What do you think?
Rate this book
The Last One Left
Book club
369 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
456 people are currently reading
915 people want to read
About the author
John D. MacDonald
562 books1,362 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
April 29, 2019
Starts off with a superb and terrifying crossing of the Gulf Stream, and then a tale of an exploding boat from a badly burned captain. Fabulous stuff.
Then followed by quite dull minutiae of ten thousand character descriptions.
This leads into infinite dull, dull dialogue. A mind-numbing, zero paced soap opera.
I'm giving up. This is crap.
.
Then followed by quite dull minutiae of ten thousand character descriptions.
This leads into infinite dull, dull dialogue. A mind-numbing, zero paced soap opera.
I'm giving up. This is crap.
.
September 26, 2021
Starts really slowly with multiple third person narratives, each with detailed character introductions and much back story. I stalled out lost after a few chapters and had to restart from the beginning. I have a deep admiration for JDM’s early stand alone novels with their taut linear plots and low word counts. This novel is far more ambitious telling the tale of a complex scheme initiated by the devious and deadly beauty Crissy Harkinson to steal a load of dark money by faking a boating accident. This personally involves Texas lawyer Sam Boylston, an overbearing perfectionist with a marriage on the rocks, and with a kid sister on the missing boat. MacDonald was an exceptional writer and the prose here, albeit a bit wordy for my tastes, is superb. Yeah, the plot is complex and there are probably too many characters but MacDonald deftly ties the multiple narratives into a cohesive and compelling story. It takes a some effort and focus to get pulled past the slow start but the rewards are substantial. An excellent book that I’m going to dock one half star for the slow start and the excessive verbosity. Four and a half stars.
February 8, 2016
Fourth MacDonald. Had a very different feel to it than the others I've read. Much more expansive with all the different plot threads and characters, each drawn masterfully. This book read like Yates doing a novelization of a Coen brothers film. MacDonald is the man.
August 7, 2016
The first third of this book was really slow for me. All character development, to the extreme. Then we get into it. Masterfully written crime novel by John MacDonald. Attorneys, a Senator, a prostitute, boats, money and murder. This ended up being a great read if you can trod through the slow character development.
January 11, 2023
In the Last One Left, a 1966 novel by John MacDonald, one of the last of the standalone novels coming out after he began the Travis McGee series and with very few stand-alones after that. Like the Travis McGee series, this is a crime thriller set partly in Florida. But, here, there does not appear to be a shining knight in armor.
Rather, what you get is a full-length novel treatment of several classic crime fiction motifs, beginning with the femme fatale, Chrissy, and the suitcase full of money. While some might argue that this novel was a bit bloated and could have lost a little bit on the cutting room floor, there is also the argument that MacDonald got a chance to more broadly set forth his themes. There is, of course, also the question of who the last one left refers to. Is it the last survivor of the ill-fated boat trip? Is it the last survivor of the ill-fated scheme to grab the suitcase of money?
One of those themes is that the roots of the missing suitcase filled with money and all the greed and murder it spawned is in a crooked land deal, a familiar theme for MacDonald who saw many of the wealthy land barons of his time as conniving bastards who would not hesitate to cut corners or bribe board members in order to get a deal done.
Another one of those themes is the femme fatale, Crissy Harkinson, who does not just appear out of thin air, but is given an extensive backstory, including her mercenary relationship with the Senator, her ideas about how she will survive now with only the house and the boat left to her and no source of income as her looks are waning with her approach to the forties. Once you see her backstory through her eyes and her thoughts, you can see how she might be tempted to make a bargain with the devil for a suitcase full of money and a lifetime full of tarnished dreams.
Captain Garry Staniker is an amazing character who could have been fleshed out even more. He is one of those colorful marina characters who never seem to be that successful and never seem to be able to move out of the marina. Here, he manages to blow up a sophisticated cruiser in the open sea and survive, barely. His survival is nothing short of amazing.
But then there may be one other survivor hinted at and her rescuer is the oddest character, one half out of his mind permanently who has created his own little island and his own little world. Unfortunately, the Sergeant is half in and half out of our world.
There are two characters who play a part in unraveling the mystery as to what happened, Raul Kelly, a Cuban exile, now a news reporter, and a shrewd Texas lawyer, Sam Boylston. Both of them are quite interesting, but neither fully provides a focal point for the entire novel the way Travis McGee does in that series.
Ultimately, it is a classic noir crime thriller with the lead criminals (as they would become) all poised to be at each other’s throats as their final reckoning comes.
Rather, what you get is a full-length novel treatment of several classic crime fiction motifs, beginning with the femme fatale, Chrissy, and the suitcase full of money. While some might argue that this novel was a bit bloated and could have lost a little bit on the cutting room floor, there is also the argument that MacDonald got a chance to more broadly set forth his themes. There is, of course, also the question of who the last one left refers to. Is it the last survivor of the ill-fated boat trip? Is it the last survivor of the ill-fated scheme to grab the suitcase of money?
One of those themes is that the roots of the missing suitcase filled with money and all the greed and murder it spawned is in a crooked land deal, a familiar theme for MacDonald who saw many of the wealthy land barons of his time as conniving bastards who would not hesitate to cut corners or bribe board members in order to get a deal done.
