I envy the generation of readers just discovering Travis McGee, and count myself among the many readers savoring his adventures again. I loved it because he was the first modern writer to nail Florida dead-center, to capture all its languid sleaze, racy sense of promise, and breath-grabbing beauty. MacDonald created a staggering quantity of wonderful books, each rich with characterization, suspense, and an almost intoxicating sense of place.
The Travis McGee novels are among the finest works of fiction ever penned by an American author and they retain a remarkable sense of freshness. A writer way ahead of his time, his Travis McGee books are as entertaining, insightful, and suspenseful today as the moment I first read them. He is the all-time master of the American mystery novel.
A Deadly Shade of Gold by John D. MacDonald | theranchhands.com: Books
Also in Travis McGee. Also by John D. See all books by John D. Inspired by Your Browsing History. Praise Praise for John D. Looking for More Great Reads? Download our Spring Fiction Sampler Now. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about A Deadly Shade of Gold , please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about A Deadly Shade of Gold. Lists with This Book. Dec 13, Bobby Underwood rated it it was amazing. You realize as you read A Deadly Shade of Gold that the Travis McGee series is more than the sum of its parts, and better than almost any other series in the genre ever written. This is the entry where you can visibly see on paper, and almost tangibly feel in your bones the series transforming from something very good, into something for the ages, worthy of being placed in a time capsule for generations hundreds of years from now to discover.
The lengthiest entry of the entire series is involving, insightful, violent, and yet resonating.
- A Deadly Shade of Gold: Introduction by Lee Child by John D MacDonald - Penguin Books Australia.
- A Vast Illusion: Time According to A Course in Miracles.
- Coca Wars.
- Making The Frat: The Old School;
- A Travis McGee Novel.
- 15 Weird Facts You Dont Know About Chihuahuas (Deluxe Edition with Videos).
- Travis McGee - Wikipedia;
The body count is incredibly high here, yet the narrative is so rich and resonating, so filled with insight, it masks just how much life is lost in this one. McGee does actually take a body count as he lays wounded near the end of the book, and reaches ten. Nothing was lost by taking McGee out of his Ft. Lauderdale environment in the Mexico entries.
Get A Copy
MacDonald does the same with Mexico. That may in fact be why the books where part of the narrative is set in Mexico, seem so natural. What you do, you give him and the ones close to him no opening.
- A Deadly Shade of Gold: Introduction by Lee Child?
- ODonnell Aboo.
- See a Problem?.
- A Deadly Shade of Gold (Travis McGee #5) by John D. MacDonald!
- Navigation menu;
- El testamento del Che (Spanish Edition);
- Goodbye My Lover?
How do businessmen survive under Salazar, Franco, any of them? I am not being an apologist for my class. Perhaps we should have done something sooner, before the communistas came in with their perversions of freedom. Just as Raoul used to know them well. Upper class Havana was a small community, McGee. But now there is Raoul and I came out later.
It is the Castro equation, my friend. The later you left, the cleaner you were plucked. So we no longer travel in the same circles. It reminded me that the worst thing the Indians could do to their enemy prisoners was turn them over to the women. And there is a very dangerous man from the old Cuban regime living high on the hog in Mexico. There he meets the beautiful little Almah, with whom Sam was in love. She would have come up against something that couldn't be cajoled or seduced.
The ones with no give, the ones with the clear little porcelain hearts shatter. And in shattering, some splinters are lost, so that when, with great care, they are mended, the little fracture lines show. But when you break a pretty thing, even if it is a cheap pretty thing, something does go out of the world. Something died in that clearing. And she would never fit together as well again. He soon realizes that through actions aboard a boat, goaded into killing under false pretenses, Sam, at least the Sam both he and Nora knew, died long before he returned to Florida with the stolen artifact.
Too much had faded away, and the only target left was a grotesque pornographer with a voice like a trapped bee, and he seemed peripheral to the whole thing. Rich, colorful, incredibly involving and satisfying, A Deadly Shade of Gold is the kind of read that is marvelous on its own, and foreshadows the even deeper and more mature resonance of the last few books in the series.
A marvelous achievement within the series, and a book which set the bar higher for not only this series, but this genre. But real people wander around in the foggy foggy dew, and never get to understand anything completely, themselves included. View all 14 comments. Holy Aztec gold, Batman! This book was the bees knees. And the 60s is such a great — time — to tell such a tale.
