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The Deep Blue Goodbye (Crime Masterworks)
 
 
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The Deep Blue Goodbye (Crime Masterworks) (Paperback)

by John D. MacDonald (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Orion; New edition edition (21 Mar 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0752847678
  • ISBN-13: 978-0752847672
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 350,287 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #21 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > M > MacDonald, John D.

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Product Description

Product Description

Travis McGee, beach bum and 'salvage expert' (he'll retrieve what you've lost for 50 per cent), lives on a houseboat in Fort Lauderdale. Instead of taking retirement at sixty, he takes it in chunks as he goes along. If he likes you he'll help you, and he likes Cathy Kerr, who has been robbed of everything but her dignity ... the first in the series establishes the fast-talking, wisecracking standard MacDonald maintained for over 20 years.


About the Author

John D MacDonald (1916-1986) MacDonald was born in Sharon, Pa, and educated at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Syracuse and Harvard, where he took an MBA in 1939. After war service in the Far East he wrote hundreds of stories for the pulps and over seventy novels, including the 21 in the Travis McGee sequence.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A fast moving story that draws you in instantly, 29 Jan 2003
By A Customer
I discovered this book by accident through the crime master works series and loved it. The Deep Blue Goodbye is a hard-boiled novel in a similar vein to Hammett and Chandler. The main character Travis Magee is a flawed but honest fast talking tough guy; but Macdonald's' story is a lot more plot driven and his charichters more human.

The fast moving story draws you in straight away, Travis Magee couldn't refuse to help Kathy Keer, a dirt poor working girl, especially when she'd been wronged by a 'smiling man', who stole her Daddies hidden fortune. Travis agrees to find the mysterious stolen fortune, for half. Even though she doesn't know what it is or how her father got it - only that it has something to do with his war time service in India.

Travis Magee goes on a trip round Texas and New York as he tracks down her father's old war time comrades. Giving a very interesting insight into wartime smuggling between India and China. Travis also meets a past victim of the 'smiling man' and his cruel nature becomes all too apparent as Travis helps her recover.

Travis discovers what was stolen and finds the smiling man, all the way through the story he is warned of his wild animal cunning, advice he largely ignores. This builds the tension and leads to a battle royal of brutal and barbaric ferocity.

The novel often treats us to very sharp, beautiful, one liners, but I think it will for me always be in the shadow of Chandler, purely because he did it first. If this novel had any flaw it would be that the author often drifts into flights of fancy with abstract imagery and observation.

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4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best hardboiled antiheros, in a modestly plotted story, 24 Jul 2009
John D. MacDonald's protagonist Travis McGee describes himself as a "salvage Consultant". He recovers misappropriated or stolen items from various miscreants. He lives a quite casual lifestyle on board his house boat, the Busted Flush, docked in Ft. Lauderdale. Like Nero Wolfe, he works only when his bank account runs down. Unlike Wolfe, McGee is active, and in good physical condition. He views himself as a romantic who is happy to jump in and help a pretty lady recover what was inappropriately taken from her, and help her through her problems. He doesn't hesitate to cook and clean for a lady if she needs the help.

In spite of his strong desire to right wrongs and his frequent philosophical observations, many readers will not look upon Travis as a deserving hero. He charges his, generally attractive, female clients fifty percent of what he recovers, i.e., considerably more than would a malpractice or wrongful death attorney. He has no hesitation in using intimidation, or even torture, to get the information he wants, or planning for the death of his opponents. He is relatively promiscuous, generally not hesitating to engage in one night stands, or have sex with a variety of women in the course of a few days. These encounters are often portrayed as almost medicinal for his bedmates. For those who admire a hard-boiled detective, with questionable morals, who doesn't hesitate to do whatever is needed to set thing right and get the truly evil villain, Travis McGee is the perfect hero. For others he is clearly an antihero. The story is, as much if not more, about McGee's character, than the unfolding of the plot. McGee's approach to problems reveals an unflinching man of action rather than a strategist, whose lack of detailed planning often gets him into trouble.

Although this book was written in 1964, about forty-five years before this review, the moral questions of if and when torture and intimidation might be acceptable are debated in earnest. However, for Travis McGee there is no debate, if it helps him get the 'bad guy' its okay.

MacDonald usually writes in short direct sentences with the occasional multiline one. His characters tend more to caricature than fully dimensioned individuals. His plot here is more action than detection, and its precedes in a straight forward manner with the occasional philosophical, social, or sexual aside.

The author has a marvelous way with a phrase. His writing is often pithy, humorous, insightful, and always well-constructed. He doesn't `numb down' his vocabulary as many popular writers do, and even successfully educated college graduates will occasionally turn to their dictionaries.

MacDonald has a strong fan base, and its clear that if hard-boiled characters are your interest McGee is one of the best. I usually lean more to clever detection than antiheros, so I was surprised to find this book keep my interest throughout. This is a quick, easy, and well-written novel that draws you in from its first sentence, "It was to have been a quiet evening at home."
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