John MacDonald's novel The Deep Blue Good-By

In 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 society.”

McGee lives on his house boat, the “Busted Flush” in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. It’s here where a female friend asks him if he can help an acquaintance whose bum boyfriend Junior Allen possibly stole what she believes is her deceased father’s fortune.

McGee agrees to do the job for 50% of what is recovered. As he searches for the missing fortune, he picks up the pieces of Junior Allen, who leaves shattered women in his wake. In the “Deep Blue Good-By” McGee definitely has sex on his mind all the time, and nearly every woman he meets ends up in his bed at one point.

Content advisory: There is a fair amount of sex and plenty of references to women’s anatomy. There is quite a bit of drinking. Domestic violence is a core theme of the plot.

— Florida Fiction Editor

Categories: Detective and Mystery Fiction, Featured, John D. MacDonald, Travis McGeeCategories: Detective and Mystery Fiction, Featured, John D. MacDonald, Travis McGeeBuy Book on Amazon
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Year Published:  1964

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The Deep Blue Good-By births the Florida Man genre

June 18, 2021
Review of The Deep Blue Good-By

Reading “The Deep Blue Good-By” it doesn’t seem like it was published in 1964. Sure, some of the language is dated, and our protagonist makes long distance calls without a cellphone, but the rest of the story could have taken place in the present.

Reading this novel, I couldn’t help but think I was witnessing the birth of a genre that Hiaasen, Dorsey, and Florida Man headlines, have made mainstream. Travis McGee is a boat bum, drinks a lot, has a lot of sex, and in a scene that could easily have been in one of the above-mentioned authors, kidnaps and nearly tortures a naked man in a hotel shower.

The one thing I struggled with was the clear distinction between, the innocent young woman in trouble (who is off limits sexually), and the young women not so innocent, maybe still in trouble and definitely not, not off limits sexually. While some of McGee’s morals might be questionable, his knight-in-shining-armor traits are quite commendable.

The “Deep Blue Good-By” is smartly written, with well developed storyline and characters. It has all the elements of a good action mystery and I can’t wait to experience more of Travis McGee.

FloridaFan