He gets a call from an old friend and then WHAM! We've come a long way from the Prime Minister's exploding cake. Um, not sure what that has to do with the book, you did read it right Batman? They have strict licensing laws in this country. A boy of your age is not allowed in a drinking tavern. He interjected some astute observations about western civilization.
McGee was a very worldly guy. An especially good protagonist for the 60s. The true crimefighter always carries everything he needs in his utility belt, Robin. That's one trouble with dual identities, Robin. Mar 15, Darwin8u rated it really liked it Shelves: The only thing in the world worth a damn is the strange, touching, pathetic, awesome nobility of the individual human spirit. MacDonald, however, you are also likely to find weird paragraphs sprinkled into the novel that deal with economics, politics, love, lust, the John Birch Society, and the ethics of hunting.
Reading MacDonald is like The only thing in the world worth a damn is the strange, touching, pathetic, awesome nobility of the individual human spirit. Reading MacDonald is like having a surprisingly lucid conversation with a drunk economics professor who you recently discovered just killed a man with his golf club.
You can't pull away from the conversation and aren't quite sure if the story is going to continue, or if he is going to explore a tangent more appropriate for an economics class or his therapist. His brain is amazing and his stories definitely titillate on several levels at once. View all 3 comments. The stars, McGee, look down on a world where thousands of 4-H kids are raising prize cattle and sheep.
Many good and gentle people have fallen in love this night. At this moment, thousands of women are in labor with the fruit of good marriage. Thousands of kids sleep the deep sleep that comes from the long practice hours of competitive swimming and tennis. Good men have died today, leaving hearts sick with los The stars, McGee, look down on a world where thousands of 4-H kids are raising prize cattle and sheep. Good men have died today, leaving hearts sick with loss.
In quiet rooms young girls are writing poems. People are laughing together, in safe places. You have been on the underside of the world, McGee, but there is a top side too, where there is wonder, innocence, trust, love and gentleness. You made the decision, boy. My least favorite so far in the series. Probably the most amount of rantings against 20th Century Consumerist Culture so far though.
This spoiler is about any of the previous novels in the series view spoiler [Given the track record three of four to so far of women he really likes getting killed while he's trying to solve his case is that the right word for what he does? You could almost see the bullseye on her head the second she showed up in the book or technically on the throat hide spoiler ] 2.
Possibly the most condensed ending of any of the books in the series so far. Which is kind of weird since it's about twice as long. Confused about why this book was almost twice as long. I'm not sure if MacDonald just really liked the Nora character, or couldn't get himself to pull the trigger and start getting down to the meat of the story.
The lower rating is just to put this in perspective for me in the future so I know which ones I liked better than others. Because I forget things. I motioned him back and had him get himself a shot glass. I filled it from my bottle. I held my glass up and said, "Drink to me, my friend.
Drink to this poisonous bag of meat named McGee. And drink to little broken blondes, and a dead black dog, and a knife in the back of a woman, and a knife in the throat of a friend. Drink to a burned foot, and death at sea, and stinking prisons and obscene gold idols. Drink to loveless love, stolen money and a power of attorney, mi amigo. Drink to lust and crime and terror, the three unholy ultimates, and drik to all the problems which have no solution in this world, and at best a dubious one in the next. We drank and bowed and I filled the glasses again. I've started going back through the Travis McGee books off and on in-order since last winter.
I still enjoyed the first few, and was amazed at how McGee's cynical '60s worldview was still applicable to Since it's been so long, I've forgotten a lot of the plots and supporting characters so the books are new to me again in some ways, but it's weird how some lines or scenes were still very clear to me. A Deadly Shade of Gold has actually been the one that impressed me the most so far with it's plot of McGee running a scam to avenge a friend, but of course, ending up with a lot of physical injuries and emotional regrets.
MacDonald's portrayals of women seem very dated and even hysterical at times. Kind of like Mad Men without the irony. And McGee takes himself far too seriously. But these are still first rate crime stories, and MacDonald was way ahead of his time in some ways. McGee brooded about things like consumerism, privacy concerns in an era where computer databases were just starting , and the ecological damage being done to Florida in the name of 'progress'.
I think a lot crime fans may not realize how influential MacDonald and McGee were on the modern mystery novel, and it's been interesting reading them from the perspective of 40 years after they were written. Nov 10, Cathy DuPont rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys reading thought provoking series. I happen to enjoy, relish probably more accurate, Travis' musings on life.
There were a number of thoughtful observations that Travis made in Gold but this one was, I think, my favorite which I could have shortened but wanted the reader to get the entire reasoning behind Travis' remarks: She took me into a study which was also a trophy room. Some very good heads. There was a case of fine weapons behind glass.
