With the Travis McGee series John D. MacDonald introduced the Florida detective genre to the world. Born in Pennsylvania in 1916, McDonald served in military intelligence during World War II. During the war MacDonald wrote short stories to pass the time and sent them home to his wife who, reportedly unbeknownst to him, sent them to publishers. One of thee stories, “Interlude in India” was published in “Story magazine” in 1946 and started his professional writing career.
MacDonald and his wife moved to Siesta Key in Sarasota, FL in 1951.
In the series, Travis McGee lives on a house boat in the Bahia Mar marina in Fort Lauderdale. The Bahia Mar is a real marina and slip F-18, where McGee’s house boat was moored, used to be kept empty, but it was removed when the marina was remodeled. There is bronze plaque memorializing McGee and his boat the “Busted Flush.”
There are 21 books in the Travis McGee series. The title of each one features a color, such as “The Deep Blue Good By” and “The Long Lavender Look.”
John D. MacDonald died in 1986.
Books by John D. MacDonald
The Deep Blue Good-By
Published: 1964In John MacDonald’s “The Deep Blue Good-By” we’re introduced to Travis McGee, a “Salvage Consultant” who is described as, “that big brown loose-jointed boat bum, that pale-eyed, wire-haired girl-seeker, that slayer of small savage fish, that beach-walker, gin-drinker, quip-maker, peace-seeker, iconoclast, disbeliever, argufier, that knuckly, scar-tissued, reject from a structured…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , Featured , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
Nightmare in Pink
Published: 1964.2Travis McGee’s permanent address is the Busted Flush, Slip F-18, Bahia Mar, Lauderdale, and there isn’t a hell of a lot that compels him to leave it. Except maybe a call from an old army buddy who needs a favor. If it wasn’t for him, McGee might not be alive. For that…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
A Purple Place for Dying
Published: 1964.3Travis McGee’s taking his retirement in installments while he’s still young enough to enjoy it. But sooner or later, his money runs out and he has to work. This time McGee’s lured out West to a strangely secretive meeting with a woman in trouble, in a place whose beauty hides…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
The Quick Red Fox
Published: 1964.4Sultry movie star Lysa Dean has gotten herself into a spot of blackmail, posing for naked photos while participating in a debauched party near Big Sur. If the pictures get out, Lysa’s engagement to her rich, strait laced fiancé doesn’t stand a chance. Enter Travis McGee, who’s agreed to put…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
A Deadly Shade of Gold
Published: 1965When Travis McGee picks up the phone and hears a voice from his past, he can’t help it: He has to meddle. Especially when he has the chance to reunite Sam Taggart, a reckless, restless man like himself, with the woman who’s still waiting for him. But what begins as…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
Bright Orange for the Shroud
Published: 1965Travis McGee is looking forward to a “slob summer,” spending his days as far away from danger as possible. But trouble has a way of finding him, no matter where he hides. An old friend, conned out of his life savings by his ex-wife, has tracked him down and is…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
One Fearful Yellow Eye
Published: 1966How to you extort $600,000 from a dying man? Someone had done it very quietly and skilfully to the husband of Travis McGee’s ex-girlfriend. McGee flies to Chicago to help untangle the mess and discovers that although Dr. Fortner Geis had led an exemplary life, there were those who’d take…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
Darker Than Amber
Published: 1966A fishing trip is anything but relaxing when Travis McGee is involved. As McGee and his friend Meyer settle down to some midnight casting, a woman falls into the water from the bridge above them. Her name is Evangeline, and the hints she gives about the events leading to her…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
Pale Gray for Guilt
Published: 1968Travis McGee’s old football buddy Tush Bannon is resisting pressure to sell off his floundering motel and marina to a group of influential movers and shakers. Then he’s found dead. For a big man, Tush was a pussycat: devoted to his wife and three kids and always optimistic about his…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper
Published: 1968He had done a big favor for her husband, then for the lady herself. Now she’s dead, and Travis McGee finds that Helena Pearson Trescott had one last request of him: to find out why her beautiful daughter Maureen keeps trying to kill herself. But what can a devil-may-care beach…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
Dress Her in Indigo
Published: 1969Travis McGee could never deny his old friend anything. So before Meyer even says please, McGee agrees to accompany him to Mexico to reconstruct the last mysterious months of a young woman’s life—on a fat expense account provided by the father who has lost touch with her. They think she’s…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
The Long Lavender Look
Published: 1970A lovely young girl steps in front of Travis McGee’s headlights. McGee misses the girl but lands in ten feet of swamp water. As he’s limping along the deserted road, someone in an old truck takes a few shots at him. And, when he goes to the local sheriff to…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
A Tan and Sandy Silence
Published: 1971Travis McGee is unnerved when he receives an unexpected guest—real estate developer Harry Broll, who is convinced that McGee is hiding his missing wife. Angry and jealous, Harry gets off a shot before McGee can wrestle his gun away. The thing is, McGee hasn’t seen or heard from Mary Broll…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
The Scarlet Ruse
Published: 1972Travis McGee is too busy with his houseboat to pay attention to the little old man with the missing postage stamps. Except these are no ordinary stamps. They are rare stamps. Four hundred thousand dollars worth of rare. And if McGee doesn’t recognize their value, perhaps Mary Alice McDermit does,…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
The Turquoise Lament
Published: 1973Funny thing about favors. Sometimes they come back to haunt you. And Travis McGee owes his friend a big one for saving his life once upon a time. Now the friend’s daughter, Linda “Pidge” Lewellen, needs help five time zones away in Hawaii before she sails off into the deep…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
The Dreadful Lemon Sky
Published: 1974Around four in the morning, Travis McGee is jarred awake by a breathless ghost from his past: an old flame who needs a place to stash a package full of cash. What’s in it for McGee? Ten grand and no questions asked. Two weeks later, she’s dead. Carolyn Milligan was only…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
The Empty Copper Sea
Published: 1978Van Harder, once a hard drinker, has found religion. But that doesn’t keep folks from saying he murdered his employer, Hub Lawless, whose body hasn’t been found. To clear his name, and cear up the mystery, Van asks friend-in-need Travis McGee to find out what really happened. What McGee finds…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
The Green Ripper
Published: 1979Travis McGee has known his share of beautiful girls, but true love always passed him by—until Gretel. Life aboard the Busted Flush has never been so sweet. But suddenly, Gretel dies of an unidentified illness—or so he’s told. Convinced that the woman who stole his heart has been murdered, McGee finds himself…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
Free Fall in Crimson
Published: 1981This time out, McGee came close to losing his status as a living legend when he agreed to track down the killers who brutally murdered an ailing millionaire. For starters, he renewed an unfinished adventure with a famous–and oversexed–Hollywood actress, who led him into a very nasty nest of murderers…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
Cinnamon Skin
Published: 1982Travis McGee investigates the explosion of a cruise boat in the Florida Keys, supposedly the work of a Chilean underground organizationRead More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
The Lonely Silver Rain
Published: 1984Travis McGee has luck to thank for his reputation as a first-rate salvager of stolen boats. Now Billy Ingraham, a self-made tycoon, is betting that McGee can locate his $700,000 custom cruiser. McGee isn’t so sure. He knows all too well the dangerous link between Florida boatjackings and the drug…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , Travis McGee
Condominium: A Novel
Published: 2014Welcome to Florida’s Golden Sands, the dream condominium complex built on a weak foundation and a thousand dirty secrets. The real estate was a steal—literally. The maintenance charges run high as the locals are run out. It’s the home of shortcuts, crackdowns, breakups, oversights, and payoffs. Add it all up,…Read More
Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction , John D. MacDonald , standalone