Another one of those themes is the femme fatale, Crissy Harkinson, who does not just appear out of thin air, but is given an extensive backstory, including her mercenary relationship with the Senator, her ideas about how she will survive now with only the house and the boat left to her and no source of income as her looks are waning with her approach to the forties. Once you see her backstory through her eyes and her thoughts, you can see how she might be tempted to make a bargain with the devil for a suitcase full of money and a lifetime full of tarnished dreams.
Captain Garry Staniker is an amazing character who could have been fleshed out even more. He is one of those colorful marina characters who never seem to be that successful and never seem to be able to move out of the marina. Here, he manages to blow up a sophisticated cruiser in the open sea and survive, barely. His survival is nothing short of amazing.
But then there may be one other survivor hinted at and her rescuer is the oddest character, one half out of his mind permanently who has created his own little island and his own little world. Unfortunately, the Sergeant is half in and half out of our world.
There are two characters who play a part in unraveling the mystery as to what happened, Raul Kelly, a Cuban exile, now a news reporter, and a shrewd Texas lawyer, Sam Boylston. Both of them are quite interesting, but neither fully provides a focal point for the entire novel the way Travis McGee does in that series.
Ultimately, it is a classic noir crime thriller with the lead criminals (as they would become) all poised to be at each other’s throats as their final reckoning comes.
April 24, 2018
The books of John D. MacDonald are great studies in human nature, and this one adds to the canon. He details the unfathomable greed of people, who will commit any act and risk everything for a pile of paper. They are the wolves, who prey on others, and then we have a few guard dogs who stand between those wolves and the sheep they would devour. The absolute lack of human feeling in the greedy is pathological, and is evident in today's society, seen in politicians, who can never get enough. Few can show corruption as thoroughly as MacDonald, and it's effects. Here is another tale of money and murder in what could be a paradise. Chilling and thought-provoking.
May 4, 2024
Reading this novel was like watching a single, settling snowflake slowly turn into an avalanche.
To recount the plot in a few sentences might be a fool's errand. I'll just say that there is an enormous cast of characters connected to a missing yacht and a large sum of money. Some are innocent, some are corrupted, one or two are pure evil.
The thing about the book is that MacDonald decided to flesh every single one of them out. Everyone has a backstory, even characters that stick around for just a chapter. Sometimes these backstories were fascinating; sometimes not so much. In fact, I'd say it wasn't until about half-way through the book I really started to get into it. MacDonald is a brilliant writer, but I think he was more experimenting with this novel than anything else. "Just how round can I make every single character?"
When the storylines start to converge and plots thicken, I couldn't put the book down. But it took a while to get to that point.
To recount the plot in a few sentences might be a fool's errand. I'll just say that there is an enormous cast of characters connected to a missing yacht and a large sum of money. Some are innocent, some are corrupted, one or two are pure evil.
The thing about the book is that MacDonald decided to flesh every single one of them out. Everyone has a backstory, even characters that stick around for just a chapter. Sometimes these backstories were fascinating; sometimes not so much. In fact, I'd say it wasn't until about half-way through the book I really started to get into it. MacDonald is a brilliant writer, but I think he was more experimenting with this novel than anything else. "Just how round can I make every single character?"
When the storylines start to converge and plots thicken, I couldn't put the book down. But it took a while to get to that point.
November 3, 2023
This will go down as one of my dumber reviews, as I read The Last One Left instead of my book club book The Only One Left.. still a good book that follows many storylines that ultimately converge. A little confusing to start and there are better thrilleresque options.
July 12, 2020
John D. MacDonald deserves all the accolades he gets. He is a master of character, setting, and plot, and he can tell a heck of a story in a way that keeps you turning the pages.
This is a standalone novel about multiple murders at sea in an explosion on a chartered boat between South Florida and The Bahamas. It evokes MacDonald’s celebrated Travis McGee series, but it’s more expansive and ambitious than the McGee books, at least as I remember them (having read them, in most cases, quite a few years ago).
The book starts out somewhat slowly as MacDonald builds out the large cast of characters involved in the story. I found myself wondering how, or if, they would all fit together. But as the connections fall into place, the suspense builds. The planning behind the explosion and subsequent cover-up is as ingenious as it is cold-blooded, and detection seems unlikely. Small details can have a way of tripping up even the cleverest of criminals. But will that prove true in this case, or will the mastermind behind the murders be “the last one left”?
This is a standalone novel about multiple murders at sea in an explosion on a chartered boat between South Florida and The Bahamas. It evokes MacDonald’s celebrated Travis McGee series, but it’s more expansive and ambitious than the McGee books, at least as I remember them (having read them, in most cases, quite a few years ago).
The book starts out somewhat slowly as MacDonald builds out the large cast of characters involved in the story. I found myself wondering how, or if, they would all fit together. But as the connections fall into place, the suspense builds. The planning behind the explosion and subsequent cover-up is as ingenious as it is cold-blooded, and detection seems unlikely. Small details can have a way of tripping up even the cleverest of criminals. But will that prove true in this case, or will the mastermind behind the murders be “the last one left”?
January 27, 2016
1967 thriller by J.D. MacDonald set in late spring of 1965. Finalist 1968 Gold Dagger Award. A classic JDM thriller. The runabout, Muñequita, featured in the story becomes the namesake for the boat used in the Travis Magee series. This book is full of the characteristic JDM descriptions. For example of a young girl in a swimming pool: "The muscles of her back, contours softened by the little layer of woman-fat under the wet brown hide, moved smoothly and with precision."
