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Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:From a beloved master of crime fiction, A Purple Place for Dying is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat. Travis 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 some ugly, dangerous secrets. �??John D. MacDonald created a staggering quantity of wonderful books, each rich with characterization, suspense, and an almost intoxicating sense of place.�?��??Jonathan Kellerman Mona is in love with a poor, young college professor and married to a wealthy man whom she is convinced is stealing from her trust fund. So she does what any self-respecting girl would do: She hires someone to steal her money back so she can run away with the love of her life. Travis isn�??t sure he wants to help out until he sees Mona getting shot and killed out on the cliffs near her cabin. Now he�??s a lead suspect in a plot to help her escape, and to clear his name, he needs to get to the bottom of things. But the murders just keep mounting, and for Travis, even working with Mona�??s husband doesn�??t seem to help matters. Will he be able to uncover the complex plot in time to save his own skin? Features a new… (more)
User reviews
It is more of a classic hardboiled murder mystery than most of the McGee novels. This one involves a woman named Mona Yeoman with eyes that “were the beautiful blue of robins’ eggs, and had just about as much expression.” She didn’t seem to fit this rough, isolated country. “She was a big ripe-bodied blonde of about thirty.” She was arrogant, in control. “She would have looked more at home on Park Avenue and Fifty-Something,” but here “she strode up the gravel road in six-stitch boots, twill trousers, a tweed hacking coat, a sand-pale cowgirl hat.” “She was destined to walk ahead with most of the world following in single file.” “She had a lot of vitality, a lot of gloss and bounce and directed energy.” She was married to an older gentleman, the richest man in the county, who owned every lawyer, every banker, and every judge in the county, and she told McGee that she had a boyfriend, a poor college professor, and she wanted him to find some way out of her marriage and he would get half the settlement. She was tired of being a captive princess, but moments later, there was a “wet hole punched high in her spine, through the silk blouse, dead center, about two inches below where her neck joined her good shoulders.”
McGee is now somehow mixed up in something he didn’t bargain for and no one seems to want him hanging around, not the sheriff, and not the businessmen. No one buys his story. Not much. What with Mona and the boyfriend having been seen at the airport that afternoon, catching a flight out.
This is one terrific novel that is more focused and tight than most McGee novels are. There doesn’t seem to be any ranging off into banter about unconnected things here. There are no wasted words or wasted actions. It’s a mystery and McGee is going to solve it or die trying. The mood and atmosphere of this novel is captured by the dry harsh climate of the Southwest so different from McGee’s native world in Florida.
It is more of a classic hardboiled murder mystery than most of the McGee novels. This one involves a woman named Mona Yeoman with eyes that “were the beautiful blue of robins’ eggs, and had just about as much expression.” She didn’t seem to fit this rough, isolated country. “She was a big ripe-bodied blonde of about thirty.” She was arrogant, in control. “She would have looked more at home on Park Avenue and Fifty-Something,” but here “she strode up the gravel road in six-stitch boots, twill trousers, a tweed hacking coat, a sand-pale cowgirl hat.” “She was destined to walk ahead with most of the world following in single file.” “She had a lot of vitality, a lot of gloss and bounce and directed energy.” She was married to an older gentleman, the richest man in the county, who owned every lawyer, every banker, and every judge in the county, and she told McGee that she had a boyfriend, a poor college professor, and she wanted him to find some way out of her marriage and he would get half the settlement. She was tired of being a captive princess, but moments later, there was a “wet hole punched high in her spine, through the silk blouse, dead center, about two inches below where her neck joined her good shoulders.”
McGee is now somehow mixed up in something he didn’t bargain for and no one seems to want him hanging around, not the sheriff, and not the businessmen. No one buys his story. Not much. What with Mona and the boyfriend having been seen at the airport that afternoon, catching a flight out.
This is one terrific novel that is more focused and tight than most McGee novels are. There doesn’t seem to be any ranging off into banter about unconnected things here. There are no wasted words or wasted actions. It’s a mystery and McGee is going to solve it or die trying. The mood and atmosphere of this novel is captured by the dry harsh climate of the Southwest so different from McGee’s native world in Florida.
Excellent writing that has stood the test of time - comments like "remorse is the ultimate in
To enjoy the stories in the second decade of the 21st century a reader has to put aside the gender and racial politics of the day. McGee is the Hero who saves the little woman, and does a damn fine job of it too! Great plotting, fast pace, interesting characters and a maverick hero. What more can one ask when whiling away a lazy afternoon?
This McGee novel has my
I have conflicting feelings about this book and the series overall. I love the way MacDonald uses words and the plot is, as usual, well crafted and satisfying. I have a more difficult time with McGee's, and one assumes
McGee is ready to say no since he doesn't like Mona and doesn't know what he can do that lawyers and accountants aren't already doing. But things change when Mona is shot and killed while standing next to Travis. By the time Travis walks down to the nearest phone and calls the sheriff a couple of hours have gone by. When he returns to the isolated cabin there is no body and no indication that anything happened. The police are skeptical especially since a couple looking like Mona and her college professor got on a plane for points South just the day before.
Travis knows what he saw and begins his own investigation. The college professor's sister is on his side since she can't believe that her brother would have run off without talking to her and he certainly wouldn't have run off without his insulin and supplies.
Travis also convinces Mona's husband that things are not like they look at first glance. The husband has his own assortment of possible enemies and also has the Feds looking into his business practices which are decidedly shifty. Travis agrees to work for the husband because he likes him more than he liked Mona.
This was an engaging historical mystery filled with attitudes that sort of made me cringe while listening to the audiobook. Husbands using physical punishment on their wives wouldn't be acceptable these days and were likely illegal then too. Travis's attitudes to women would not make a desirable partner these days for most women. Not that he is looking for any relationship deeper than a sidewalk puddle after a summer rain. He's proud to be a beach bum and take his retirement in chunks while he is young enough to enjoy it. But when problems need an unconventional, maybe even illegal, solution, no one is better than Travis McGee.