from damsels in distress. But this Eurasian beauty was different. When Travis and Meyer rescued her from the water, she had a block of cement wired to her feet, and she wasn't so much grateful as ready to snare them in a murder racket to end all murders.... "McGee has become part of our national fabric." SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
749 people are currently reading
1329 people want to read
About the author
John D. MacDonald
567 books1,370 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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September 30, 2025
“All her symptoms of near-death had been physical, but emotionally she seemed to have an acceptance of it so placid as to be a little eerie. As if she knew the world as a place where sooner or later they heaved you off a bridge.”
Once John D. MacDonald wrote A Deadly Shade of Gold, the Travis McGee series began to take on the kind of resonance that separated it from others of its ilk. Over the course of twenty-one books, Travis McGee became one of the most enduring and beloved characters in mystery fiction. Praise for this tremendous saga comes from nearly every great mystery writer in MacDonald’s chosen genre, and many great writers outside his genre. These include many female mystery writers, who give their praise without reservation, and with nary a whisper about misogyny; because it simply does not exist.
Praise from these female writers, and a public still devouring this series decades after it first hit bookshelves proves, in my opinion, just how misrepresented this series and its protagonist, Travis McGee, has become in some quarters. If you know a little about life, you’ll often feel like you know some of the people in MacDonald’s influential series — both the males, and especially the females — as well as the protagonist himself. And that is certainly the case with this very dark entry in the series, part of a three-book section in the series (A Deadly Shade of Gold, Bright Orange For the Shroud, Darker Than Amber) of such high quality, that only later in the series, when the resonance was even deeper, did we get three that surpassed them (Free Fall in Crimson, Cinnamon Skin and, as it turned out, the final entry, The Lonely Silver Rain). In between there were good to great ones, always enjoyable, but never a three-book stretch like the former, or the latter.
Darker Than Amber begins with a great opening line, and lives up to it. Amber is a tawdry and unpleasant look at women pretty on the outside, but so rotten at their core, they are capable of disconnecting themselves from the crimes they commit. Meyer emerges in Amber as the important character he will be for the remainder of this legendary series. It is in fact Meyer who talks about the complete disconnect from empathy these outwardly attractive women share:
“That pair disposed of fourteen objects, not fourteen brothers. Their unease comes not from pity, not from any concern for the dead objects, but merely from their awareness that society frowns upon such actions.”
And earlier, we get this exchange between Vangie and Meyer:
“You are the nicest, Meyer. So nice you'd have to blow the whole bit, and it would mess up my girlfriends and keep the law looking for me forever. If I get my hands on that money, I want to stay dead, thank you.” — Vangie
“Knowing that your...friends are still murdering for profit?” - Meyer
“People are dying all over the place for all kinds of reasons, Meyer, and if I'm out of this one, it couldn't bother me less.” — Vangie
But that’s getting ahead of things. Before McGee gets tangled up in the affairs of Vangie/Tami Western, he reminisces about Vidge, a broken bird who had come to stay with McGee for a bit. She had married the wrong man — as women are so often prone to do — and, as McGee notes, he nearly destroyed her soul:
“Finally he had gone to work on her sexual capacities. Were the sexes reversed, you could call it emasculation. People like Charlie work toward total and perpetual domination. They feed on the mate. And Vidge didn't even realize that running away from him had been a form of self-preservation, a way of trying to hang fast to the last crumbs of identity and pride.”
McGee is patient, waiting for her to stop blaming herself for everything, and finally explode. Yes, as other readers have noted — and made far too much of — there does comes a point when he sleeps with her. McGee gives back to Vidge her self-confidence, allowing a trampled flower to spring back to life, toward the sunshine. The situation and the solution resonate with the ring of truth. There is nothing predatory here by McGee at all. MacDonald the writer simply understood the psychological underpinnings of the situation he’d created, and had his character do likewise; and I might add, at a personal cost to himself, reflected by this comment late in the narrative:
“Vidge had soured me a little, and Vangie had dropped off the bridge and accelerated the process, and then I had really put the lid on it by trapping that dumb empty punchboard into a life sentence.”
McGee's rescuing of Vangie from the water after someone has tried to kill her has no fairy-tale ending whatsoever, because Vangie, as McGee eventually discovers, is a hooker into something very nasty; so nasty that she obviously expected to come to a bad end one day:
“All her symptoms of near-death had been physical, but emotionally she seemed to have an acceptance of it so placid as to be a little eerie. As if she knew the world as a place where sooner or later they heaved you off a bridge.”
There is money involved, a lot of it, and a string of homicides to go with it. All Vangie wants is the money, and to disappear. McGee, despite his experience, develops a grudging sort of admiration for Vangie; not so much because there is more to the Hawaiian beauty than other girls like her, but because once, there might have been:
“In the silence I tried to sort her out. Her twelve years on the track had coarsened her beyond any hope of salvage. Though I know it is the utmost folly to sentimentalize or romanticize a whore, I could respect a certain toughness of spirit Vangie possessed. She had not howled as she fell to her death. She had not flinched or murmured as we cut the hooks out of her leg.”
Vangie tries to protect not only McGee and Meyer, but herself when they offer to help:
“Oh, h*ll, Travis, it isn’t so much finking out as keeping you guys from knowing how lousy I really am.”
Because McGee nearly lost his own life beneath the water simply because Vangie had grabbed his wrist, and because he eventually gets her horrific backstory — Vangie is 26 and has been a pro for 12 years — he feels an obligation when things end badly for her — very badly. There is a wonderful piece of writing as MacDonald describes a youthful dance by Vangie aboard the Busted Flush. It culminates in this melancholy observation by McGee:
“When the flesh is taut, the dance becomes strangely ceremonial. It is a rite that celebrates the future, and it was eerie to see how accurately it could be imitated by a woman who had left any chance of love so far in the past.”
What we get when McGee and Meyer decide they can’t let any more men fall prey to this deadly sea carnival, is a tawdry and violent and insightful look at the heartless and wicked. Trying to con his way into the lives of the men and women running the deadliest of games, McGee nearly loses his life right off the bat in a violent duel with one of the men involved. He buries him and tries to deal with the emotional repercussions even as he and Meyer continue pressing toward their objective. In essence, this is a dark tale of predatory men and predatory women with no conscience, at least not as the rest of us understand such. MacDonald does an especially wonderful job of capturing with honesty the essence of the women:
“It was interesting to me in a clinical way that in the distance from the table to the street door she managed to sway a tautly fabricated hip against me three separate and insistent times, though she'd had no trouble with sway or balance on the way in. With instant practicality, she'd changed masters. Now it was merely a case of firmly cementing the new relationship in the only way she knew how.”
But conning their way in is only part of the problem. McGee, though you rarely hear about it — perhaps because it doesn’t fit a narrative some want to paint — was often turning down opportunities with the opposite sex, and here does so more than once. But even then, MacDonald uses McGee’s reactions to make insightful observations every man of a certain age understands all too well:
“The thing that astounded and disheartened me was to find a very real yen to take a hack at this spooky little punchboard. There had been a lot more to Vangie in both looks and substance, but she hadn't tingled a single nerve. I wanted to grab at this one. Maybe everybody at some time or another feels the strong attraction of something rotten-sweet enough to guarantee complete degradation.”
But McGee shakes it off and goes forward. Along the way, we get to meet Merrimay Lane, a character so wonderful she almost — but not quite — offsets the bad taste left by the other women encountered in this one. From what is supposed to be a safe distance, McGee and Meyer have her impersonate Vangie, just to rattle a brutal guy named Terry. And it does, leading to a very violent end. There is some other stuff in between, including observations on the races and their interactions, and this wonderful gem about a woman’s wrist:
“The wrist of a woman and the small tidy forearm always seemed to have some tender and touching quality, a vulnerable articulation unchanged from the time she was ten or twelve, perhaps the only part of her that her flowering leaves unchanged.”
This is a terrific entry in the series, though without a doubt it’s one of the more seedy story-lines due to the parade of hideous men and women with whom McGee crosses paths. Lee Child has admitted that Jack Reacher is a stripped down version of Travis McGee, but to me the things he left out are what makes McGee stand head and shoulders above nearly all others in the genre. John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series resonates, and more often than not it’s deadly accurate when it comes to human interactions and motivations. Darker Than Amber, which makes reference to Vangie’s eyes, is itself very dark, but also involving. I’ll end this one with a quote from Meyer about McGee, because it sums up not only this entry, but the series itself:
“One of the last of the romantics, trying to make himself believe he’s the cynical beach bum who has it made. You permit yourself the luxury of making moral judgements, Travis, in a world that tells us man’s will is the product of background and environment. You think you’re opportunistic and flexible as all h*ll, but they’d have to kill you before they could bend you. That kind of rigidity is both strength and weakness.”
Once John D. MacDonald wrote A Deadly Shade of Gold, the Travis McGee series began to take on the kind of resonance that separated it from others of its ilk. Over the course of twenty-one books, Travis McGee became one of the most enduring and beloved characters in mystery fiction. Praise for this tremendous saga comes from nearly every great mystery writer in MacDonald’s chosen genre, and many great writers outside his genre. These include many female mystery writers, who give their praise without reservation, and with nary a whisper about misogyny; because it simply does not exist.
Praise from these female writers, and a public still devouring this series decades after it first hit bookshelves proves, in my opinion, just how misrepresented this series and its protagonist, Travis McGee, has become in some quarters. If you know a little about life, you’ll often feel like you know some of the people in MacDonald’s influential series — both the males, and especially the females — as well as the protagonist himself. And that is certainly the case with this very dark entry in the series, part of a three-book section in the series (A Deadly Shade of Gold, Bright Orange For the Shroud, Darker Than Amber) of such high quality, that only later in the series, when the resonance was even deeper, did we get three that surpassed them (Free Fall in Crimson, Cinnamon Skin and, as it turned out, the final entry, The Lonely Silver Rain). In between there were good to great ones, always enjoyable, but never a three-book stretch like the former, or the latter.
Darker Than Amber begins with a great opening line, and lives up to it. Amber is a tawdry and unpleasant look at women pretty on the outside, but so rotten at their core, they are capable of disconnecting themselves from the crimes they commit. Meyer emerges in Amber as the important character he will be for the remainder of this legendary series. It is in fact Meyer who talks about the complete disconnect from empathy these outwardly attractive women share:
“That pair disposed of fourteen objects, not fourteen brothers. Their unease comes not from pity, not from any concern for the dead objects, but merely from their awareness that society frowns upon such actions.”
And earlier, we get this exchange between Vangie and Meyer:
“You are the nicest, Meyer. So nice you'd have to blow the whole bit, and it would mess up my girlfriends and keep the law looking for me forever. If I get my hands on that money, I want to stay dead, thank you.” — Vangie
“Knowing that your...friends are still murdering for profit?” - Meyer
“People are dying all over the place for all kinds of reasons, Meyer, and if I'm out of this one, it couldn't bother me less.” — Vangie
But that’s getting ahead of things. Before McGee gets tangled up in the affairs of Vangie/Tami Western, he reminisces about Vidge, a broken bird who had come to stay with McGee for a bit. She had married the wrong man — as women are so often prone to do — and, as McGee notes, he nearly destroyed her soul:
“Finally he had gone to work on her sexual capacities. Were the sexes reversed, you could call it emasculation. People like Charlie work toward total and perpetual domination. They feed on the mate. And Vidge didn't even realize that running away from him had been a form of self-preservation, a way of trying to hang fast to the last crumbs of identity and pride.”