Thriller - A yacht explodes in the Bahamas, apparently killing six people and leaving its burned captain temporarily marooned on a small island. Sam Boyleston, an attorney from Texas and the brother of one of the victims, investigates the circumstances, as does Raoul Kelly, a newspaper reporter. As the plot develops it becomes apparent that one person is ruthlessly manipulating events, but proving guilt appears impossible
Thriller - A yacht explodes in the Bahamas, apparently killing six people and leaving its burned captain temporarily marooned on a small island. Sam Boyleston, an attorney from Texas and the brother of one of the victims, investigates the circumstances, as does Raoul Kelly, a newspaper reporter. As the plot develops it becomes apparent that one person is ruthlessly manipulating events, but proving guilt appears impossible
February 11, 2014
One of the best of his
if you don't know John D start here. His best standalone work with a couple of sly nods to the Travis McGee series.
if you don't know John D start here. His best standalone work with a couple of sly nods to the Travis McGee series.
May 14, 2024
Sort of a messy start, getting to know all the characters and background. But then it comes together, into a really interesting murder mystery! Ship wrecks, treasure, brutality.. Would recommend.
August 4, 2015
The book is not at all among the types of books I normally read, which was a nice change. A colleague recommended it. Published first in 1967 it evokes the period perfectly now almost forty years later. Men were characterized then, at least in this story, as sexual animals, strong, demanding, brutish. And women, clever, kind, maternal (unless a high-class hooker), and understanding of the needs of men. The plot was excellent, as it should be since the author wrote dozens of very successful books. I'm happy to have read and effortlessly enjoyed this book.
December 9, 2019
Oh JDM. I am not sure why I put this novel on the "To Read" shelf, but I I know why I downloaded it from the New York Public Library...(Thanks, sis!) to get it OFF the "To Read" shelf.
It was a bit of a chore, actually, to plough through JDM's special flavor of hardboiled Sunshine State mystery. I can't enjoy the misogyny and I don't love his characters, and while this is a stand alone novel without his usual gang in play, it doesn't seem to step far from the realm of Travis McGee.
It was a bit of a chore, actually, to plough through JDM's special flavor of hardboiled Sunshine State mystery. I can't enjoy the misogyny and I don't love his characters, and while this is a stand alone novel without his usual gang in play, it doesn't seem to step far from the realm of Travis McGee.
October 8, 2017
Page Turner!
An excellent mystery from my favorite story teller. I’ve enjoyed this novel and hope to read everything MacDonald has written.
An excellent mystery from my favorite story teller. I’ve enjoyed this novel and hope to read everything MacDonald has written.
November 29, 2018
An exploration of an evil mind
The antihero of this novel is someone the reader quickly comes to despise. Certainly McDonald's ability to display the trimmings of an age such as princess phones and 'transistorized' Japanese tape recorders is on display. Several clever plot twists and characterizations help make the story interesting. At some level the reader knows there will be a happy ending but it is fun to see the details McDonald uses to achieve that.
Certainly the reader is brought back to the immediate post Castro and post bday of pigs era. The reader is reminded how much different the world seemed then.
The antihero of this novel is someone the reader quickly comes to despise. Certainly McDonald's ability to display the trimmings of an age such as princess phones and 'transistorized' Japanese tape recorders is on display. Several clever plot twists and characterizations help make the story interesting. At some level the reader knows there will be a happy ending but it is fun to see the details McDonald uses to achieve that.
Certainly the reader is brought back to the immediate post Castro and post bday of pigs era. The reader is reminded how much different the world seemed then.
August 30, 2015
Unbelievably slow book takes forever for the story to develop, while there is way too much character development. The is the first book by this author that was slow and boring, which was really surprising since everything else I have read was good. The author is known for heavy character development but in this case it was too much, for this reader.
July 21, 2016
Gave up on of 60. I could not plod through a section anymore. It is filled with people of the sort that Travis McGee would have long since left the party and bundled up the Busted Flush and poured an icy Plymouth over rocks.
August 17, 2018
Thank you Mr MacDonald
I grew up entranced with all of the Travis McGee colors . Rereading this book brings back the old feelings, John D. Is
absolutely one of the worlds greatest storytellers. Read any of
his works, he will Never let you down!
I grew up entranced with all of the Travis McGee colors . Rereading this book brings back the old feelings, John D. Is
absolutely one of the worlds greatest storytellers. Read any of
his works, he will Never let you down!
September 9, 2014
A disappointment to me. Just too much explanation about financial situations to grab my interest. Should have been fun--seas between Florida and Bahamas, south Texas land and oil guys. Just wasn't.
February 24, 2015
Not Travis McGee. Lead female character was extremely unbelievable. Even for 1966.
February 8, 2016
It wasn't until page 150 that I felt I was finally into the book. It is an intriguing murder mystery read by Florida's one book, one author read.
December 26, 2014
22 dec 14, monday evening
#12 from macdonald for me.