There were framed photographs of her, younger, slimmer, just as vital, standing by the dead elephant, rhino, great ape. I took my sainted husband on safari five years running, thinking it would turn him into enough man for me. He killed like an accountant signing a ledger. He bent over a bush to pick a flower for me and a snake struck him in the throat. He was dead before he could fall to the ground. If it was permitted, I would have his head in here, mounted like the others.
I do not like the bully boys, the Teddy Roosevelts, the Hemingways, the Ruarks. It is the search for balls. A man should have his shot at something, a shining running something, and see it come a-tumbled down, all mucus and steaming blood stench and gouted excrement, the eyes going dull the final muscle spasms.
And if he is, in all parts and purposes, a man, he will file that away as a part of his process of growth and life and eventual death. And if he is perpetually, hopelessly a boy, he will just to go do it again, with a bigger beast.
Travis McGee
Never have I met a man who had the infantry memories, who had knocked down human meat and seen it fall, who ever had any stomach for shooting living things. His manhood would need no artificial reinforcing. However, the following authors have made many extraordinary comments about John D. View all 11 comments. Number five in the Travis McGee series but only the second one I have read. This is a darker, more violent book than The Deep Blue Good-by, with plenty of explosions and surprises for everyone from the Cuban bad guys to the Cuban good guys.
An old friend shows up needing help, but gets killed before he can really explain to Travis what has gone wrong. Much of that dissipates with the ending of The Lonely Silver Rain , which became the final volume when MacDonald died in Reports of another final McGee novel, possibly narrated by Meyer, titled A Black Border for McGee and to be published posthumously, [3] have never been confirmed.
MacDonald was already a prolific author of mystery and suspense novels when he decided to create a series character. McGee originally was to be called Dallas McGee, after the city, but after the Kennedy assassination , MacDonald decided that name had too many negative connotations. He was searching for a first name for McGee when a friend suggested that he look at the names of the many Air Force bases in California. The first three books in the Travis McGee series were published in quick succession, at the rate of one a month, a highly unusual publishing strategy.
According to MacDonald, he had earlier written an introductory novel about McGee that he burned as being unsatisfactory. A longtime resident of Sarasota's Siesta Key, MacDonald said he placed McGee on the opposite side of the state to protect his privacy in case the series became popular. Hall , and Les Standiford. Hiaasen specifically acknowledged his debt in an introduction he wrote for a new edition of The Deep Blue Good-By in , commenting that even though MacDonald was now eight years gone, he believed McGee was still around, probably sipping gin on the deck of the Busted Flush and pondering whatever it was that Florida had become or was becoming.
The resulting essay, "Reading for Survival", is a conversation between McGee and Meyer on the importance of reading. It has been rumored for years that MacDonald was planning a 22nd book to be titled A Black Border for McGee about the death of his famous character and told from the point of view of his friend Meyer.
The MacDonald family has steadfastly denied the rumors and has consistently and vigorously refused offers from other authors to continue the series, feeling that no one could properly capture the tone and voice of MacDonald and McGee. The latter relocates McGee in California, eliminating the Florida locales central to the novels. In addition, Elliott kept his trademark brushy mustache, thoroughly distancing himself from the clean-shaven, brush cut look McGee maintains in the books.
In , author MacDonald refused permission for a television series about Travis McGee and his cases, feeling people would stop reading the novels were Travis McGee regularly on television. Comedian Dan Rowan , a friend of MacDonald's, had expressed interest in playing the role of Travis McGee, but nothing ever materialized.
Robert Petkoff provided the voice of Travis McGee in the majority of the current audio book versions of the novels. In April , it was announced that the film's title was changed to Travis McGee. Dana Stevens and Kario Salem wrote the first draft. This was done in February , less than a year after MacDonald's death. After the remodeling of the Bahia Mar Yachting Center in to replace fixed docks with floating docks, there no longer existed a Slip F The plaque was remounted on a movable wooden base, which is presently located inside the marina Dockmaster's Office and Gift Shop.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Red Hot Typewriter: The Life and Times of John D. Archived from the original PDF on Archived from the original on Retrieved July 17, Indeed the boats along the F line clearly belong to multi-millionaires. The Dockmaster's Office, at the western end of the Bahia Mar Yachting Center, also serves as the marina store and business center.
Literary Landmarks factsheet Archived at the Wayback Machine.