McGee is patient, waiting for her to stop blaming herself for everything, and finally explode. Yes, as other readers have noted — and made far too much of — there does comes a point when he sleeps with her. McGee gives back to Vidge her self-confidence, allowing a trampled flower to spring back to life, toward the sunshine. The situation and the solution resonate with the ring of truth. There is nothing predatory here by McGee at all. MacDonald the writer simply understood the psychological underpinnings of the situation he’d created, and had his character do likewise; and I might add, at a personal cost to himself, reflected by this comment late in the narrative:
“Vidge had soured me a little, and Vangie had dropped off the bridge and accelerated the process, and then I had really put the lid on it by trapping that dumb empty punchboard into a life sentence.”
McGee's rescuing of Vangie from the water after someone has tried to kill her has no fairy-tale ending whatsoever, because Vangie, as McGee eventually discovers, is a hooker into something very nasty; so nasty that she obviously expected to come to a bad end one day:
“All her symptoms of near-death had been physical, but emotionally she seemed to have an acceptance of it so placid as to be a little eerie. As if she knew the world as a place where sooner or later they heaved you off a bridge.”
There is money involved, a lot of it, and a string of homicides to go with it. All Vangie wants is the money, and to disappear. McGee, despite his experience, develops a grudging sort of admiration for Vangie; not so much because there is more to the Hawaiian beauty than other girls like her, but because once, there might have been:
“In the silence I tried to sort her out. Her twelve years on the track had coarsened her beyond any hope of salvage. Though I know it is the utmost folly to sentimentalize or romanticize a whore, I could respect a certain toughness of spirit Vangie possessed. She had not howled as she fell to her death. She had not flinched or murmured as we cut the hooks out of her leg.”
Vangie tries to protect not only McGee and Meyer, but herself when they offer to help:
“Oh, h*ll, Travis, it isn’t so much finking out as keeping you guys from knowing how lousy I really am.”
Because McGee nearly lost his own life beneath the water simply because Vangie had grabbed his wrist, and because he eventually gets her horrific backstory — Vangie is 26 and has been a pro for 12 years — he feels an obligation when things end badly for her — very badly. There is a wonderful piece of writing as MacDonald describes a youthful dance by Vangie aboard the Busted Flush. It culminates in this melancholy observation by McGee:
“When the flesh is taut, the dance becomes strangely ceremonial. It is a rite that celebrates the future, and it was eerie to see how accurately it could be imitated by a woman who had left any chance of love so far in the past.”
What we get when McGee and Meyer decide they can’t let any more men fall prey to this deadly sea carnival, is a tawdry and violent and insightful look at the heartless and wicked. Trying to con his way into the lives of the men and women running the deadliest of games, McGee nearly loses his life right off the bat in a violent duel with one of the men involved. He buries him and tries to deal with the emotional repercussions even as he and Meyer continue pressing toward their objective. In essence, this is a dark tale of predatory men and predatory women with no conscience, at least not as the rest of us understand such. MacDonald does an especially wonderful job of capturing with honesty the essence of the women:
“It was interesting to me in a clinical way that in the distance from the table to the street door she managed to sway a tautly fabricated hip against me three separate and insistent times, though she'd had no trouble with sway or balance on the way in. With instant practicality, she'd changed masters. Now it was merely a case of firmly cementing the new relationship in the only way she knew how.”
But conning their way in is only part of the problem. McGee, though you rarely hear about it — perhaps because it doesn’t fit a narrative some want to paint — was often turning down opportunities with the opposite sex, and here does so more than once. But even then, MacDonald uses McGee’s reactions to make insightful observations every man of a certain age understands all too well:
“The thing that astounded and disheartened me was to find a very real yen to take a hack at this spooky little punchboard. There had been a lot more to Vangie in both looks and substance, but she hadn't tingled a single nerve. I wanted to grab at this one. Maybe everybody at some time or another feels the strong attraction of something rotten-sweet enough to guarantee complete degradation.”
But McGee shakes it off and goes forward. Along the way, we get to meet Merrimay Lane, a character so wonderful she almost — but not quite — offsets the bad taste left by the other women encountered in this one. From what is supposed to be a safe distance, McGee and Meyer have her impersonate Vangie, just to rattle a brutal guy named Terry. And it does, leading to a very violent end. There is some other stuff in between, including observations on the races and their interactions, and this wonderful gem about a woman’s wrist:
“The wrist of a woman and the small tidy forearm always seemed to have some tender and touching quality, a vulnerable articulation unchanged from the time she was ten or twelve, perhaps the only part of her that her flowering leaves unchanged.”
This is a terrific entry in the series, though without a doubt it’s one of the more seedy story-lines due to the parade of hideous men and women with whom McGee crosses paths. Lee Child has admitted that Jack Reacher is a stripped down version of Travis McGee, but to me the things he left out are what makes McGee stand head and shoulders above nearly all others in the genre. John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series resonates, and more often than not it’s deadly accurate when it comes to human interactions and motivations. Darker Than Amber, which makes reference to Vangie’s eyes, is itself very dark, but also involving. I’ll end this one with a quote from Meyer about McGee, because it sums up not only this entry, but the series itself:
“One of the last of the romantics, trying to make himself believe he’s the cynical beach bum who has it made. You permit yourself the luxury of making moral judgements, Travis, in a world that tells us man’s will is the product of background and environment. You think you’re opportunistic and flexible as all h*ll, but they’d have to kill you before they could bend you. That kind of rigidity is both strength and weakness.”
July 15, 2011
Holy shit snacks. I can't believe I read the whole thing.
First off, let's get one thing straight. Reading this was a dare. All parties involved, including myself, knew I would most likely despise this book and find it a vile-coated offering with a noxious nougat center. I started to shelve this bad boy as "book rape" until I remembered that I had willingly agreed to subject myself to this slow torture and I didn't even have to be double dog dared. I'm that kid from A Christmas Story who willingly licks the frozen flag pole just because someone thinks I won't. I may need to reassess my response to challenges after this. Oh, and I should also state that there are likely to be spoilers.
In Darker Than Amber, Travis McGee and his whip smart buddy Meyer are fishing under a bridge in the middle of the night when somebody drops a perfectly good whore over the bridge (people are so wasteful--she had lots of good tricks left in her), chained to a cement block. McGee rescues her and thus stumbles upon a prostitution ring that has a habit of lovin' up and then killing its johns by dumping them off cruise liners. McGee decides this must end because whoring is wrong (*cough* hypocrite *cough*) and oh, yeah, one of the prostitutes has $32,000 stashed somewhere that's his if he can find it.
So, without further adieu, let the hatin' begin:
A) You know, it's actually kind of hard to truly hate this book because it's so dated it reads almost as a parody of itself. Every man in here is all hopped up on testosterone and adrenaline, while all of the women are highly sexualized nymphettes. Men are meant for fighting and women are meant for screwing after the fighting is done. The only thing differentiating the men is whether or not there's a brain behind the brawn and athletic prowess. The only thing that differentiates the women is cup size and whether or not you will have to leave money on the nightstand after the screwing is done.
B) From what I gather, Travis McGee is a beloved literary figure. Well, I can certainly see why. Nothing is more lovable than a misogynistic sea cock (which I shall forever think of him as after he describes having a cleverly hidden stash in the boat's sea cock and I thought, "No, sir, you are the sea cock.") One might argue that, no, McGee doesn't hate women--look at how many women have had the exquisite and life changing opportunity to experience his magical sea cock. One would be a dumb ass to argue such. Sleeping with women doesn't equate respecting women. At one point, Meyer tells McGee, "You like women as people. You do not think of them as objects placed here by a benign providence for your use and pleasure." To which I say, bull shit. I don't like the cut of that gibberish. All he does is objectify them. After a lengthy description of their sexual attributes--after every swell of breast has been noted, after every curve of hip has been catalogued, after every ass has been analyzed--he immediately culls these potential sexual conquests into one of two categories: worthy of the sea cock and not worthy of the sea cock. Depending upon to which group a woman belongs, she can expect to be called "kitten," "pussycat," "honey," "broad," "punchboard," "slut," "whore," or "bitch." I detect a strong whiff of misogyny in the air.
C.a) But at least McGee uses his sexual prowess for good sometimes. In the beginning of the novel, he regales us with the story of Vidge, a housewife who worries that she has become "frigid" after her domineering husband has made her doubt her own sexuality. Poor Vidge. She'll never enjoy sex again. Paging Dr. Cock! Dr. Sea Cock! Oh, McGee has the cure for what ails her. He takes her "swimming, fishing, beachcombing, skindiving" and then takes her pants off after he's tired her out to the point of least resistance (life was so much tougher before roofies) and reminds her of why it's good to be a woman. McGee found some "pleasure in the missionary work"--pun intended?--but it's something of a sacrifice because "dealing at close range with a batch of acquired neuroses can make your ears ring for a week."
C.b) What's good for the gander apparently isn't good for the goose. Despite his admission that he's done his fair share of sleeping around, McGee seems to think that too much sex can ruin a good woman. From the philosophical musings of McGee: "I have the feeling there is some mysterious quota, which varies with each woman. And whether she gives herself or sells herself, once she reaches her own number, once X pairs of hungry hands have been clamped tightly upon her rounded undersides, she suffers a sea change wherein her juices alter from honey to acid, her eyes change to glass, her heart becomes a stone, and her mouth a windy cave from whence, with each moisturous gasping, comes a tiny stink of death." Right. So we women apparently die a little each time we sleep with someone new. But maybe that's because our morals have been compromised, whereas, when McGee shags nasty, he's just out there doing the Lord's work amongst the frigid masses. What an asshat.
C.c) Sleeping with hundreds of women? Living on a houseboat? Specializing in frigidity reduction therapy? Does anyone else see a connection between Travis McGee and Leon "The Ladies Man" Phelps? I fully expected McGee to proposition a woman with the old, "Hey, sweet thang. Can I buy you a fish sandwich?"
D) After saving Vangie (the aforementioned whore), McGee seems to have respect for her intelligence and is actually proud of her refusal to scream after being tossed to her death. However, after a second and more successful attempt is made to kill Vangie, McGee seems to suffer from "When they're dead, they're just hookers!" syndrome. Suddenly, he begins rhapsodizing about how "she was a cheap, sloppy, greedy slut" and philosophically wondering, "Wasn't the world maybe just a little bit better off minus one slut?" This inconsistency in character continued throughout the novel and really made me dislike McGee because I felt I could never really get a firm hold on the character. Is he meant to be a likable scofflaw, a salty Casanova, a greedy knight in somewhat tarnished armor? And this isn't the result of complexity of character. What he say or does at one point in the novel is often at complete odds with something he says or does at another point in the novel. If anything, I'd say he suffers from a lack of definition and is often as 2 dimensional as the female characters.
E) I was baffled by the whole plan to bring down the prostitution ring in the end. It seems like Meyer and McGee go to some ridiculously complicated lengths when simpler ones would have sufficed. Like the whole hiring an actress to play Vangie bit or the buying a doll and making it look like Vangie to freak out her killer. Yeah, because nothing messes with the mind of a stone cold killer like the old Madame Alexander porcelain doll scheme. Those dolls are creepy as shit.