(1967) the last one left
story begins:
at the small bon voyage party at the delmar bay yacht clud kip and selma had given howard and junie prowt a little brass plaque to affix to one of the bulkheads of the hojun. it read, "oh lord, thy sea is so vast and my boat is so small!"
okee-dokee, then...as the good doctor said (surf city, 1958)...onward and upward.
a note on the narration
the telling is 3rd-person multiple character p.o.v. many of the other macdonald stories i've read were written before this one...and first impression is that this story has a tad more style...elegance...complexity. we'll see. he captures the sea.
time, place, scene, settings
*the atlantic between pier 66 lauderdale and bimini
*south joulter cay...a small island
*the gulf stream
*corpus christi, texas...a roadside restaurant on the outskirts
*aboard a 34' owens cruiser, in may...howard/junie prowt
*nassau, bahamas
*#10, mooney bungelow courts...cabins...or a kind of cabin near coarl cables/miami
*harlingen, texas...where sam hails from
*sergeant's island...where corpo hangs his hat
characters, major minor peripheral name only
*kip and selma
*howard & junie prowt: howard is a retired wholesale grocer from moline...captain of his own vessel now...junie is his wife. she is 58...he must be that age or older. heron bayou is home to them
*horatio hornblower
*captain bligh
*captain garry staniker: washes up on south joulter key...off the muneca...that was towing the munequita...he and six others were on a boat trip...the boat burned...he survived...howard and junie saw the smaller boat, still afloat...junie saw a hand w/the binoculars..they did not render aid...they continued on...in swells...howard did not want to change it. staniker and cristen are an item.
*sam boylston: a rich, 30-year-old, demanding man...estranged from his wife who tries to communicate her concerns...in one ear, out the other...although she knows he is...clueless...she understands him. they have one child, a five-year-old. attorney in the firm boylston & worth
*lydia jean: sam's estranged wife
*boy-sam: their 5-year-old son
*crissy...w/staniker on the boat the burned
*mary jane...same...on the boat
*barth, a vacationing dentist on board a chriscraft owned by his plumbing contractor friend...and their wives
*bert hilger: the plumbing contractor friend of barth, owner of the chris craft...they rescue staniker...bring him to nassau
*bix...mr. kayd...on the boat that burned
*miss steila...on the boat that burned
leila: sam's sister...nineteen-year-old, going with jonathan dye, 21...and they want to live the altruistic life...and sam wants her to open her eyes...doesn't believe she will be happy with jonathan. they parents were killed in an accident.
*carolyn, bix kayd's second wife
*roger kayd...i think a son of the kayd's
*seddon & garvey...architects who designed a house for sam boylston
*bern wallader...knows sam...sam smacked him in the mouth
*shugg...a texas highwway patrol cop...stops sam...knows sam...gives sam the news about his sister leila
*little chippy in her short tight skirt...at a stoplight..sam watched
*son of a county judge...same gave testimony when the son had been killed on a stretch of highway shugg stops him on
*tom insley
*taylor worth: sam's partner
*old judge billy alwerd in brosnville
*tom dorra...owns groves...home near mcallen
*bud wing: jonathan has been working for him...and wing reported back to sam
cristen harkinson: a mover & shaker...of her body...is getting older...36-year-old...and for some she passes herself as 28-year-old...to oliver, "the boy"....fair&balanced...she has used been used by men and is looking to score big so she is set...what with no 401k plan...call girl/hooker...been around the block
*francisca...cuban housemaid to cristen...from cuba of course...has this great line sotch a crock of sheet!...daughter of don esteban torceo...under batista...her brother enrique
*raoul kelly...only child of a shopkeeper...bay of pigs, isle of pines...reporter. his story, w/francisca or "'cisca" is a separate (almost) storyline...
*rosita, friend of francisca
*ferris tontaine,state senator...diddling cristen, set her up in house...she wanted security...he died in her place...they deposited him downtown miami in his car running, typical politician...although if this story were written today the writer would have labelled his party. i have read stories, stories that come immediately to mind...and those writers are juvenile. macdonald does not do that here...and the story reads oh so much better because you know...i do...that some asshat writer of today can't write without getting in his/her jibe at the other party. boolsheet of the purest ray serene. refreshing not to read that.
*angus squires, wheeler dealer...canadian
*oliver "olly" akard: lover boy of cristen...she is using him, setting him up...he has been teaching her how to sail
*betty, his steady girlfriend for the last three years
*sir willis willard, chairman of the board, ventures corporation
*seargeant walter corpo: but just "corpo" for the most, in the story, that or "sergeant"...and this character is a hoot...he is a joy to read. he is a kind of hermit there on some small patch of island...where he built his shack and where he wants to be left alone...wounded in the war...a friend, "the lieutenant" looks after him. corpo finds leila adrift in a boat, nurses her back to health, and then some. the time w/corpo and leila is a story itself.
*stanely moree: this man has a homemade boat...catamaran...and jonathan enlists that boat and his help in finding leila...and this is another storyline within the main. he is from nicholl's town at the north end of andros
*jake lord: is a pilot of a seaplane that puts down and gives jonathan/morlee the news.
*femay the boosh: french slang for shut the mouth
*mrs. mooney: mrs. michael mooney...a dwarf...a midget...can one say that today in the climate of change? w/o being labelled a hater? probably not. bunch of pikers. that she is a dwarf from a circus, now running some cabins, is not clear...the dwarf part of it or i missed it one. she alsso has a bad habit. husband dead. she is an instrument of comedic relief in the story...and an instrument to help move the story along.
