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Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:From a beloved master of crime fiction, Pale Gray for Guilt is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat. Travis 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 business�??even when things were at their worst. So even though his death is ruled a suicide, McGee suspects murder . . . and a vile conspiracy. �??As a young writer, all I ever wanted was to touch readers as powerfully as John D. MacDonald touched me.�?��??Dean Koontz Tush Bannon was in the wrong spot at the wrong time. His measly plot of land just so happened to sit right in the middle of a rich parcel of five hundred riverfront… (more)
User reviews
There is a surprising romantic twist to the story as well, a departure from the usual free-wheeling 1970's love-in that usually takes place in a McGee story, with a tearjerker of an ending. What it comes down to is that this book is quite an accomplishment - providing a sufficient amount of blood, gore and sex to appease its usual target audience, yet with enough additional plot elements to satisfy a more thoughtful reader. I don't know if that was MacDonald's plan, but it is definitely what he accomplished.
The treatment of women in this book is marginally better than usual, with Connie, a widow running an orange plantation coming across particularly strong. Janice, the wife of McGee’s dead friend, emerges with her dignity intact as well. The private secretary to one of the bad guys is an interesting amoral character, which gives McGee free rein to pontificate for several pages about women who are willing to use their bodies as part of their work. There are also detours to discuss how unexciting American cars are (circa 1968), rock ‘n’ roll, different ways of protesting against a corrupt society, and so on. Every time I return to MacDonald’s work, I am reminded of how consistently pessimistic it all is. And the McGee books have their recurring annoyances, such as the need to get rid of his lady friend in one way or another so that she isn’t an encumbrance for the next book. This book tries yet another approach, since it might be improbable to have another one meet a fatal accident of some sort or another (a shard from an explosion or whatever).
Despite these shortcomings, the book is very readable, and behind the too-frequent overwritten bombast it does have a few things to say about greed and the transformation of much of the Florida coast from a sparsely populated wilderness to what it has now become. MacDonald’s settings are as well drawn as always, giving this flawed book a depth that few genre writers could achieve.
As I have mentioned in some of my other reviews of the McGee books, Travis McGee is clearly the forerunner of the TV show Leverage; his job is to help out the guy who has been 'done wrong' by the rich & powerful. Usually the deal is for McGee to "recover" what was taken for a 50% cut but this time what was taken was his college buddy Tush Bannon's life. Perhaps the con he arranges with the help of his friend Meyer to punish the men who were trying to snatch Bannon's property is illegal or immoral but the reader is rooting for McGee to succeed all the way.
This particular McGee features the shock of watching a friend ruined and murdered all because he wouldn't give up his tiny piece of land to a cutthroat developer. While McGee can't bring his friend back from the dead, he can make this animal bleed and so, with the help of Meyer and a tall redhead, he sets up an elaborate sting. This could have simply been titled The Sting. A throughly enjoyable adventure brilliantly conceived. Great stuff, indeed.
As I have mentioned in some of my other reviews of the McGee books, Travis McGee is clearly the forerunner of the TV show Leverage; his job is to help out the guy who has been 'done wrong' by the rich & powerful. Usually the deal is for McGee to "recover" what was taken for a 50% cut but this time what was taken was his college buddy Tush Bannon's life. Perhaps the con he arranges with the help of his friend Meyer to punish the men who were trying to snatch Bannon's property is illegal or immoral but the reader is rooting for McGee to succeed all the way.