After finishing this book and giving an audible sigh of relief, I noticed the promo for the next book: "Now that you've finished this Travis McGee adventure, we bet you can't wait for another exciting case. To satisfy your craving, please turn the page . . . " In case you're wondering, I did not turn the page as this is where I and Travis "Sea Cock" McGee shall forever part ways.
Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder
First off, let's get one thing straight. Reading this was a dare. All parties involved, including myself, knew I would most likely despise this book and find it a vile-coated offering with a noxious nougat center. I started to shelve this bad boy as "book rape" until I remembered that I had willingly agreed to subject myself to this slow torture and I didn't even have to be double dog dared. I'm that kid from A Christmas Story who willingly licks the frozen flag pole just because someone thinks I won't. I may need to reassess my response to challenges after this. Oh, and I should also state that there are likely to be spoilers.
In Darker Than Amber, Travis McGee and his whip smart buddy Meyer are fishing under a bridge in the middle of the night when somebody drops a perfectly good whore over the bridge (people are so wasteful--she had lots of good tricks left in her), chained to a cement block. McGee rescues her and thus stumbles upon a prostitution ring that has a habit of lovin' up and then killing its johns by dumping them off cruise liners. McGee decides this must end because whoring is wrong (*cough* hypocrite *cough*) and oh, yeah, one of the prostitutes has $32,000 stashed somewhere that's his if he can find it.
So, without further adieu, let the hatin' begin:
A) You know, it's actually kind of hard to truly hate this book because it's so dated it reads almost as a parody of itself. Every man in here is all hopped up on testosterone and adrenaline, while all of the women are highly sexualized nymphettes. Men are meant for fighting and women are meant for screwing after the fighting is done. The only thing differentiating the men is whether or not there's a brain behind the brawn and athletic prowess. The only thing that differentiates the women is cup size and whether or not you will have to leave money on the nightstand after the screwing is done.
B) From what I gather, Travis McGee is a beloved literary figure. Well, I can certainly see why. Nothing is more lovable than a misogynistic sea cock (which I shall forever think of him as after he describes having a cleverly hidden stash in the boat's sea cock and I thought, "No, sir, you are the sea cock.") One might argue that, no, McGee doesn't hate women--look at how many women have had the exquisite and life changing opportunity to experience his magical sea cock. One would be a dumb ass to argue such. Sleeping with women doesn't equate respecting women. At one point, Meyer tells McGee, "You like women as people. You do not think of them as objects placed here by a benign providence for your use and pleasure." To which I say, bull shit. I don't like the cut of that gibberish. All he does is objectify them. After a lengthy description of their sexual attributes--after every swell of breast has been noted, after every curve of hip has been catalogued, after every ass has been analyzed--he immediately culls these potential sexual conquests into one of two categories: worthy of the sea cock and not worthy of the sea cock. Depending upon to which group a woman belongs, she can expect to be called "kitten," "pussycat," "honey," "broad," "punchboard," "slut," "whore," or "bitch." I detect a strong whiff of misogyny in the air.
C.a) But at least McGee uses his sexual prowess for good sometimes. In the beginning of the novel, he regales us with the story of Vidge, a housewife who worries that she has become "frigid" after her domineering husband has made her doubt her own sexuality. Poor Vidge. She'll never enjoy sex again. Paging Dr. Cock! Dr. Sea Cock! Oh, McGee has the cure for what ails her. He takes her "swimming, fishing, beachcombing, skindiving" and then takes her pants off after he's tired her out to the point of least resistance (life was so much tougher before roofies) and reminds her of why it's good to be a woman. McGee found some "pleasure in the missionary work"--pun intended?--but it's something of a sacrifice because "dealing at close range with a batch of acquired neuroses can make your ears ring for a week."
C.b) What's good for the gander apparently isn't good for the goose. Despite his admission that he's done his fair share of sleeping around, McGee seems to think that too much sex can ruin a good woman. From the philosophical musings of McGee: "I have the feeling there is some mysterious quota, which varies with each woman. And whether she gives herself or sells herself, once she reaches her own number, once X pairs of hungry hands have been clamped tightly upon her rounded undersides, she suffers a sea change wherein her juices alter from honey to acid, her eyes change to glass, her heart becomes a stone, and her mouth a windy cave from whence, with each moisturous gasping, comes a tiny stink of death." Right. So we women apparently die a little each time we sleep with someone new. But maybe that's because our morals have been compromised, whereas, when McGee shags nasty, he's just out there doing the Lord's work amongst the frigid masses. What an asshat.
C.c) Sleeping with hundreds of women? Living on a houseboat? Specializing in frigidity reduction therapy? Does anyone else see a connection between Travis McGee and Leon "The Ladies Man" Phelps? I fully expected McGee to proposition a woman with the old, "Hey, sweet thang. Can I buy you a fish sandwich?"
D) After saving Vangie (the aforementioned whore), McGee seems to have respect for her intelligence and is actually proud of her refusal to scream after being tossed to her death. However, after a second and more successful attempt is made to kill Vangie, McGee seems to suffer from "When they're dead, they're just hookers!" syndrome. Suddenly, he begins rhapsodizing about how "she was a cheap, sloppy, greedy slut" and philosophically wondering, "Wasn't the world maybe just a little bit better off minus one slut?" This inconsistency in character continued throughout the novel and really made me dislike McGee because I felt I could never really get a firm hold on the character. Is he meant to be a likable scofflaw, a salty Casanova, a greedy knight in somewhat tarnished armor? And this isn't the result of complexity of character. What he say or does at one point in the novel is often at complete odds with something he says or does at another point in the novel. If anything, I'd say he suffers from a lack of definition and is often as 2 dimensional as the female characters.
E) I was baffled by the whole plan to bring down the prostitution ring in the end. It seems like Meyer and McGee go to some ridiculously complicated lengths when simpler ones would have sufficed. Like the whole hiring an actress to play Vangie bit or the buying a doll and making it look like Vangie to freak out her killer. Yeah, because nothing messes with the mind of a stone cold killer like the old Madame Alexander porcelain doll scheme. Those dolls are creepy as shit.
After finishing this book and giving an audible sigh of relief, I noticed the promo for the next book: "Now that you've finished this Travis McGee adventure, we bet you can't wait for another exciting case. To satisfy your craving, please turn the page . . . " In case you're wondering, I did not turn the page as this is where I and Travis "Sea Cock" McGee shall forever part ways.
Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder
October 20, 2016
Sure the gif is amusing – All hail Archer! – but, damn, it comes painfully close to capturing the main character’s prevailing attitude towards women as depicted in this book. Published in 1966, MacDonald’s early depiction of Travis McGee, as Mr. Penis-to-the-Rescue Problem-Solver would give the average woman fuel to start throat punching.
The book opens with McGee clinically employing his manhood to help a female friend through a painful break-up. Way to go, Trav! Did this include adding to your panty collection in the “broad” bin you keep in your mancave/bedroom amidships?
And it doesn’t stop there.
He and his long-time pal Meyer, one of the great literary sidekicks, are night fishing when a woman wearing cement shoes is dumped over a bridge almost on top of them. Prince Namor (Imperious Sex!!)/McGee to the rescue. Sure, the woman is a prostitute, who’s involved with a ring of criminals who bilk, then kill, men for their money, but McGee is a pro at this askew Sir Galahad stuff and he helps her out.
Because McGee couldn’t/wouldn’t/shouldn’t do the Dr. Love bit, he channels his blue balls angst and tracks down the murder ring in order to bring them to justice.
For all of its caveman sexism, the book is a solid thriller and it’s easy to see how McDonald gets credit for moving the PI genre out of Mickey Spillaine by-the-numbers prose style territory, even though the story still leaves a sour misogynistic taste in the reader’s mouth. Maybe to avoid being burned on a pyre of bras (this happened in the early ‘70’s, kids), MacDonald did ease up on the McGee as Mack Daddy stuff towards the end of his run, still….
Don’t get me started on Bwana McGee and his irksome, big white brother attitude towards people of color…
March 27, 2018
NOT a book club edition. This is the first Travis McGee novel printed in hardcover in the US. The book's printing was preceded by the hardcover edition published by Robert Hale (UK) in 1968.
John Dann MacDonald (July 24, 1916 - December 28, 1986)
The seventh in the series. McGee and close friend Meyer are fishing under a bridge when a young woman is thrown from it. Basis for the 1970 film of the same name.
I binge read the series.
John Dann MacDonald (July 24, 1916 - December 28, 1986)
The seventh in the series. McGee and close friend Meyer are fishing under a bridge when a young woman is thrown from it. Basis for the 1970 film of the same name.
I binge read the series.
May 22, 2015
We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge.
You don’t get a much better opening line to a crime novel than that.
Travis McGee, the Florida boat bum and ‘salvage consultant’ who specializes in recovering money or items conned from people is just trying to do a little fishing under a bridge with his best friend Meyer when someone drops a girl wired to a cement block into the water in front of them. Thanks to some underwater heroics from McGee, they manage to save the girl from drowning, but he’s a little disappointed to realize he risked his life to save a chatty hooker who was part of a particularly nasty little ring of con artists and thieves that have been setting up well-to-do men to be robbed and murdered. McGee gets sucked into the drama and tries to come up with way to shut down their operation and make a little profit for himself.
One of the really dated parts of this series is McGee’s view and treatment of women, and since this one deals with prostitution and female hustlers, we get more cave man comments than usual. Other than that, it’s pretty typical of the series with the brooding McGee trying to outwit a bunch of lowlifes and cooking up a pretty elaborate scam to do it.
You don’t get a much better opening line to a crime novel than that.
Travis McGee, the Florida boat bum and ‘salvage consultant’ who specializes in recovering money or items conned from people is just trying to do a little fishing under a bridge with his best friend Meyer when someone drops a girl wired to a cement block into the water in front of them. Thanks to some underwater heroics from McGee, they manage to save the girl from drowning, but he’s a little disappointed to realize he risked his life to save a chatty hooker who was part of a particularly nasty little ring of con artists and thieves that have been setting up well-to-do men to be robbed and murdered. McGee gets sucked into the drama and tries to come up with way to shut down their operation and make a little profit for himself.
One of the really dated parts of this series is McGee’s view and treatment of women, and since this one deals with prostitution and female hustlers, we get more cave man comments than usual. Other than that, it’s pretty typical of the series with the brooding McGee trying to outwit a bunch of lowlifes and cooking up a pretty elaborate scam to do it.
June 23, 2022
“Darker Than Amber” is the seventh novel in the 21-novel strong Travis McGee series. It is one of the tightest written books in the series and truly focuses like a laser beam on the problem at hand. McGee, if you are unfamiliar with the series, lives on a 52-foot houseboat, “The Busted Flush.” He works when he needs money or when someone or something drops in his lap. He is in the “salvage business,” meaning that he helps people get back money misappropriated from them and claims half the proceeds as his share. It’s a different way to make a living. He is not a detective and often operates on his own terms, outside legal boundaries.
McGee specializes in fixing wounded sparrows and other stray persons that are found on his doorstep. In a flashback, he explains that he had just finished spending ten days onboard his boat with Virginia (“Vidge”), who had “come rocketing down from Atlanta, in wretched shape emotionally, trying to find out who she used to be before three years of a sour marriage had turned her into somebody she didn’t even like anymore.” Again, MacDonald does a great job in describing Vidge, “like so many other mild nice people, was a natural-born victim.” McGee focuses often on people whose spirit has been not just wounded, but ground into the dirt till all the sunshine has been poured out of the person’s eyes. “After three years of Charlie, she was gaunted, shrill, shaky, and couldn’t tell you what time it was without her eyes filling with tears.” MacDonald has an art to his writing where he captures the emotional turmoil and desperation that people go through and the depths to which they travel.