*gordeon dale...lawyer
*detective sergeants lamarr and dickinson
*cops/detectives bert kindler and barney scheff
*lobwohl...a captain on the force i think
*chief cooley...did i spell that right?
*special nurse thelma chappie...instrumental in the tape recorder bizness
*raas...attorney represents christen
there's a pile more...i think the above includes all of the 'main' characters...though i don't know if the lieutenant had a name...must...not in my notes.
update, 24 dec 14, finished...wednesday morning
good story. i like sergeant corpo and his time with missy. cristen is another story...although reading her character provided me with some ideas about endings. her ending here was a tad...something...i'm feeling benevolent, so the willing suspension went along with it, but i wonder if macdonald had a manuscript of growing length and needed to ends things and this is what we have. you decide. still, a good story...and since we're on the subject, the logistics do not jive...ballistics i guess they call it, angles, this that the other...but...the willing suspension went along with it...honestly, it was only after the fact that i began to question the how of it.
and...i liked how we returned to the good captain and crew at the end there...those characters from the beginning who failed to render aid. the lists above are not complete...it is the day before christmas and i may not get back to them. glory, hey? all that work for those happy campers in utah? here and elsewhere?
#12 from macdonald for me.
(1967) the last one left
story begins:
at the small bon voyage party at the delmar bay yacht clud kip and selma had given howard and junie prowt a little brass plaque to affix to one of the bulkheads of the hojun. it read, "oh lord, thy sea is so vast and my boat is so small!"
okee-dokee, then...as the good doctor said (surf city, 1958)...onward and upward.
a note on the narration
the telling is 3rd-person multiple character p.o.v. many of the other macdonald stories i've read were written before this one...and first impression is that this story has a tad more style...elegance...complexity. we'll see. he captures the sea.
time, place, scene, settings
*the atlantic between pier 66 lauderdale and bimini
*south joulter cay...a small island
*the gulf stream
*corpus christi, texas...a roadside restaurant on the outskirts
*aboard a 34' owens cruiser, in may...howard/junie prowt
*nassau, bahamas
*#10, mooney bungelow courts...cabins...or a kind of cabin near coarl cables/miami
*harlingen, texas...where sam hails from
*sergeant's island...where corpo hangs his hat
characters, major minor peripheral name only
*kip and selma
*howard & junie prowt: howard is a retired wholesale grocer from moline...captain of his own vessel now...junie is his wife. she is 58...he must be that age or older. heron bayou is home to them
*horatio hornblower
*captain bligh
*captain garry staniker: washes up on south joulter key...off the muneca...that was towing the munequita...he and six others were on a boat trip...the boat burned...he survived...howard and junie saw the smaller boat, still afloat...junie saw a hand w/the binoculars..they did not render aid...they continued on...in swells...howard did not want to change it. staniker and cristen are an item.
*sam boylston: a rich, 30-year-old, demanding man...estranged from his wife who tries to communicate her concerns...in one ear, out the other...although she knows he is...clueless...she understands him. they have one child, a five-year-old. attorney in the firm boylston & worth
*lydia jean: sam's estranged wife
*boy-sam: their 5-year-old son
*crissy...w/staniker on the boat the burned
*mary jane...same...on the boat
*barth, a vacationing dentist on board a chriscraft owned by his plumbing contractor friend...and their wives
*bert hilger: the plumbing contractor friend of barth, owner of the chris craft...they rescue staniker...bring him to nassau
*bix...mr. kayd...on the boat that burned
*miss steila...on the boat that burned
leila: sam's sister...nineteen-year-old, going with jonathan dye, 21...and they want to live the altruistic life...and sam wants her to open her eyes...doesn't believe she will be happy with jonathan. they parents were killed in an accident.
*carolyn, bix kayd's second wife
*roger kayd...i think a son of the kayd's
*seddon & garvey...architects who designed a house for sam boylston
*bern wallader...knows sam...sam smacked him in the mouth
*shugg...a texas highwway patrol cop...stops sam...knows sam...gives sam the news about his sister leila
*little chippy in her short tight skirt...at a stoplight..sam watched
*son of a county judge...same gave testimony when the son had been killed on a stretch of highway shugg stops him on
*tom insley
*taylor worth: sam's partner
*old judge billy alwerd in brosnville
*tom dorra...owns groves...home near mcallen
*bud wing: jonathan has been working for him...and wing reported back to sam
cristen harkinson: a mover & shaker...of her body...is getting older...36-year-old...and for some she passes herself as 28-year-old...to oliver, "the boy"....fair&balanced...she has used been used by men and is looking to score big so she is set...what with no 401k plan...call girl/hooker...been around the block
*francisca...cuban housemaid to cristen...from cuba of course...has this great line sotch a crock of sheet!...daughter of don esteban torceo...under batista...her brother enrique
*raoul kelly...only child of a shopkeeper...bay of pigs, isle of pines...reporter. his story, w/francisca or "'cisca" is a separate (almost) storyline...
*rosita, friend of francisca
*ferris tontaine,state senator...diddling cristen, set her up in house...she wanted security...he died in her place...they deposited him downtown miami in his car running, typical politician...although if this story were written today the writer would have labelled his party. i have read stories, stories that come immediately to mind...and those writers are juvenile. macdonald does not do that here...and the story reads oh so much better because you know...i do...that some asshat writer of today can't write without getting in his/her jibe at the other party. boolsheet of the purest ray serene. refreshing not to read that.
