All 21
Travis McGee
novels can be
purchased at
amazon.com.
September/October • 2021 • GASPARILLA MAGAZINE 17
“Since
the beginning of
the pandemic in early
2020 I have started reading
the series over again, and each
novel still stands on its own.
Every storyline is magnetic. Travis
McGee is one of the most original
protagonists you’ll ever know. It’s
impossible to pick a favorite,
especially the second and
third time through the
series.”
Critic Bill Ott of “The Booklist Reader” had this
to say about Nightmare in Pink:
“Be wary whenever McGee strays above the
Mason-Dixon Line. This time he’s in New York
to do a favor for an army buddy whose sister is
fl oundering after the death of her fi ancé. With
his special combination of sensitivity, savoir
faire and animal magnetism (which we fi rst
learned of in “Blue Good-by”), he plans to nurse
Nina Gibson, the buddy’s sister, back to health.
It is one of Travis’ specialties to get “wounded
doves” back in the air, but he does his best
doctoring aboard Busted Flush, particularly on
a little cruise to the islands, which is always the
perfect antidote for whatever ails a troubled
heart, mind and body.
“This time, though, confi ned to the four walls
of a Manhattan brownstone, McGee needs to
work a little harder … but not that hard. Soon
enough, the fl ush of healthy sexuality has been
restored to Nina’s cheeks, but the problem
of fi guring out why her fi ancé was murdered
and what happened to the money he had
apparently been stealing from his investmentbank
employers proves considerably more
diffi cult.”
All 21 Travis McGee novels have been
rebranded and are easy to fi nd in chronological
order on amazon.com. However, anytime I visit
a bookstore, the fi rst thing I do is look for a
Travis McGee novel. All my copies are older,
worn and used paperbacks more than 30
years old.
Since the beginning of the pandemic
in early 2020, I have started reading the
series over again, and each novel still stands
on its own. Every storyline is magnetic.
Travis McGee is one of the most original
protagonists you’ll ever know. It’s impossible
to pick a favorite, especially the second and
third time through the series.
I encourage everyone to begin with “The
Deep Blue Good-by” (1964) and keep
going until you reach the 21st and fi nal
book in this series, “The Lonely Silver Rain”
(1984).
Author Dean Koontz said, “As a young
writer, all I ever wanted was to touch readers
as powerfully as John D. MacDonald
touched me. No price could be placed on
the enormous pleasure that his books have
given me. He captured the mood and the
spirit of his times more accurately, more
hauntingly, than any ‘literature’ writer – yet
managed always to tell a thunderingly
good, intensely suspenseful tale.”
Jonathan Herbert is an award-winning writer who grew
up in Englewood. His novels, Banyan Street & Silver
King, have won multiple literary awards, including
recognition from the Paris Book Festival.
You can follow him on Twitter @herbertnovels
or online at herbertnovels.com
/amazon.com
/amazon.com
/herbertnovels.com