But McGee’s ten days with Vidge is just a digression. This story is about the woman who drops into his lap literally while he was fishing under a bridge with his buddy, Meyer. This woman (“Vangie”) drops from the bridge with her legs tied with wire to a cement block. He and Meyer nurse her back to human life and find that she has been a call girl for twelve years, but has been involved in some horrible scheme so fantastic that the others involved have to kill her to prevent the truth from leaking. It is some scheme involving roping in persons on cruise ships and there are hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake to the operators.
There is money involved, but the con game is so chilling, so twisted, so evil, that McGee and Meyer take it upon themselves to act as the white knights in shining armor and take on the ring and expose it for what it is. This is the tightest and one of the smoothest written of the McGee stories and is highly recommended.
McGee specializes in fixing wounded sparrows and other stray persons that are found on his doorstep. In a flashback, he explains that he had just finished spending ten days onboard his boat with Virginia (“Vidge”), who had “come rocketing down from Atlanta, in wretched shape emotionally, trying to find out who she used to be before three years of a sour marriage had turned her into somebody she didn’t even like anymore.” Again, MacDonald does a great job in describing Vidge, “like so many other mild nice people, was a natural-born victim.” McGee focuses often on people whose spirit has been not just wounded, but ground into the dirt till all the sunshine has been poured out of the person’s eyes. “After three years of Charlie, she was gaunted, shrill, shaky, and couldn’t tell you what time it was without her eyes filling with tears.” MacDonald has an art to his writing where he captures the emotional turmoil and desperation that people go through and the depths to which they travel.
But McGee’s ten days with Vidge is just a digression. This story is about the woman who drops into his lap literally while he was fishing under a bridge with his buddy, Meyer. This woman (“Vangie”) drops from the bridge with her legs tied with wire to a cement block. He and Meyer nurse her back to human life and find that she has been a call girl for twelve years, but has been involved in some horrible scheme so fantastic that the others involved have to kill her to prevent the truth from leaking. It is some scheme involving roping in persons on cruise ships and there are hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake to the operators.
There is money involved, but the con game is so chilling, so twisted, so evil, that McGee and Meyer take it upon themselves to act as the white knights in shining armor and take on the ring and expose it for what it is. This is the tightest and one of the smoothest written of the McGee stories and is highly recommended.
March 30, 2014
From time to time I feel compelled to put in my two cents about Travis McGee’s relationship with women. However, Travis defends himself pretty well with his own clear words (and those of Meyer aka JDM) throughout the 21 book series, so it baffles me that people would say things such as “he’s a misogynist” or "he treats women like sex objects" or "all he wants is to get laid." In my opinion, all of these comments are inaccurate and just plain wrong. (Well, maybe the last one not as much…being wrong, that is.)
This is my third time around for the series and this time I’m paying particular attention to Travis and women. In Darker Than Amber the female character is Evangeline Bridget Tanaka Bellemer, Vangie for short, who literally drops into Travis and Meyer’s life.
Travis McGee
This is the first book in the series where economist Meyer, Travis’ friend and captain of the John Maynard Keynes plays a hardy role which I believe adds so much depth to the series. The John Maynard Keynes is moored nearby The Busted Flush at Bahia-Mar and plays a critical role in a future book of the series.
Vangie had been a hooker since her mid-teens and more recently had gotten involved in grifting with a group of more than six people, fleecing men on cruises who wound up being deep-sixed.
A lovely young women in her mid-20’s with dynamite legs and a slight Asian/Hawaiian look about her, her eyes are just a bit darker than amber thus the title. No duh, huh?
In order to ‘repay’ Travis for his kindnesses, she offers herself to him. He doesn't want hurt feelings but declines her advances and not entirely because of her lifestyle of hooking. Asking if Meyer would want to have a turn in the hay, Travis tells her he would probably say no as well. (He would.)
Vangie seems a bit kind-hearted in that she got into trouble with the other grifters due her cluing one ‘john’ in on the plan to get his life savings. Travis and Meyer dive in when her fellow grifters find out of her betrayal to them and seriously attempt to end her popularity with the guys.
And the only thing she has to offer for thanks is her body. While Travis is far past virtuous, he chooses not to take advantage of women just for the sake of having sex. He's been past that.
Meyer says to Travis You like women as people. You do not think of them as objects placed here by a benign providence for your use and pleasure, so in that sense you are not a womanizer. But you cherish the meaningful romantic charade. I agree with Meyer and in my opinion, Travis’ interaction with women throughout the series bears this out.
As most of my GR friends know, I simply love MacDonald’s writing and his creation of Travis and Meyer. I have yet to read another character who I feel as drawn to as Travis McGee. Maybe because I read him so many years ago? Maybe because I respect his values? Maybe because I love MacDonald’s writing, it being so clear and uncluttered?
Plaque Dedicated at Bahia Mar, Fort Lauderdale
But here are some paragraphs I found interesting and thought it might give you a glimpse into Travis McGee (my hero) and his relationship and opinion of women.
Travis Reflects on Travis
As I walked back and forth, stowing the necessaries I had brought along, I kept seeing unexpected reflections of myself out of the corner of my eye, a brown slab of meat piled higher than is customary, the stride a loose-jointed shamble---knuckly scarified McGee-san, hope that all dragons which need slaying will be the size of cocker spaniels, with their teeth and claws worn down from chawing bolder knights, their fiery halitosis fresh out of flints and fluid.
Guns
I can never tote it around, aware of the meager weight of it against my right thigh, without feeling a little twinge of theatrical jackassery. Carrying a gun, especially a very utilitarian one, has the bully boy flavor of the ersatz male, the fellow with such a hollow sense of inadequacy he has to bolster his sexual ego with a more specific symbol of gonadal prowess. Except for those whose job it is to kill folks, having to use a gun is the end product of stupid procedure.
Bleeding (Meyer says)
In a sense one can envy them because, unlike you and I, Travis, they cannot identify, they cannot project. We can, and so we do a lot of bleeding. We bled for a woman as wretched as Miss Bellemer. You keep remembering the look of the back of Griff’s neck. The pair drifts through life without the inconvenience of such uncomfortable baggage. Interesting, isn’t it, to relate this concept to conscience and to individual goals.
I love Travis McGee.
My Motto
For all things Travis take a look at D. R. Martin's
Travis McGee and Me. We have great conversations on all things Travis, Meyer and JDM, one of the finest writers ever. In my opinion, anyway.
BTW, a few years ago D.R. asked me "Cathy, you know Travis is a fictional character, right?" Humph.
************
Any opportunity to tell readers (or non-readers especially) about JDM's Reading for Survival, I will take it. The short essay is so readable (like most all of JDM's books.)
The link (outside of Goodreads) is at message #4. Please take just a few minutes of your life and read the short essay about the importance of reading. Reading for Survival
This is my third time around for the series and this time I’m paying particular attention to Travis and women. In Darker Than Amber the female character is Evangeline Bridget Tanaka Bellemer, Vangie for short, who literally drops into Travis and Meyer’s life.
Travis McGee
This is the first book in the series where economist Meyer, Travis’ friend and captain of the John Maynard Keynes plays a hardy role which I believe adds so much depth to the series. The John Maynard Keynes is moored nearby The Busted Flush at Bahia-Mar and plays a critical role in a future book of the series.
Vangie had been a hooker since her mid-teens and more recently had gotten involved in grifting with a group of more than six people, fleecing men on cruises who wound up being deep-sixed.
A lovely young women in her mid-20’s with dynamite legs and a slight Asian/Hawaiian look about her, her eyes are just a bit darker than amber thus the title. No duh, huh?
In order to ‘repay’ Travis for his kindnesses, she offers herself to him. He doesn't want hurt feelings but declines her advances and not entirely because of her lifestyle of hooking. Asking if Meyer would want to have a turn in the hay, Travis tells her he would probably say no as well. (He would.)
Vangie seems a bit kind-hearted in that she got into trouble with the other grifters due her cluing one ‘john’ in on the plan to get his life savings. Travis and Meyer dive in when her fellow grifters find out of her betrayal to them and seriously attempt to end her popularity with the guys.
And the only thing she has to offer for thanks is her body. While Travis is far past virtuous, he chooses not to take advantage of women just for the sake of having sex. He's been past that.
Meyer says to Travis You like women as people. You do not think of them as objects placed here by a benign providence for your use and pleasure, so in that sense you are not a womanizer. But you cherish the meaningful romantic charade. I agree with Meyer and in my opinion, Travis’ interaction with women throughout the series bears this out.
As most of my GR friends know, I simply love MacDonald’s writing and his creation of Travis and Meyer. I have yet to read another character who I feel as drawn to as Travis McGee. Maybe because I read him so many years ago? Maybe because I respect his values? Maybe because I love MacDonald’s writing, it being so clear and uncluttered?
Plaque Dedicated at Bahia Mar, Fort Lauderdale
But here are some paragraphs I found interesting and thought it might give you a glimpse into Travis McGee (my hero) and his relationship and opinion of women.
Travis Reflects on Travis
As I walked back and forth, stowing the necessaries I had brought along, I kept seeing unexpected reflections of myself out of the corner of my eye, a brown slab of meat piled higher than is customary, the stride a loose-jointed shamble---knuckly scarified McGee-san, hope that all dragons which need slaying will be the size of cocker spaniels, with their teeth and claws worn down from chawing bolder knights, their fiery halitosis fresh out of flints and fluid.
Guns
I can never tote it around, aware of the meager weight of it against my right thigh, without feeling a little twinge of theatrical jackassery. Carrying a gun, especially a very utilitarian one, has the bully boy flavor of the ersatz male, the fellow with such a hollow sense of inadequacy he has to bolster his sexual ego with a more specific symbol of gonadal prowess. Except for those whose job it is to kill folks, having to use a gun is the end product of stupid procedure.
Bleeding (Meyer says)
In a sense one can envy them because, unlike you and I, Travis, they cannot identify, they cannot project. We can, and so we do a lot of bleeding. We bled for a woman as wretched as Miss Bellemer. You keep remembering the look of the back of Griff’s neck. The pair drifts through life without the inconvenience of such uncomfortable baggage. Interesting, isn’t it, to relate this concept to conscience and to individual goals.
I love Travis McGee.
My Motto
For all things Travis take a look at D. R. Martin's
Travis McGee and Me. We have great conversations on all things Travis, Meyer and JDM, one of the finest writers ever. In my opinion, anyway.
BTW, a few years ago D.R. asked me "Cathy, you know Travis is a fictional character, right?" Humph.
************
Any opportunity to tell readers (or non-readers especially) about JDM's Reading for Survival, I will take it. The short essay is so readable (like most all of JDM's books.)
The link (outside of Goodreads) is at message #4. Please take just a few minutes of your life and read the short essay about the importance of reading. Reading for Survival
October 31, 2016
“We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody threw the girl off the bridge.”
― John D. MacDonald, Darker Than Amber
A straight forward John D. MacDonald. If you can surrender to him calling one of the characters a "b!tch" with the same indulgent tenderness you give to a racist uncle or to Dire Straits when they use "f@ggot" in their song 'Money for Nothing', you will certainly survive a certain 60s to early 80s machismo/sexism thing that MacDonald carries throughout his McGee books (like a mild, itchy STD). This objectification and mild hostility, however, sometimes does distract from his clear prose, his fantastic dialogue, and intriguing plot.