*angus squires, wheeler dealer...canadian
*oliver "olly" akard: lover boy of cristen...she is using him, setting him up...he has been teaching her how to sail
*betty, his steady girlfriend for the last three years
*sir willis willard, chairman of the board, ventures corporation
*seargeant walter corpo: but just "corpo" for the most, in the story, that or "sergeant"...and this character is a hoot...he is a joy to read. he is a kind of hermit there on some small patch of island...where he built his shack and where he wants to be left alone...wounded in the war...a friend, "the lieutenant" looks after him. corpo finds leila adrift in a boat, nurses her back to health, and then some. the time w/corpo and leila is a story itself.
*stanely moree: this man has a homemade boat...catamaran...and jonathan enlists that boat and his help in finding leila...and this is another storyline within the main. he is from nicholl's town at the north end of andros
*jake lord: is a pilot of a seaplane that puts down and gives jonathan/morlee the news.
*femay the boosh: french slang for shut the mouth
*mrs. mooney: mrs. michael mooney...a dwarf...a midget...can one say that today in the climate of change? w/o being labelled a hater? probably not. bunch of pikers. that she is a dwarf from a circus, now running some cabins, is not clear...the dwarf part of it or i missed it one. she alsso has a bad habit. husband dead. she is an instrument of comedic relief in the story...and an instrument to help move the story along.
*gordeon dale...lawyer
*detective sergeants lamarr and dickinson
*cops/detectives bert kindler and barney scheff
*lobwohl...a captain on the force i think
*chief cooley...did i spell that right?
*special nurse thelma chappie...instrumental in the tape recorder bizness
*raas...attorney represents christen
there's a pile more...i think the above includes all of the 'main' characters...though i don't know if the lieutenant had a name...must...not in my notes.
update, 24 dec 14, finished...wednesday morning
good story. i like sergeant corpo and his time with missy. cristen is another story...although reading her character provided me with some ideas about endings. her ending here was a tad...something...i'm feeling benevolent, so the willing suspension went along with it, but i wonder if macdonald had a manuscript of growing length and needed to ends things and this is what we have. you decide. still, a good story...and since we're on the subject, the logistics do not jive...ballistics i guess they call it, angles, this that the other...but...the willing suspension went along with it...honestly, it was only after the fact that i began to question the how of it.
and...i liked how we returned to the good captain and crew at the end there...those characters from the beginning who failed to render aid. the lists above are not complete...it is the day before christmas and i may not get back to them. glory, hey? all that work for those happy campers in utah? here and elsewhere?
January 24, 2024
Published in 1967, this is one of John D. MacDonald's longest and most ambitious novels. Taking a quick look at my bookshelves, it would appear that only Condominium, published ten years later, was longer than this one.
Most of the author's novels, both his standalones and the Travis McGee series, are fairly concise, quick reads, and people expecting another such novel may well be disappointed in this case, feeling that there's too much detail, too many characters, and too complex a plot. But those who settle in for the ride are in for a treat.
Like Condominium, this book begins very slowly, introducing a large cast of characters and setting the stage before it gets down to the business of setting the story into motion. The action is set in the waters off the coast of Florida in the middle 1960s. A pleasure boat, owned by a developer/wheeler-dealer from Texas, goes missing. Several days later, the boat's captain, an experienced seaman named Staniker, is found badly burned and barely alive on a small island.
From his hospital bed, Staniker explains that the vessel, the Muneca, exploded, killing everyone aboard, including his wife, Mary Jane, who was the boat's cook. Staniker, who was up on the bridge at the time, was thrown clear and managed to float to the island where he waited until he was rescued.
A Texas lawyer named Sam Boylston takes a special interest in the apparent accident because his young sister, Leila, was a passenger on the Muneca. Boylston is wound a bit too tight and his wife has just left him. He races to Florida to see what, if anything, he can do. Nosing around, Boylston discovers that the developer who owned the boat was carrying $800,000 in cash, which he intended to use as a bribe to facilitate one of his shady land deals. The fact that all that money has now also apparently gone missing adds a very intriguing angle to the story.
The cast also includes a shrewd and conniving ex-prostitute, an impressionable young boy, a newspaper man, a beautiful maid, a handful of cops, and a wounded WW II veteran who now lives in isolation on an island off the Florida coast. We get to know most of these characters intimately as the story develops, and the tension rises dramatically as MacDonald puts them all into motion. It's a fairly complex story with a lot of characters working their own special, selfish angles. And, as in most novels by John D. MacDonald, there's a lot of greed and corruption on display, which makes for a fairly delicious reading experience.
The book also contains a fair amount of the author's philosophizing about the nature of life. This was a trademark of MacDonald's novels and nearly sixty years down the road, it doesn't wear very well. Still, for those who have the patience to settle in and enjoy it, this is a very good read.
Most of the author's novels, both his standalones and the Travis McGee series, are fairly concise, quick reads, and people expecting another such novel may well be disappointed in this case, feeling that there's too much detail, too many characters, and too complex a plot. But those who settle in for the ride are in for a treat.
