I first met Travis McGee while I was working on one of those big cruise ships. I just finished a 12 hour shift and was looking for something to take back to my cabin to wind down with. I went to the crew library, a small room with a couple of bookshelves that contained old, beat-up books and board games that were missing pieces.
I shuffled through some of the titles and one called The Lonely Silver Rain caught my attention. I read the blurb and found out it was about a Florida beach bum “salvage consultant” that lived on a houseboat. This sounds great, I thought. I grabbed the book, brought it to my cabin, and read it in one sitting. I was forever hooked.
In the days before eBooks and smartphones was really a thing I grabbed an internet connection, usually at the Dunkin Donuts in Nassau because it was in close walking distance, and would order Travis McGee and John D. MacDonald books from amazon and have them delivered to the ship whenever we went back to Miami, where headquarters was. It was like Christmas when a new package arrived on the ship for me. I read about 30 John D. MacDonald books in this fashion.
The more I learned the more I realized that it wasn’t just me, John D. MacDonald has hooked many people with his cutting, precise prose over the years, including such people as Carl Hiaasen, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and pretty much all the modern day Florida writers.
As Carl Hiaasen put it, “Most readers loved MacDonald’s work because he told a rip-roaring yarn. 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 sold about 70 million books throughout his career (a number I believe will dramatically increase once Hollywood starts making Travis McGee films).
MacDonald cut his teeth by writing hundreds of crime short stories (and also accumulating hundreds of rejection slips) until he began to find success. After the bottom fell out of the short story market he began to write novels at a ferocious pace.
MacDonald passed on December 28, 1986, aged 70; his works are still influencing writers to this day. He is a must read author for Floridians and is also a must read author for aspiring novelists.
Before we get to the book list, I just wanted to remind you that I have a conveniently located amazon link right here if you decide to purchase a John D. MacDonald book, which is highly recommended. If you are wondering where the heck you should start, I recommend The Deep Blue Good-by, the first Travis McGee novel.
Travis McGee Series
The Deep Blue Good-by (1964)
Nightmare in Pink (1964)
A Purple Place for Dying (1964)
The Quick Red Fox (1964)
A Deadly Shade of Gold (1965)
Bright Orange for the Shroud (1965)
Darker than Amber (1966)
One Fearful Yellow Eye (1966)
Pale Gray for Guilt (1968)
The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper (1968)
Dress Her in Indigo (1969)
The Long Lavender Look (1970)
A Tan and Sandy Silence (1971)
The Scarlet Ruse (1973)
The Turquoise Lament (1973)
The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1975)
The Empty Copper Sea (1978)
The Green Ripper (1979)
Free Fall in Crimson (1981)
Cinnamon Skin (1982)
The Lonely Silver Rain (1985)
Stand Alone Novels
The Brass Cupcake (1950)
Murder for the Bride (1951)
Judge Me Not (1951)
Weep for Me (1951)
The Damned (1952)
Dead Low Tide (1953)
The Neon Jungle (1953)
Cancel All Our Vows (1953)
All These Condemned (1954)
Area of Suspicion (1954)
Contrary Pleasure (1954)
A Bullet for Cinderella (reprinted as On the Make) (1955)
Cry Hard, Cry Fast (1956)
April Evil (1956)
Border Town Girl (reprinted as Five Star Fugitive) (1956)
Murder in the Wind (reprinted as Hurricane) (1956)
You Live Once (reprinted as You Kill Me) (1956)
Death Trap (1957)
The Price of Murder (1957)
The Empty Trap (1957)
A Man of Affairs (1957)
The Deceivers (1958)
Clemmie (1958)
The Executioners (reprinted as Cape Fear) (1958)
Soft Touch (1958)
Deadly Welcome (1959)
The Beach Girls (1959)
Please Write for Details (1959)
The Crossroads (1959)
Slam the Big Door (1960)
The Only Girl in the Game (1960)
The End of the Night (1960)
Where is Janice Gantry? (1961)
One Monday We Killed Them All (1961)
A Key to the Suite (1962)
A Flash of Green (1962)
I Could Go On Singing (screenplay novelization) (1963)
On the Run (1963)
The Drowner (1963)
The Last One Left (1966)
Condominium (1977)
One More Sunday (1984)
Barrier Island (1986)
Short Story Collections
End of the Tiger and Other Stories(1966)
SEVEN (1971)
The Good Old Stuff (1982)
Two (1983)
More Good Old Stuff (1984)
The Annex and Other Stories (1987) (Limited Edition – only 350 copies were printed…in Finland. Good luck getting your hands on one)
Science Fiction Books
Wine of the Dreamers (reprinted as Planet of the Dreamers) (1951)
Ballroom of the Skies (1952)
The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything (1962)
Other Times, Other Worlds (1978) (stories chosen by MacDonald and Martin H. Greenberg)
Time and Tomorrow (1980) (omnibus of MacDonald’s three science fiction novels)
Non-Fiction Books
The House Guests(1965)
No Deadly Drug (1968)
Nothing Can Go Wrong (with Captain John H. Kilpack) (1981)
A Friendship: The Letters of Dan Rowan and John D. MacDonald 1967-1974 (1986)
Reading for Survival (1987) (An essay featuring Travis McGee)