This book starts with a woman thrown off a bridge and rescued by McGee and Meyer, his economist friend and drinking buddy. The rescue of a drowning damsel charts the direction of this book as McGee and Meyer engage their unique skill sets to revenge, salvage, and make the world safe again for all the bachelors of Florida.
The redeeming thing about these novels is McGee is an imperfect character similar to other great noir heroes (Spade, Marlowe, etc), but he also seems aware of his many faults and tends to take a fairly cynical view of the world he operates in. These novels explore and expose (intentionally and often unintentionally) many of the tropes and traps of the late 20th-century that made a generation grow up without a sense of honor, obligation, or outrage. Sometimes the world needs to be set straight by an angry, yet romantic bachelor on a boat fighting for nobel causes in between stints of drinking on his boat.
― John D. MacDonald, Darker Than Amber
A straight forward John D. MacDonald. If you can surrender to him calling one of the characters a "b!tch" with the same indulgent tenderness you give to a racist uncle or to Dire Straits when they use "f@ggot" in their song 'Money for Nothing', you will certainly survive a certain 60s to early 80s machismo/sexism thing that MacDonald carries throughout his McGee books (like a mild, itchy STD). This objectification and mild hostility, however, sometimes does distract from his clear prose, his fantastic dialogue, and intriguing plot.
This book starts with a woman thrown off a bridge and rescued by McGee and Meyer, his economist friend and drinking buddy. The rescue of a drowning damsel charts the direction of this book as McGee and Meyer engage their unique skill sets to revenge, salvage, and make the world safe again for all the bachelors of Florida.
The redeeming thing about these novels is McGee is an imperfect character similar to other great noir heroes (Spade, Marlowe, etc), but he also seems aware of his many faults and tends to take a fairly cynical view of the world he operates in. These novels explore and expose (intentionally and often unintentionally) many of the tropes and traps of the late 20th-century that made a generation grow up without a sense of honor, obligation, or outrage. Sometimes the world needs to be set straight by an angry, yet romantic bachelor on a boat fighting for nobel causes in between stints of drinking on his boat.
May 29, 2023
05/2014
Seven books into the series I find myself fairly bored. Maybe I've read them too fast. The writing is great, but the mysteries are too complicated and I don't care about house boats. Twenty books! I need a break... It does, however, shock and annoy me that McGee has been called misogynistic . Whoever said that was obviously someone who didn't read the books and doesn't understand what the word misogynistic means (and then other people heard it and thought it was true because, you know, it was said). Travis McGee is very progressive for the 1960s. I don't think he's even sexist, let alone misogynistic.
Seven books into the series I find myself fairly bored. Maybe I've read them too fast. The writing is great, but the mysteries are too complicated and I don't care about house boats. Twenty books! I need a break... It does, however, shock and annoy me that McGee has been called misogynistic . Whoever said that was obviously someone who didn't read the books and doesn't understand what the word misogynistic means (and then other people heard it and thought it was true because, you know, it was said). Travis McGee is very progressive for the 1960s. I don't think he's even sexist, let alone misogynistic.
December 7, 2020
MID-20TH CENTURY NORTH AMERICAN CRIME
I'm reading the first 12 again before reading the rest. So many raves on the book cover, a few declarations that the McGee series is one of the best crime series in American literature. Arguably, since there are 21 novels here, that's a good output, so maybe that's an arguable issue. But some declarations say MacDonald is one of the greatest crime authors. No, sorry, and here is one example: he continually uses the term 'girl' in such ways as 'that's a lot of girl' or 'smells like girl' or 'all girl' and after the first 100 or so times in the first few novels, it gets irritating fast. MacDonald doesn't really bed a lot of women and in fact says no to most of the ladies. But still, I get that some people see a bit of misogyny, if only from the repeated use of 'girl', reducing many ladies to just 'girl/object.' I gave this 4 stars on the first read, and of those 12 aforementioned novels, the only other 4-star read for me is "Girl in Plain Brown Wrapper." So, here we go with my '5-element' rating system in which I try to be a bit more objective.
HOOK - 5 stars: "We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge." So far, I think this is the best opening line in the Travis series. And it's also a great opening sequence, even worthy of a Bond film. It's now 1966, and like other reviewers have noted, this Trav story was the first published in hardback. I'm thinking maybe publishers wanted a great Bond-like opening (Goldfinger, Dr. No had hit the screens) and Macdonald delivered.
PACE - 3: I just casually flipped through this, stopping here and there. Get ready for three pages of an apartment building layout-sorta interesting maybe to a mid-century architect with the in vogue wall-to-wall carpet. Three pages or so of speculation on people who go on cruises. Two instances of racial discussions that just have no business in this book, one of them just brings the story to a complete halt. Pages of McGee telling us how NOT to get off a cruise ship, and then it's all repeated when the event happens and reads in slow motion. But, MacDonald does a nice job building up to what's really happening, even though the plot isn't as brilliant as I first thought. I'd think the climax should be better than the opening, but it isn't.
PLOT - 4: Gotta admit that the quest for what the villain's are up to is indeed very good, but not brilliant. And what they do is indeed very nasty. And the way MacDonald slowly but slyly reveals the dark deeds, the sheer inhumanity, is very good and sorta painful. MacDonald proves he can tell a story here. But a late issue with a money belt made me laugh. And for the wrong reason.
CAST - 2: Vidge, the girl in the water, is interesting: she's sorta telling some truths. She has girlfriends we don't get to know. The bad guys are really bad. The scams are evil. Really evil. But why does Trav keep is boat stocked with a huge assortment of women's clothes? Did they all leave naked or something? Is there some "walkin' round in women's underwear" on the Busted Flush? We know Travis has to work for a living, but his buddy Meyer is rich, and why does Meyer take so many risks, like essentially breaking the law? Twice here, someone questions Trav's sexuality, and twice Trav doesn't bother to answer. His best friends know the answer, the rest don't matter really. And I like that Trav acknowledges without judgment there is a wide sexual spectrum, especially in the escort business. Oh, but a certain voice enters the book, that of the author. MacDonald has one character actually say, "...when she stepped out of her housemaid role she had that slightly forced elegance of the educated Negro woman...I hoped that this penny-colored dedicated pussycat wouldn't stick her head under the wrong billy club..." and those aren't the worst comments. Editors, where were you? This is a case of a writer saying/thinking things that do NOT belong in a post-1965 civil rights America. That sad, we get a new side of Travis, a dark, moody side, a sadness about the world.
ATMOSPHERE - 3 stars: Just the right amount of boats, cruise ships, bars, sultry Miami, and oddly a bit too much about what gals wear-much of which comes from Trav's boat collection. But the crimes here could be happening anywhere, in any decent size city (and probably are) and location doesn't count for much.
SUMMARY - 3.2. I must admit the opening scene made the entire read, for me, a better one the first time around. This time, as noted, there were things I didn't much like. Still, yes, well-told mystery: who is doing what to who and how long will it take for Travis to remove big ol' Terry's money belt while Terry sleeps? Too long, cause it's time for a fight, so drugged and drunk Terry takes a while to wake up. Personally, I'd have waited till Terry took a shower or a swim, grabbed the belt and disappeared. But then there would have been no big bloody fight for a climax. And when it comes right down to it, this is the main reason I'm taking a star off my original rating: this grand finale felt forced. (Bond/Fleming/a screenwriter would have made it all make more sense.) And when your one great scene is the opener, that's never a good thing.)
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
The best of the seven so far:
1) The plot is brilliant.
2) The writing beautiful and creative: Meyer (a fellow boat owner) says to McGee, "Believe me, boychick, the broad was colossal." And McGee's friend isn't talking about what might first come to mind.
3) "Boychick?" Let's talk about this term: In #6, Trav turns down a woman and takes care of business on his own: "I went below [deck], slapped a wrench on a nut..." Here, in #7, when he again turns down a woman, she responds with, "You gay or something?' and one has to wonder what "something" might be to her, to Trav, or to Macdonald. When Trav refuses to be baited into a response, the same lady tries again a few pages later with, "Anyways, I got proof you're not lavender, dearie." And Travis, a true gentleman no matter what has been said/written about him outside of these books, responds with "Try to get some sleep." Travis is a gentleman through and through, but he is a lady's man, he's a man's man, he is smart and strong and sometimes down and out. Toward the end of "Darker Than Amber", it is Travis himself in a deep, dark place. And only his friend Meyer sees it, Meyer opens the subject for discussion, and offers a solution. True, Trav and Meyer do use the language of the 60's, but both are very, very selective when it comes to bedmates. But as for my 4-star rating, again, the plot here is ingenious and we're left knowing Trav is much more complicated than we ever thought.
I'm reading the first 12 again before reading the rest. So many raves on the book cover, a few declarations that the McGee series is one of the best crime series in American literature. Arguably, since there are 21 novels here, that's a good output, so maybe that's an arguable issue. But some declarations say MacDonald is one of the greatest crime authors. No, sorry, and here is one example: he continually uses the term 'girl' in such ways as 'that's a lot of girl' or 'smells like girl' or 'all girl' and after the first 100 or so times in the first few novels, it gets irritating fast. MacDonald doesn't really bed a lot of women and in fact says no to most of the ladies. But still, I get that some people see a bit of misogyny, if only from the repeated use of 'girl', reducing many ladies to just 'girl/object.' I gave this 4 stars on the first read, and of those 12 aforementioned novels, the only other 4-star read for me is "Girl in Plain Brown Wrapper." So, here we go with my '5-element' rating system in which I try to be a bit more objective.
HOOK - 5 stars: "We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge." So far, I think this is the best opening line in the Travis series. And it's also a great opening sequence, even worthy of a Bond film. It's now 1966, and like other reviewers have noted, this Trav story was the first published in hardback. I'm thinking maybe publishers wanted a great Bond-like opening (Goldfinger, Dr. No had hit the screens) and Macdonald delivered.
PACE - 3: I just casually flipped through this, stopping here and there. Get ready for three pages of an apartment building layout-sorta interesting maybe to a mid-century architect with the in vogue wall-to-wall carpet. Three pages or so of speculation on people who go on cruises. Two instances of racial discussions that just have no business in this book, one of them just brings the story to a complete halt. Pages of McGee telling us how NOT to get off a cruise ship, and then it's all repeated when the event happens and reads in slow motion. But, MacDonald does a nice job building up to what's really happening, even though the plot isn't as brilliant as I first thought. I'd think the climax should be better than the opening, but it isn't.
PLOT - 4: Gotta admit that the quest for what the villain's are up to is indeed very good, but not brilliant. And what they do is indeed very nasty. And the way MacDonald slowly but slyly reveals the dark deeds, the sheer inhumanity, is very good and sorta painful. MacDonald proves he can tell a story here. But a late issue with a money belt made me laugh. And for the wrong reason.