Like Condominium, this book begins very slowly, introducing a large cast of characters and setting the stage before it gets down to the business of setting the story into motion. The action is set in the waters off the coast of Florida in the middle 1960s. A pleasure boat, owned by a developer/wheeler-dealer from Texas, goes missing. Several days later, the boat's captain, an experienced seaman named Staniker, is found badly burned and barely alive on a small island.
From his hospital bed, Staniker explains that the vessel, the Muneca, exploded, killing everyone aboard, including his wife, Mary Jane, who was the boat's cook. Staniker, who was up on the bridge at the time, was thrown clear and managed to float to the island where he waited until he was rescued.
A Texas lawyer named Sam Boylston takes a special interest in the apparent accident because his young sister, Leila, was a passenger on the Muneca. Boylston is wound a bit too tight and his wife has just left him. He races to Florida to see what, if anything, he can do. Nosing around, Boylston discovers that the developer who owned the boat was carrying $800,000 in cash, which he intended to use as a bribe to facilitate one of his shady land deals. The fact that all that money has now also apparently gone missing adds a very intriguing angle to the story.
The cast also includes a shrewd and conniving ex-prostitute, an impressionable young boy, a newspaper man, a beautiful maid, a handful of cops, and a wounded WW II veteran who now lives in isolation on an island off the Florida coast. We get to know most of these characters intimately as the story develops, and the tension rises dramatically as MacDonald puts them all into motion. It's a fairly complex story with a lot of characters working their own special, selfish angles. And, as in most novels by John D. MacDonald, there's a lot of greed and corruption on display, which makes for a fairly delicious reading experience.
The book also contains a fair amount of the author's philosophizing about the nature of life. This was a trademark of MacDonald's novels and nearly sixty years down the road, it doesn't wear very well. Still, for those who have the patience to settle in and enjoy it, this is a very good read.
June 24, 2022
It’s a long time since I read a John D. MacDonald novel. This one was first published in 1967; my edition is the 2014 Random House copy, recently purchased. Amusingly, MacDonald dedicated the novel ‘to Travis McGee who lent invaluable support and encouragement’.
It begins and also ends with the boating couple Howard and June Prowt off the Gold Coast off Florida. Anyone who has read MacDonald will be familiar with his knowledge of sailing craft, which shows in his description of both the vessel and the state of the sea. They thought they saw a boat adrift but were unable to go alongside and then it was gone.
Staniker has survived an explosion at sea; he’d been hired to captain the boat for the Kayd family. He’s the last one left, the rest of the passengers have perished. He is being nursed back to health.
Sam Boylston, a Texas lawyer, is mourning the death of his sister Leila – she was one of the passengers on the Kayd vessel. Leila’s husband Jonathan was convinced she was alive and planned a hair-brained search for her in the vast ocean.
Chrissie Harkinson is pleased to bed the young boat boy Oliver for she has a use for him. She also knows Staniker so naturally she visits him, just to see how he’s doing…
And so begins a convoluted but easy to follow plot that is pure MacDonald. His descriptions of characters, minor and major, and the locales are spot on, as ever. Oh, yes, indeed, there’s certainly something not right. There’s the question of a considerable amount of cash involved which might be missing… There’s also a beautiful Cuban maid with an interesting back-story, and she is involved with Raoul Kelly, an investigative reporter.
The characters are set up, the plot is unfolding and it all falls into place. And as you’d expect with one of John D.’s mystery thrillers there are murders and betrayals.
Loved it. Good to reacquaint myself with you, John D. You might have died in 1986, aged seventy, but you still excite your readers three decades later.
It begins and also ends with the boating couple Howard and June Prowt off the Gold Coast off Florida. Anyone who has read MacDonald will be familiar with his knowledge of sailing craft, which shows in his description of both the vessel and the state of the sea. They thought they saw a boat adrift but were unable to go alongside and then it was gone.
Staniker has survived an explosion at sea; he’d been hired to captain the boat for the Kayd family. He’s the last one left, the rest of the passengers have perished. He is being nursed back to health.
Sam Boylston, a Texas lawyer, is mourning the death of his sister Leila – she was one of the passengers on the Kayd vessel. Leila’s husband Jonathan was convinced she was alive and planned a hair-brained search for her in the vast ocean.
Chrissie Harkinson is pleased to bed the young boat boy Oliver for she has a use for him. She also knows Staniker so naturally she visits him, just to see how he’s doing…
And so begins a convoluted but easy to follow plot that is pure MacDonald. His descriptions of characters, minor and major, and the locales are spot on, as ever. Oh, yes, indeed, there’s certainly something not right. There’s the question of a considerable amount of cash involved which might be missing… There’s also a beautiful Cuban maid with an interesting back-story, and she is involved with Raoul Kelly, an investigative reporter.
The characters are set up, the plot is unfolding and it all falls into place. And as you’d expect with one of John D.’s mystery thrillers there are murders and betrayals.
Loved it. Good to reacquaint myself with you, John D. You might have died in 1986, aged seventy, but you still excite your readers three decades later.
