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Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:From a beloved master of crime fiction, Nightmare in Pink is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat. Travis 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 kind of friend, Travis McGee will travel almost anywhere, even New York City. Especially when there�??s a damsel in distress. �??As a young writer, all I ever wanted was to touch readers as powerfully as John D. MacDonald touched me.�?��??Dean Koontz The damsel in question is his old friend�??s kid sister, whose fiancé has just been murdered in what the authorities claim was a standard Manhattan mugging. But Nina knows better. Her soon-to-be husband had been digging around, finding scum and scandal at his real estate investment firm. And this scum will go to any lengths to make sure their secrets don�??t get out. Travis is determined to get to the bottom of things, but just as he�??s closing in on the truth, he finds himself drugged and taken captive. If he�??s being locked up in a mental institution with a steady stream of drugs siphoned into his body, how can Travis keep his promise to his old friend? More important, how can he get himself out alive? Features a… (more)
User reviews
After two rounds with McGee, I can honestly say that he is a true bastard, despite his occasional good deeds. He succeeds as a hero in this book and in the Deep Blue Goodbye (the first novel in the series) because he is butting heads with folks who are much bigger bastards than he is -- child molesters, white collar criminals, and lobotomists, just to name a few (sometimes the categories overlap). I wonder if the remainder of the series will continue to be as dark and depressing as the first two.
The first half of the book consists mostly of legwork and wordy ruminations on the crummy state of the female psyche and the crummy state of the world in general. It would be tiresome if McDonald wasn't so darn good at it. His prose is nothing if not elegant. Some might be turned off by the way the narrative at times devolves into an internal monologue from McGee, but when it's done with adequate skill I don't particularly mind.
And as in all McGee novels, the man uses his awesome powers of lovemaking to take a damaged woman or two and nurse them back to mental health. If you don't have much experience with John D. MacDonald's works, you probably won't be bothered by it. If you're a MacDonald veteran it can get a bit old hat, but the rest of the novel more than makes up for it.
The meat of the story--and where MacDonald does some of his best writing--occurs when McGee is falsely imprisoned within a mental hospital. I'll spare you the spoilers, but suffice to say that MacDonald's descriptions of trippy drug experiences and mental hospital horror are well worth the price of admission. The ending isn't surprising, but the author skillfully maneuvers the plot such that it's still a fun ride.
Abridging a book can be a good thing. For instance, cutting out the third of Moby Dick cutting up the whale is a kindness. Abridging one of MacDonald's McGee books is like trying to make a full meal for 2 out of a cheeseburger. There just isn't enough there to make it worthwhile. The original paperback was only 143 pages! It makes me wish there was a way to ding the publisher on the star rating for this boondoogle, but I'm going to ignore it on rating the book. It's not MacDonald's fault.
I had a big problem with the setup, unfortunately.
One of the best things about these books is, although they're a series, a person could as easily have started with this book as the first one. Enough of McGee's history & lifestyle comes through to paint him perfectly without boring the reader of others in the series. That's a very rare find.
Overall, I'd give this 3.5 stars. I'll round up to 4, even though I wasn't thrilled with the start & the reader wasn't great. His female voices suck, but at least he wasn't irritating for the most part.
Pretty good ending.
saying that I still quite enjoyed reading about Travis and I loved the creepy mental asylum he visits.
The lawyers and accountants behind the scheme have ties to a medical center in upstate NY where doctors are experimenting with mind-altering drugs including LSD; they lobotomized the wealthy guy whose estate is being looted to keep him happy while they continue to steal.
McGee is trapped by the bad guys and dosed with acid himself; he manages to escape through luck or faulty drug dispensation, and the plot is uncovered.
This is the second McGee book and it's far from the best, but it's still pretty good. We're treated to more of McGee's thoughts about society here. At one point he's walking the streets of Manhattan and is bumped by a fellow pedestrian who snarls at him, and this takes him off into a theory about New York being the place where society breaks down -- instead of mere snarls at some point the bumper and bumpee will be at each others' throats; onlookers follow along, and soon all urban centers will be jungles with the smarter predators hunting one another through the streets.
Travis will do anything for his
Nina Gibson has some questions about her fiancé. After his death, she finds $10 thousand in a shoe box and doesn't know how he came by the money. As Travis begins to look he discovers a complex financial scheme going on. Some con artists are taking a wealthy guy for millions which means that Travis might have gotten in over his head.
Travis stumbles into trouble and finds himself in a hospital where illegal experiments are going on. He's been dosed with an LSD-like potion and learns that the wealthy guy had had the same thing done to him before he had a lobotomy.
He manages to get out, leaving a trail of bodies behind him, and gains a bit paycheck from the wealthy guy's wife. He also gets the girl - at least temporarily.
Travis McGee is a character I first met in 1972 when I was riding Greyhound busses between graduate school and my hometown. He was an interesting sort of hero. He has a strong moral center, but it isn't conventional morality. His attitude toward women reads more than a little chauvinistic at a 50 year remove. But still, if a person is in really bad trouble, Travis McGee would still be my choice of a hero to call upon.
I enjoyed this walk down memory lane. The narration was well done.