CAST - 2: Vidge, the girl in the water, is interesting: she's sorta telling some truths. She has girlfriends we don't get to know. The bad guys are really bad. The scams are evil. Really evil. But why does Trav keep is boat stocked with a huge assortment of women's clothes? Did they all leave naked or something? Is there some "walkin' round in women's underwear" on the Busted Flush? We know Travis has to work for a living, but his buddy Meyer is rich, and why does Meyer take so many risks, like essentially breaking the law? Twice here, someone questions Trav's sexuality, and twice Trav doesn't bother to answer. His best friends know the answer, the rest don't matter really. And I like that Trav acknowledges without judgment there is a wide sexual spectrum, especially in the escort business. Oh, but a certain voice enters the book, that of the author. MacDonald has one character actually say, "...when she stepped out of her housemaid role she had that slightly forced elegance of the educated Negro woman...I hoped that this penny-colored dedicated pussycat wouldn't stick her head under the wrong billy club..." and those aren't the worst comments. Editors, where were you? This is a case of a writer saying/thinking things that do NOT belong in a post-1965 civil rights America. That sad, we get a new side of Travis, a dark, moody side, a sadness about the world.
ATMOSPHERE - 3 stars: Just the right amount of boats, cruise ships, bars, sultry Miami, and oddly a bit too much about what gals wear-much of which comes from Trav's boat collection. But the crimes here could be happening anywhere, in any decent size city (and probably are) and location doesn't count for much.
SUMMARY - 3.2. I must admit the opening scene made the entire read, for me, a better one the first time around. This time, as noted, there were things I didn't much like. Still, yes, well-told mystery: who is doing what to who and how long will it take for Travis to remove big ol' Terry's money belt while Terry sleeps? Too long, cause it's time for a fight, so drugged and drunk Terry takes a while to wake up. Personally, I'd have waited till Terry took a shower or a swim, grabbed the belt and disappeared. But then there would have been no big bloody fight for a climax. And when it comes right down to it, this is the main reason I'm taking a star off my original rating: this grand finale felt forced. (Bond/Fleming/a screenwriter would have made it all make more sense.) And when your one great scene is the opener, that's never a good thing.)
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
The best of the seven so far:
1) The plot is brilliant.
2) The writing beautiful and creative: Meyer (a fellow boat owner) says to McGee, "Believe me, boychick, the broad was colossal." And McGee's friend isn't talking about what might first come to mind.
3) "Boychick?" Let's talk about this term: In #6, Trav turns down a woman and takes care of business on his own: "I went below [deck], slapped a wrench on a nut..." Here, in #7, when he again turns down a woman, she responds with, "You gay or something?' and one has to wonder what "something" might be to her, to Trav, or to Macdonald. When Trav refuses to be baited into a response, the same lady tries again a few pages later with, "Anyways, I got proof you're not lavender, dearie." And Travis, a true gentleman no matter what has been said/written about him outside of these books, responds with "Try to get some sleep." Travis is a gentleman through and through, but he is a lady's man, he's a man's man, he is smart and strong and sometimes down and out. Toward the end of "Darker Than Amber", it is Travis himself in a deep, dark place. And only his friend Meyer sees it, Meyer opens the subject for discussion, and offers a solution. True, Trav and Meyer do use the language of the 60's, but both are very, very selective when it comes to bedmates. But as for my 4-star rating, again, the plot here is ingenious and we're left knowing Trav is much more complicated than we ever thought.
April 1, 2024
Re-reading these Travis McGee novels from my young teenage days illuminates my fall into a love for literary realism. MacDonald was first, followed by London, then Hemingway. Hemingway was followed by Cormac McCarthy, and then John Williams and Peter Heller. And occasionally, I run across an obscure contemporary writers that are just as amazing in capturing reality in words.
But MacDonald was the first, and by luck, was probably the perfect gateway. The Travis McGee novels are mostly detective-mysteries, but MacDonald was never shy about diving deeper into the human psyche. He has a talent for taking seeming superficial acts and behaviors and relating them to seemingly universal human preceptions…"Maybe everybody at some time or another feels the strong attraction of something rotten-sweet enough to guarantee complete degradation."
Darker than Amber is indeed just another Travis McGee novel, but this journey with Travis brings us a step closer to the mentality of the cold and calculating person who instils confidence in others for the extraction of money: the con artist, the grifter. While this novel was written some 60 years ago, these types of people never cease to exists. Sometimes, they show up as bible salesmen.
In this novel, McGee finds himself on a moral journey to rid the world of one particular operation. But along the way, the rewards of moral weakness appear and tempt Travis time and time again. It’s this struggle and its effect on McGee’s moral vision of himself that gives Darker than Amber its complexity and its place in reality.
But MacDonald was the first, and by luck, was probably the perfect gateway. The Travis McGee novels are mostly detective-mysteries, but MacDonald was never shy about diving deeper into the human psyche. He has a talent for taking seeming superficial acts and behaviors and relating them to seemingly universal human preceptions…"Maybe everybody at some time or another feels the strong attraction of something rotten-sweet enough to guarantee complete degradation."
Darker than Amber is indeed just another Travis McGee novel, but this journey with Travis brings us a step closer to the mentality of the cold and calculating person who instils confidence in others for the extraction of money: the con artist, the grifter. While this novel was written some 60 years ago, these types of people never cease to exists. Sometimes, they show up as bible salesmen.
In this novel, McGee finds himself on a moral journey to rid the world of one particular operation. But along the way, the rewards of moral weakness appear and tempt Travis time and time again. It’s this struggle and its effect on McGee’s moral vision of himself that gives Darker than Amber its complexity and its place in reality.
October 15, 2024
While the novels in this series do possess some formulaic aspects, each mystery/adventure by Trav McGee involves a unique sordid tale of scams and corruption. For the first time, Meyer becomes involved with Trav. Meyer, the intrepid economist whose boat ties up close to McGee's Busted Flush, often made cameo appearances, but here plays a supporting role.
One day (evening actually), Trav and Meyer are fishing by Marathon Key under a bridge when a car screeches to a stop and then a body wired to a block of cement comes down and hits Trav's fishing line. Well, Trav dives in, frees the wire holding her, and saves her. What an odd one! She takes her rescue in stride, however, and while Trav's boat makes it way back to Miami, she tells some of her story. Vangie has had a hard go at life, becoming a prostitute/hustler in her early teens. Now, she and a team of others are working some scam involving cruise lines out of Everglade City.
Some mild spoilers here! It seems Vangie, along with two other 'working gals', seduce lonely middle aged men, convince them to run away with them by taking a cruise and getting off on some island along the way. The 'johns' must have some money, but not too rich or an investigation may ensue. They get the johns to bring all their cash on board and then their male partners take the money had heave the johns over the side of the ship. They have been working this for a few years and yeah, lots of bucks involved. Apparently, Vangie, perhaps feeling some remorse, tried to warn her last mark, but no go. Because of that, they tossed her off the bridge with concrete shoes.
She just wants to go back and get her stash, some 30 grand, and then flee somewhere. Trav and Meyer see her off, and shortly thereafter, she is found dead in some local beach town. Trav comes up with a plan to find her stash, but also feels some obligation to put an end to the scam itself...
Good pacing, some interesting philosophical speculations round this one out. Florida, so full of scams, but this one is really nasty. The 'gang', really a bunch of sociopaths, is ruthless to a fault. Can Trav and Meyer come up with a plan and bring them to justice (and score some cash along the way)? Good stuff! 3.5 stars, rounding up for Meyer.
One day (evening actually), Trav and Meyer are fishing by Marathon Key under a bridge when a car screeches to a stop and then a body wired to a block of cement comes down and hits Trav's fishing line. Well, Trav dives in, frees the wire holding her, and saves her. What an odd one! She takes her rescue in stride, however, and while Trav's boat makes it way back to Miami, she tells some of her story. Vangie has had a hard go at life, becoming a prostitute/hustler in her early teens. Now, she and a team of others are working some scam involving cruise lines out of Everglade City.
Some mild spoilers here! It seems Vangie, along with two other 'working gals', seduce lonely middle aged men, convince them to run away with them by taking a cruise and getting off on some island along the way. The 'johns' must have some money, but not too rich or an investigation may ensue. They get the johns to bring all their cash on board and then their male partners take the money had heave the johns over the side of the ship. They have been working this for a few years and yeah, lots of bucks involved. Apparently, Vangie, perhaps feeling some remorse, tried to warn her last mark, but no go. Because of that, they tossed her off the bridge with concrete shoes.
She just wants to go back and get her stash, some 30 grand, and then flee somewhere. Trav and Meyer see her off, and shortly thereafter, she is found dead in some local beach town. Trav comes up with a plan to find her stash, but also feels some obligation to put an end to the scam itself...
Good pacing, some interesting philosophical speculations round this one out. Florida, so full of scams, but this one is really nasty. The 'gang', really a bunch of sociopaths, is ruthless to a fault. Can Trav and Meyer come up with a plan and bring them to justice (and score some cash along the way)? Good stuff! 3.5 stars, rounding up for Meyer.
April 22, 2019
5-stars! Must read. Wonderful stuff.
Again, stellar prose and plot and pacing by MacDonald.
W O W.
As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.
My bachelor houseboat, The Busted Flush, was tied up at Thompson's Marina in Marathon.
McGee and Meyer fishing from a skiff one night? (This photo from the 1970 movie starring Rod Taylor)
Full size image here
After the rescue
She sat up slowly, looked in turn at each of us, and her dark eyes were like twin entrances to two deep caves. Nothing lived in those caves. Maybe something had, once upon a time. There were piles of picked bones back in there, some scribbling on the walls, and some gray ash where the fires had been.
A marvellous, several page treatise on McGee's good friend, Meyer. Worth reading twice.
You can watch the Meyer Magic at work and not know how it's done. He has the size and pelt of the average Adirondack black bear. He can walk a beach, go into any bar, cross any playground, and acquire people the way blue serge picks up lint, and the new friends believe they have known him forever. Perhaps it is because he actually listens, and actually cares, and can make you feel as if his day would have been worthless, an absolute nothing, had he not had the miraculous good fortune of meeting you. He asks you the questions you want to be asked, so you can let go with the answers that take the tensions out of your inner gears and springs.
All of the prose and dialogue so far is stellar, the work of a true Master in his prime. Wow!
She glanced toward the chair where the clothing was. "There's a girl on board?" Sometimes when you think you can be casual, it doesn't work at all. When you think something is healed, but then when you least expect it you learn all over again that some things never heal. My voice gave me away when I said, "The girl who owned those clothes is dead."
Meyer holds a mirror up to McGee's soul, now and then:
"... one of the last of the romantics, trying to make himself believe he's the cynical beach bum who has it made. You permit yourself the luxury of making moral judgments, Travis, in a world that tells us man's will is the product of background and environment. You think you're opportunistic and flexible as all hell, but they'd have to kill you before they could bend you. That kind of rigidity is both strength and weakness."
McGee's Airweight Smith & Wesson Bodyguard .38 Special
Full size image here
McGee considers his deep nature. We recognise the crown of noir: the Philosopher-Detective.
Sometimes, sure, I'd identified a little too closely with a customer, and when you couldn't help them, it could leave a lasting bruise. But I have been there and back time after time, and had my ticket punched. No matter how much I despised the fat cats who devise legal ways of stealing, I had learned not to give them any odds-on chances of puncturing the brown hide of McGee. It had happened enough times to teach me that in spite of the miracles of modern medicine, hospitals are places where they hurt you, and that when you hurt enough the cold sweat rolls off you and the world goes black. I knew I had some parts nobody could replace if they got smashed, and once deep in the wormy comfort of the grave there would be no chance to identify with the gullible ones, nor any chance to nip in and snatch the meat out of the jaws of the fat cats.
Charatan Bell Dublin Coronation, a gift to McGee
Full size image here
Before sending it to me from London she had some small silver numbers inlaid in the heavy part of the bit. 724. The twenty-fourth night of a memorable July, a little code which, if her husband Sir Thomas could interpret it, would bring him in search of McGee, complete with horse whip and incipient apoplexy.
The titled lady who had gifted me with the very expensive pipe had gifted me with something else also. When she insisted I read the poetry of W H. Auden, I thought she was out of her mind. When I finally humored her, I found that it was not anything like what I had expected. And now this composite scene brought up from memory one of Auden's irreverent perceptions:
-
I realized I felt proud of her. This reaction was so irrational it startled me. I tracked it down to its obvious source. It was the inevitable sense of ownership. I remember talking all night long to a damned fine surgeon. At one time during the night he spoke of the ones he had hauled back through those big gates when he had no right to expect it could be done. "They become your people," he said. "Your kids. You want the good things for them because they get it on time you gave them. You want them to use life well. When they crap around, wasting what you gave them, you feel forlorn. When they use it well, you feel great. Maybe because it's some kind of ledger account, and they have to make up for what those others would have done, those ones you lost for no damn good reason."
I’ve just discovered a movie "Darker Than Amber" from 1970. I will watch it today.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065610/...
Bonus. From the 1970 "Darker Than Amber" movie starring Rod Taylor, pictures of the producers' ideas of McGee's "The Busted Flush":
Full size image here
Full size image here
Full size image here
And finally, two great blogs about John D. MacDonald, McGee and the rumoured-never-written novel where McGee dies"...
The Birth of Travis McGee (fascinating)
http://thetrapofsolidgold.blogspot.co...
"Black Border for McGee" (rumours surrounding a final book, never published)
http://thetrapofsolidgold.blogspot.co...
Again, stellar prose and plot and pacing by MacDonald.
W O W.
As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.
My bachelor houseboat, The Busted Flush, was tied up at Thompson's Marina in Marathon.
McGee and Meyer fishing from a skiff one night? (This photo from the 1970 movie starring Rod Taylor)
Full size image here
After the rescue
She sat up slowly, looked in turn at each of us, and her dark eyes were like twin entrances to two deep caves. Nothing lived in those caves. Maybe something had, once upon a time. There were piles of picked bones back in there, some scribbling on the walls, and some gray ash where the fires had been.
A marvellous, several page treatise on McGee's good friend, Meyer. Worth reading twice.
You can watch the Meyer Magic at work and not know how it's done. He has the size and pelt of the average Adirondack black bear. He can walk a beach, go into any bar, cross any playground, and acquire people the way blue serge picks up lint, and the new friends believe they have known him forever. Perhaps it is because he actually listens, and actually cares, and can make you feel as if his day would have been worthless, an absolute nothing, had he not had the miraculous good fortune of meeting you. He asks you the questions you want to be asked, so you can let go with the answers that take the tensions out of your inner gears and springs.
All of the prose and dialogue so far is stellar, the work of a true Master in his prime. Wow!
She glanced toward the chair where the clothing was. "There's a girl on board?" Sometimes when you think you can be casual, it doesn't work at all. When you think something is healed, but then when you least expect it you learn all over again that some things never heal. My voice gave me away when I said, "The girl who owned those clothes is dead."
Meyer holds a mirror up to McGee's soul, now and then:
"... one of the last of the romantics, trying to make himself believe he's the cynical beach bum who has it made. You permit yourself the luxury of making moral judgments, Travis, in a world that tells us man's will is the product of background and environment. You think you're opportunistic and flexible as all hell, but they'd have to kill you before they could bend you. That kind of rigidity is both strength and weakness."
McGee's Airweight Smith & Wesson Bodyguard .38 Special
Full size image here
McGee considers his deep nature. We recognise the crown of noir: the Philosopher-Detective.
Sometimes, sure, I'd identified a little too closely with a customer, and when you couldn't help them, it could leave a lasting bruise. But I have been there and back time after time, and had my ticket punched. No matter how much I despised the fat cats who devise legal ways of stealing, I had learned not to give them any odds-on chances of puncturing the brown hide of McGee. It had happened enough times to teach me that in spite of the miracles of modern medicine, hospitals are places where they hurt you, and that when you hurt enough the cold sweat rolls off you and the world goes black. I knew I had some parts nobody could replace if they got smashed, and once deep in the wormy comfort of the grave there would be no chance to identify with the gullible ones, nor any chance to nip in and snatch the meat out of the jaws of the fat cats.
Charatan Bell Dublin Coronation, a gift to McGee
Full size image here
Before sending it to me from London she had some small silver numbers inlaid in the heavy part of the bit. 724. The twenty-fourth night of a memorable July, a little code which, if her husband Sir Thomas could interpret it, would bring him in search of McGee, complete with horse whip and incipient apoplexy.
The titled lady who had gifted me with the very expensive pipe had gifted me with something else also. When she insisted I read the poetry of W H. Auden, I thought she was out of her mind. When I finally humored her, I found that it was not anything like what I had expected. And now this composite scene brought up from memory one of Auden's irreverent perceptions:
As the poets have mournfully sung,
Death takes the innocent young,
The rolling-in-money
The screamingly-funny
And those who are very well hung.
- W H Auden
-
I realized I felt proud of her. This reaction was so irrational it startled me. I tracked it down to its obvious source. It was the inevitable sense of ownership. I remember talking all night long to a damned fine surgeon. At one time during the night he spoke of the ones he had hauled back through those big gates when he had no right to expect it could be done. "They become your people," he said. "Your kids. You want the good things for them because they get it on time you gave them. You want them to use life well. When they crap around, wasting what you gave them, you feel forlorn. When they use it well, you feel great. Maybe because it's some kind of ledger account, and they have to make up for what those others would have done, those ones you lost for no damn good reason."
I’ve just discovered a movie "Darker Than Amber" from 1970. I will watch it today.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065610/...
Bonus. From the 1970 "Darker Than Amber" movie starring Rod Taylor, pictures of the producers' ideas of McGee's "The Busted Flush":
Full size image here
Full size image here
Full size image here
And finally, two great blogs about John D. MacDonald, McGee and the rumoured-never-written novel where McGee dies"...
The Birth of Travis McGee (fascinating)
http://thetrapofsolidgold.blogspot.co...
"Black Border for McGee" (rumours surrounding a final book, never published)
http://thetrapofsolidgold.blogspot.co...
May 23, 2018
The 7th novel in John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series finds our rough-around-the edges “salvage collector” and his best friend Meyer fishing for snook late at night beneath a bridge in the Florida Keys. Suddenly from above them comes a squeal of tires followed shortly by the body of a woman plunging past them into the water, her feet bound and wired to a cement block. After Travis manages to rescue the unconscious woman from certain drowning, they return with her to the Busted Flush and get her story. Turns out she is a hooker, (with the titular "darker than amber eyes") working as part of a gang of homicidal grifters who targeted minor marks by luring them onto Caribbean cruises and set them up in a scam before dumping their bodies overboard.
I won’t go further so as not to spoil the plot but suffice it to say, Travis and Meyer find themselves not only chasing the money but also attempting to run their own con to put an end to the grifter gang. This novel marks a new phase of the Travis McGee series in that it elevates the character of Meyer from an occasional contributor to a full on side-kick. And a welcome change it is too. Meyer is the perfect foil for Travis, managing to round out McGee’s rough edges a little bit, keep him aimed correctly, and perhaps be a sort of Jiminy Cricket conscience for him. At the same time, he’s also smart, observant, and is utterly hilarious. Quite simply, he elevates Travis’ game and he will remain an important co-character for the remaining 14 books in the series.
I won’t go further so as not to spoil the plot but suffice it to say, Travis and Meyer find themselves not only chasing the money but also attempting to run their own con to put an end to the grifter gang. This novel marks a new phase of the Travis McGee series in that it elevates the character of Meyer from an occasional contributor to a full on side-kick. And a welcome change it is too. Meyer is the perfect foil for Travis, managing to round out McGee’s rough edges a little bit, keep him aimed correctly, and perhaps be a sort of Jiminy Cricket conscience for him. At the same time, he’s also smart, observant, and is utterly hilarious. Quite simply, he elevates Travis’ game and he will remain an important co-character for the remaining 14 books in the series.
November 6, 2019
4.5 stars. Perhaps the best yet in the series, and also darker than most, with McGee working to bust open a deadly con ring responsible for the murders of dozens of seemingly innocent middle-aged men. Among his many other talents, MacDonald has an unrivaled capacity for relating his seedy, flawed villains with such vivid, intimate detail and insight that it just makes your skin crawl.
She sat up slowly, looked in turn at each of us, and her dark eyes were like twin entrances to two deep caves. Nothing lived in those caves. Maybe something had, once upon a time. There were piles of picked bones back in there, some scribbling on the walls, and some gray ash where the fires had been.
June 23, 2019
It's been two years since I dusted off a Travis McGee mystery from my bookshelves. Darker Than Amber is the 7th book in the series and one of the better ones that I've read thus far. Author John D. MacDonald once again proves he can spin a mean tale.
We find McGee with his friend Meyer on a bit of a vacation with McGee trying to blow off some steam from his last investigation. He now has enough money put away that he can afford to relax for a few months. It's late at night and they are fishing off their boat under a bridge in Florida. Surprising events will involve them in a murder ring. As they relax on their boat, a body sails off the bridge into the water. McGee dives in and discovers a young lady at the bottom, tied with wire to a concrete block. They manage to save her and after her story decide to try and help her and at the same time to put a dent into this crime ring.
It's a short story so I won't get into too much detail about their activities but suffice it to say, there is a group of young attractive ladies who, with the help of an equal group of tough male partners, who take advantage of older men and eventually rob them and then dispose of them. Neither the men nor women have many, if any, worthy qualities.
This story is a bit of a nice twist for McGee as he is not really helping a damsel in distress (well, he is sort of, I guess) but trying to help nameless men avoid disaster at the hands of this group. It's an interesting investigation and it's made more interesting by his interactions and assistance with / from his friend Meyer. It was kind of nice to make it a bit of a team effort. McGee also gets assistance from another old friend, one who he has helped in the past. It's always neat when you meet people who have been aided by McGee and how they appreciate what he's done for them.
There are enough good people in the story, along with McGee and Meyer to counteract those who aren't quite so nice. The story is an interesting read with sufficient action to hold your interest and it moves along nicely and is resolved quite satisfactorily. I look forward to the next McGee story. (4 stars)
We find McGee with his friend Meyer on a bit of a vacation with McGee trying to blow off some steam from his last investigation. He now has enough money put away that he can afford to relax for a few months. It's late at night and they are fishing off their boat under a bridge in Florida. Surprising events will involve them in a murder ring. As they relax on their boat, a body sails off the bridge into the water. McGee dives in and discovers a young lady at the bottom, tied with wire to a concrete block. They manage to save her and after her story decide to try and help her and at the same time to put a dent into this crime ring.
It's a short story so I won't get into too much detail about their activities but suffice it to say, there is a group of young attractive ladies who, with the help of an equal group of tough male partners, who take advantage of older men and eventually rob them and then dispose of them. Neither the men nor women have many, if any, worthy qualities.
This story is a bit of a nice twist for McGee as he is not really helping a damsel in distress (well, he is sort of, I guess) but trying to help nameless men avoid disaster at the hands of this group. It's an interesting investigation and it's made more interesting by his interactions and assistance with / from his friend Meyer. It was kind of nice to make it a bit of a team effort. McGee also gets assistance from another old friend, one who he has helped in the past. It's always neat when you meet people who have been aided by McGee and how they appreciate what he's done for them.
There are enough good people in the story, along with McGee and Meyer to counteract those who aren't quite so nice. The story is an interesting read with sufficient action to hold your interest and it moves along nicely and is resolved quite satisfactorily. I look forward to the next McGee story. (4 stars)
August 13, 2017
I am always arguing with people who label McGee as a womanizer, or even a mysogynist. Meyer describes it best in this one :
"You like women as people. You do not think of them as objects placed here by a benign providence for your use and pleasure, so in that sense you are not a womanizer. But you cherish the meaningful romantic charade."
"You like women as people. You do not think of them as objects placed here by a benign providence for your use and pleasure, so in that sense you are not a womanizer. But you cherish the meaningful romantic charade."
November 16, 2017
I got sick and wanted some comfort reading. I found this and felt better. MacDonald's hero, Travis McGee and his economist buddy, Meyer, are fishing under a Florida bridge when a woman drops in. Or rather, gets dropped in, feet first following a cement black. McGee dives in and she reaches for him, indicating she is alive and awake. McGee snaps into action, freeing her from the block and bringing her up to oxygen. She slowly recovers and divulges she is part of a con ring to fleece wealthy unattached men of their money on Caribbean cruises, then dump their half-awake odies into the sea while on cruise. The action speeds up from there but saying more would ruin it for you.
The book moves fast with plenty of action, descriptions of Florida's seamy side and the Homo sapiens-type animals who dwell therein. Its a good, fast read whether you are sick or well.
The book moves fast with plenty of action, descriptions of Florida's seamy side and the Homo sapiens-type animals who dwell therein. Its a good, fast read whether you are sick or well.
November 18, 2012
Not my favorite Travis McGee, but this puppy has my favorite opening chapter by John D. MacDonald.
I've read this two or three times, I think. At least twice.
Copyright 1966. Growing up, I found Travis McGee novels harder to read than Matt Helm novels (by Donald Hamilton). But Travis holds up better now that we're into the new millennium; and MacDonald maintained a high quality of writing all the way to the end of the series (something Hamilton did not do).
Travis is not your average literary hero. MacDonald went way out into left field to dream him up. Thanks, John.
@hg47
July 15, 2020
This McGee is definitely dark. Starts of with a great set piece with McGee and Meyer out fishing under a bridge and a woman is thrown from a car with a concrete block tied around her ankles. McGee saves her and that starts the plot in motion. Turns out she's know angel and is involved in scheme to murder men for their money. So not the usual salvage job for McGee this time. Instead he decides to break up the murder scheme. Plenty of action and investigation. The description if the con games goes on a bit long at times and that slowed the pace.
March 19, 2014
Been reading a bunch of MacDonald this past year since I bought a big lot (23 books) off eBay. He's quickly made it into my top five favorite authors.
December 12, 2016
I really liked this volume of the McGee series, in the last two books, McGee helps someone in trouble along with one of his friends. This show was another side of McGee, how he is when not having to take on his alter egos when trying to reclaim this book's victim.
March 3, 2018
This is my favorite yet re-reading the Travis McGee novels. Meyer is not only present, but an active participant. Travis comes up with a complex, clever and memorable plan.
September 16, 2019
Another solid McGee book. This time his pal Meyer gets in on the action. I enjoyed it the whole way through but it left me wanting more. I wanted a little more drama or a twist in the end. This is also the second McGee book in a row(out of order) I’ve read where he controls his erection. It’s like I hardly know the man anymore. Now to backtrack to book five in the series where I should have been. I’m sure the McGee will understand.
May 15, 2013
To be blunt, this 7th novel in the series isn’t an adventure at all worthy of the iconoclastic knight errant, Travis McGee, and the hirsute economist Meyer (possessor of the ineffable “Meyer Magic” and non-founder of the new religion, “Meyerism”). Fishing together one night during another installment of McGee’s swag-funded retirement, a cement-block-weighted beauty is thrown off a highway bridge almost onto McGee’s and Meyer’s small boat. Upon learning that the rescued young woman is no lady and involved in a lucrative con-and-murder scheme aboard cruise ships, the pals (inexplicably, to my mind) decide to put a stop to the predatory racket. Prodding our hero with what the subject dismisses as “parlor psychology,” Meyer tells McGee: “All that splendid ironic detachment goes all to hell when you detect a dragon off in the bushes somewhere” (p27). Dragon, yes, but no damsel this time. In fact, author McDonald makes a point of McGee repeatedly using pejorative terms like “slut,” “pig,” “punchboard,” “dead-eyed cookie” and “surplus bawd” to refer to the prostitutes used as bait by what becomes known as “Drowners, Incorporated.” The language is not exactly McGee’s style--and I don’t think the risk/reward equation or the motivation would have been sufficient this time to rouse McGee into a “galumphing charge to recover the magic grail” (p28). This is a job for the cops, or maybe for Magnum, P.I.
DARKER THAN AMBER includes a brief nod to the civil rights movement, as well as an increasing specificity to the McGee habits (e.g., an occasional pipe instead of cigarettes, Plymouth gin as cocktail of choice, more fishing and less hard-partying). Trav says that “having to use a gun is the end product of stupid procedure” (p83) and he sticks to that code even when he shoots somebody d-e-a-d.
Maybe because it was the most conventional of the first seven McGee adventures, DARKER THAN AMBER had a movie version (1970) that starred Rod Taylor as McGee and Theodore Bikel as Meyer. Seeing it at the time, I particularly remember being puzzled by the sex change given to the Alabama Tiger, played by Jane Russell as “Alabama Tigress.” One of my favorite TV actors of that era, William Smith (he’s 80 now!), played the villainous bodybuilder Ans Terry. It was a “B” movie, but about on a par with its source material in this instance.
DARKER THAN AMBER includes a brief nod to the civil rights movement, as well as an increasing specificity to the McGee habits (e.g., an occasional pipe instead of cigarettes, Plymouth gin as cocktail of choice, more fishing and less hard-partying). Trav says that “having to use a gun is the end product of stupid procedure” (p83) and he sticks to that code even when he shoots somebody d-e-a-d.
Maybe because it was the most conventional of the first seven McGee adventures, DARKER THAN AMBER had a movie version (1970) that starred Rod Taylor as McGee and Theodore Bikel as Meyer. Seeing it at the time, I particularly remember being puzzled by the sex change given to the Alabama Tiger, played by Jane Russell as “Alabama Tigress.” One of my favorite TV actors of that era, William Smith (he’s 80 now!), played the villainous bodybuilder Ans Terry. It was a “B” movie, but about on a par with its source material in this instance.
February 15, 2017
I'm on my way back from my youth re-reading JDM's Travis McGee series. I was rather disappointed with Darker Than Amber (Travis McGee #7) but I'll keep on reading these as long as I can find them at reasonable prices or in my library.
September 14, 2009
The latest in my chronological reading of the Travis McGee series, DARKER THAN AMBER is indeed dark: it's probably the toughest in the series since the brilliant opener THE DEEP BLUE GOOD-BY, and perhaps the best since that one as well. There are some changes from the formula here: the damsel-in-distress is a knockout, but not very likable; and for the first time we get to see Meyer in action in a meaningful way. (Surely the witty economist Meyer is a stand-in for MacDonald himself, who took a degree from Harvard Business School, and must have decided that his hero was having too much fun not to join him.) The criminal enterprise here is a little dated, as are (as always) some of McGee's musings on sex and race (dated but still interesting--is it possible to be a feminist chauvinist?), but this one is still a ripping yarn, and it has what must be one of the best opening chapters in pulp fiction.
May 25, 2022
Travis McGee garners a lot of praise, and arguably deservedly so, but I can never really get into the books.
It starts off with McGee and his sidekick fishing, when somebody throws a woman off a bridge. McGee goes to the rescue and finds himself embroiled in a dark plot.
There is a movie based on this book, which was nearly lost. I think you can get POD dvd's of it now. There's a pretty intense fight scene between Rod Taylor as McGee and William Smith
It starts off with McGee and his sidekick fishing, when somebody throws a woman off a bridge. McGee goes to the rescue and finds himself embroiled in a dark plot.
There is a movie based on this book, which was nearly lost. I think you can get POD dvd's of it now. There's a pretty intense fight scene between Rod Taylor as McGee and William Smith
July 28, 2025
If you like resourceful men, punishing evil, the 1960s, coffee, boats, moral quandries, fist fights, writing that goes down as smooth as a mexican beer, then any of the Travis Mcgee books are worth the investment. Especially this one. Even the movie version is not bad. Theodore Bikel is perfect as Meyer.
May 15, 2022
"-Seems I'm less fastidious than I thought. So maybe there is a little flavour of escutcheon-scrubbing in the air after all.
+The wish is not the deed, except to apologists. You didn't follow through. [...] There is sometimes a hypnotic deliciousness about dirt."
Un libro que reúne la esencia de Travis McGee en un caso "caído del cielo y pescado en las redes de McGee". Me ha gustado por lo incansable que es la trama, nunca se está quieto en un mismo sitio, mantiene a Travis ocupado buscando por aquí, probando por allá, sufriendo más hacia el fondo.
Además del hecho de no ser lenta en ningún momento, se añade un compañero para McGee, Meyer, que me ha conquistado desde el momento en el que aparece. No se trata de un mero acompañante que va a los mismo sitios y hace comentarios insípidos, sino que es un economista muy inteligente, versado en psicología y filosofía que sazona exquisitamente la trama con sus puntos de vista y consejos, además de encargarse de tareas (referentes al caso) que podrían ralentizar la trama y así "se hacen" sin tener que "verlas". Lo que agiliza todo. Sin duda Meyer es un gran personaje que estoy ansioso de encontrar en futuras novelas colaborando con McGee otra vez.
Asimismo, profundizamos también en el propio McGee para conocerlo un poco mejor y empaparnos de sus dilemas morales respecto a la vida y sus acciones que se ven cuestionadas siempre que se inmiscuye en asuntos turbios.
+The wish is not the deed, except to apologists. You didn't follow through. [...] There is sometimes a hypnotic deliciousness about dirt."
Un libro que reúne la esencia de Travis McGee en un caso "caído del cielo y pescado en las redes de McGee". Me ha gustado por lo incansable que es la trama, nunca se está quieto en un mismo sitio, mantiene a Travis ocupado buscando por aquí, probando por allá, sufriendo más hacia el fondo.
Además del hecho de no ser lenta en ningún momento, se añade un compañero para McGee, Meyer, que me ha conquistado desde el momento en el que aparece. No se trata de un mero acompañante que va a los mismo sitios y hace comentarios insípidos, sino que es un economista muy inteligente, versado en psicología y filosofía que sazona exquisitamente la trama con sus puntos de vista y consejos, además de encargarse de tareas (referentes al caso) que podrían ralentizar la trama y así "se hacen" sin tener que "verlas". Lo que agiliza todo. Sin duda Meyer es un gran personaje que estoy ansioso de encontrar en futuras novelas colaborando con McGee otra vez.
Asimismo, profundizamos también en el propio McGee para conocerlo un poco mejor y empaparnos de sus dilemas morales respecto a la vida y sus acciones que se ven cuestionadas siempre que se inmiscuye en asuntos turbios.
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