October 12, 2020
This is a mid-career novel of MacDonald's. He knows what he wants to say. He knows people, and his characters are real flesh-and-blood people. He takes time with them all. Some are there to flesh out the story, some are there to tell the story, some are there to show you what kind of people live in this world, and what they do that's good, and what they do that's bad, and even very bad. And none of them are one-dimensional. Sometimes, in a MacDonald story, the pace is quick, and the story has you running to keep up, and then it's over. But often, MacDonald takes you where you don't expect to go, to see people you don't want to like as real people, and see people you want to like, as real, and maybe not the people you want to believe exist. But they do. And the spectrum of people, motives, and opinions in a MacDoanld stoty, like this one, is very wide. Quite a few people die in this story, and maybe some of them should have died, in a karma-like, good vs. evil kind of morality tale, but maybe some of them didn't deserve to die. The plot is simple, but it twists and turns like a dingy in a storm. And, after awhile, you find you're more interested in the characters, and what happens to each of them. You start to realize how it may end, and how you want it to end, but that's not the real point. MacDonald got you to think, and he got you to care, about the characters, and society in general, and what we do to each other and to ourselves. And you realize that you've been drawn into philosphical examinations of the charcaters, society, and yourself.
May 12, 2023
The Last One Left by John D. MacDonald (Doubleday 1967) (Fiction-Thriller) (3787).
I’m an old fan of author John D. MacDonald from way back. He wrote suspense novel-thrillers and short stories. I devoured every single one of his twenty-one novels in his Travis McGee series in the 1980’s, and I read a couple of his other stand-alone novels as well.
I recently bought an old HB copy of his 1966 stand-alone thriller The Last One Left. I expected to love it, and I figured that I’d likely treat myself to a binge-read of the whole thing in a single sitting.
I cracked the novel open yesterday, and was astonished to find the thing unreadable! John D. has styled a complicated and wordy tale of intrigue surrounding a yacht explosion in the Bahamas. Other reviewers almost uniformly agree that the author has woven an intricate and complex plot; I found the thing utterly boring and crammed with so much extraneous detail that the story was incomprehensible. I could never find MacDonald’s plotline or the point of the tale. Suffice it to say that a thrill a minute this book is not.
After reading the first hundred pages, I went to bed, slept on the matter, and decided to abandon my reading of The Last One Left - at least for the present.
I may try this one again in the future, but I’m done for now. And I slipped this one to the very bottom of my future reading pile.
I purchased a used HB copy in acceptable condition on 5/1/23 for $9.50 from Amazon.
My rating: 6/10, finished (abandoned) 5/12/23 (3787).
HHHHHHHHHHHHHH
July 15, 2018
McDonald always spun such a fascinating, complex yarn, built such believable, deep-layered characters, described settings with such an artist's eye for detail, relayed action with such immediate, visceral impact, it seems a bit shabby, especially after more than fifty years since this novel was published, to complain about the one thing that really annoys me about his work; that is, the way his male and female characters talk to one another. One gets the impression that McDonald's feminine ideal was a smoky-voiced blonde out of some late-50s silver screen epic, a cool, collected, calculating femme fatale along the lines of Carol Ohmart in "House on Haunted Hill"... "Dahling, the only ghost here is you..." The women always seem to have things figured out from every angle before they utter a word, ready to expound on the meaning of life at the drop of a pillbox hat. This is simply to say that some of the dialogue doesn't ring particularly true, especially where terms of endearment come into play; McDonald puts "darling" in everybody's mouth, and gets to be a bit much when coming from, say, a horny 19-year-old boy. Perhaps, in this, the novel simply shows its age, or, possibly, tells us something about the very different age in which it was written. 'The Last One Left' is a fine novel, this small quibble notwithstanding, a classic, unhesitatingly recommended.
March 26, 2020
Why isn't John D. MacDonald included more often in America's finest writers? Okay, he is not a craftsman like Twain. Or Hawthorne. Or Cather. Second echelon, then. But still very good and worthy of attention by perceptive readers, perhaps not in college Literature classes (MacDonald would scoff at that), but in book clubs and on book lists. In format, this novel reminded me of MacDonald's "Hurricane": many different stories of several interesting characters intertwined, and the reader is for a time mystified as to what each has to do with the others. Gradually, adroitly, the connections become clear and, for all that, hit home much more effectively. The author's deft touch for nuance and subtle detail is impressive. Others may not appreciate the slow and steady build-up of the interconnected stories, but it is a technique that ultimately works, and works well. Whereas "Hurricane" was the lives of many people thrown together by accident, by natural disaster, "The Last One Left" sets out the stories of many people drawn together by a complicated and ingenious but insidious grab for a lot of cash. And I would argue that the kind of writer who never underestimates the intelligence of his reader is the finest kind of writer to have around. And to read.
March 30, 2021
Dull. Glacial. I started skipping text and missed nothing. The ending is ludicrous, both in the context of reality and the special reality of the book. It is, however, an interesting historical document, filled with misogyny and a casual attitude toward violence against women. Sexual description of a vary particular kind is throughout: the lurid but safe sort of stuff that might come from a prude feeling "wild" (but not too wild). I found this book in a box by the street, so I'm not out anything, and it was, after all, an experience - but so is having your wisdom teeth removed, so be warned. Further take into account that during a certain period in my early twenties (before I went to law school), I read a great many of John D. McDonald's Travis McGee books, one after another, and enjoyed them then. I was out of work and went every day to my university alma mater to sit and read - McDonald had endowed the university and it had an extensive collection of his works. So if I say this book is a stinker, it is not necessarily because I just generally don't like McDonald.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews