Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... The Dreadful Lemon Sky (Travis McGee Mysteries) (original 1974; edition 1996)by John D. MacDonald (Author)
Work InformationThe Dreadful Lemon Sky by John D. MacDonald (1974)
Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. âHe captured the mood and the spirit of the times more accurately, more hauntingly, than any âliteratureâ writer â yet managed always to tell a thunderingly good, intensely suspenseful tale.â â Dean Koontz âA writer way ahead of his time, his Travis McGee books are as entertaining, insightful, and suspenseful today as the moment I first read them. He is the all-time master of the American mystery novel.â â John Saul John D. MacDonald, whose Travis McGee series became, as Robert B. Parker pointed out, one of the great sagas in American mystery fiction, and about whom Mary Higgins Clark wrote, âTalk about the Bestâ penned The Dreadful Lemon Sky near the middle of the 1970s. It remains one of the better entries in a series littered with memorable reads. A rather protracted confrontation near the end of the book keeps it from being in the very top tier of the series for me, but itâs just a tick below them â meaning itâs almost assuredly better than just about everything else out there. This one is actually a much more complex mystery than most in the series, which is why some rank it even higher in the canon. It begins at four oâclock in the morning, when McGeeâs warning system alerts him that someone has stepped onto The Busted Flush. It turns out to be Carrie Milligan, a young woman from McGeeâs past. McGee had stepped in and prevented her from being raped at a boat party on the Alabama Tiger several years before. That same evening they had their one and only intimate coupling. Carrie was very shaken by the ordeal, what might have happened, but McGee does not attempt to take advantage of her. While McGee is portrayed as somewhat surprised by what eventually did happen that night so long ago, it is clear that MacDonald understood the psychology of the moment, the instant intimacy and trust such a saving act might have on the one rescued. It is only when MacDonald the writer has his creation recall those events in his thoughts, that McGee, who had made no lecherous moves after rescuing the girl, nor had he planned any, gets a glimmer of understanding: âIt was a very gentle time, and very sweet in a strange way. In body language she was saying, This is the way it should be. And I was saying, Replace that memory with This one.â Unfortunately for McGee, the romantic episode was isolated, and he became someone Carrie looked up to and trusted to advise her. McGee even loaned her the use of his boat for her honeymoon â someone long gone now, and a mistake on Carrieâs part. His residual affection for her, however, makes McGeeâs later actions in the novel understandable. It also reveals how forward-thinking MacDonald could be, rather than the sexist lout his tarnished hero is so often made out to be: âThey lead the singles life. Lots of laughs and lots of barren mornings. Skilled sex, mod conversation, They are not ardent libbers, yet at the same time they are not looking for some man to âtake care.â God knows they are expert in taking care of themselves. They just want a grown-up man to share their life with, each of them taking care. But there are one hell of a lot more grown-up ladies than grown-up men.â â McGee, thinking about Carrie and her romantic disappointments But now Carrie is here, in the wee hours of morning, and sheâs got ninety-four grand-and-change she wants McGee to hold for her until she returns â no questions asked. Well, of course McGee does, and of course Carrie doesnât return because she canât. McGee is going to give the money to her sister, Susan, but before that happens he and Meyer must discover if Carrieâs death in Bayside was actually an accident. It will lead to one of the most complex mysteries in the series, involving unrequited love, drug smuggling, and a lawyer and potential politician who likes to lift up every skirt he comes across. Freddie Van Harn in fact, is everything McGee is unfairly portrayed as by some, only on steroids. Taking the Flush down to Bayside, McGee works out several stories which become fluid as he pokes around, trying to remain plausible as he looks into Carrieâs murder, which everyone has accepted was an accident. First McGee runs across Cindy Birdsong at the marina. Her husband Cal is a brute of a man whom McGee instantly notes by his movements, even while drunk, is someone more than a little formidable. Drunk, Cal slaps his wife, and McGee, who has never met these people, and has no idea what heâs stepping into, or how it will affect whatever tack he takes while looking into Carrieâs death, hesitates to become involved. McGeeâs atypical hesitancy to play hero on this occasion proves warranted when heâs barely holding his own against Cal, and is saved by the cops. Theyâve been following Calâs trail of drunken violence all night, which includes a pizza guyâs broken arm, and three truckers in the hospital, beaten senseless by Cal. McGee doesnât press charges because Cindy Birdsong asks him not to, even thanks him later. McGee uses his wiles to discover that Jack Omaha and his partner Harry were having affairs with the help â the help being Carrie and Joanna. Omaha apparently cleaned out the building supply business before disappearing and that may or may not be where Carrie got all that cash. So McGee pokes around some more. It doesnât go much better with Chris Omaha. Freddie is dipping into those waters already â and just about all the water in town, willing or not â and he doesnât want her talking to McGee. Chris has already revealed herself to McGee as uncaring, and later in the book is described by Joanna as dumb, loud, greedy, and rotten to both Jack Omaha and the kids. When Freddie smacks her in front of McGee, who has conned his way into her home, McGee at first thinks Freddie has shot her. Heâs relieved to discover Freddie only slapped her. Though McGee doesnât like it much, and tries to taunt Freddie into making a move, McGee has to consider how his actions will affect his own cover story. Because it doesnât come to that, it is still far from McGee â or MacDonald as a writer â condoning these actions. Itâs a story, and there is far more going on here than meets the eye, as is borne out later. When Carrieâs sister Susan enters the picture, she is confused and numb. In kindness, McGee offers to see what the deal is with the staggering funeral home bill. Once he realizes the director is attempting to take advantage of Susanâs grief, he returns to Susan who is sitting outside, and tells her exactly what the guy said. In essence, it empowers Susan and she is the one who goes back inside and sets things right. McGee was being a decent guy, not demeaning her, for heavenâs sake. She is in grief, still stunned at the sudden loss of her sister in the story. Even after she puts the funeral director in his place, she acknowledges how she managed it: âI was pretending I was Carrie and it was me who was dead. Sheâd never let him take advantage. I was just so confused when he gave me the bill before.â Joanna become friends with Meyer and McGee as they delve into Carrieâs death, but not before Joanna makes a play for McGee, and makes the mistake of asking him if thereâs more than one reason to become intimate with someone. His response: âThe biggest and most important reason in the world is to be together with someone in a way that makes life a little less bleak and solitary and lonesome. To exchange the I for the We. In the biggest sense of the word, itâs cold outside. And kindness and affection and gentleness build a nice warm fire inside. Thatâs okay. But if you want to set some new international screwing record, or if you want to show off the busiest fastest hips in town, forget it.â Itâs almost startling how often McGee declines overtures from the opposite sex in this series, and yet you so rarely read about those instances in reviews. Hmmm. Here Joanna becomes friends only, at least for a time. But a lot happens in this one, and there is eventually a pretty high body count. The story is very complex, delving into the ins-and-outs of the traffic, and the morality surrounding the quick buck to be had by doing so. Then there is the question of who took the money, not to mention an investigator who realizes right off the bat, that McGee and Meyer have ulterior motives for being in Bayside which doesnât coincide with any story theyâve told â to anyone. The Busted Flush takes some heavy damage in this one, as does McGee. A violent and slightly too protracted conclusion is followed by an even more violent but much more succinctly written anti-climax. There is a romance of sorts here between McGee and someone, and their coupling will eventually take on a rich and mature hue. McGee is damaged externally, the woman damaged internally. It will in fact be McGee who wants to continue the affair. The woman, however, needs more time, because she has discovered things about herself of which sheâd formerly been unaware. There is a realness to her reasons filled with MacDonaldâs unspoken psychological understanding: âGuilt is the most merciless disease of man. It stains all the other areas of living. It darkens all skies.â â McGee On a lighter note, we get McGeeâs take on why he doesnât do pot, and why music should be âover thereâ instead of all around you, and we get to hear Meyerâs hilarious reasons for not jogging. So it isnât all darkness, but there is a more serious shading to this one which resonates with the reader. Itâs probably a 4.5 for me, but Iâll round up. A fabulous mystery this time out for McGee, with a story so dense and complex, so humanistically shaded, that it almost masks how much violence there is in Dreadful Lemon Sky. Highly recommended! Good- but not great Travis McGee. Story is of a young former gal friend of Travis's who brings him 100K for him to store in case anything happens to her. Something (of course) does happen her- and Travis goes hunting out what the story is. Turns out she was mixed up in bringing drugs in from Jamaica and a smooth talking lawyer was doing most of the bad work. Meyer goes along to saying smart things and Travis is almost killed several times by the lawyer... most memorably as he is forced to around and around a huge horse grave on a farm being chased by a jeep (i think) and he needs to trick the jeep into the grave so he can do his Travis charm and get the guy. He beds the widowed owner of the marina he is tied up in this one and - conveniently- she decides not to go off with him on the boat, as that would have possibly gotten in the way of Travis's travels. no reviews | add a review
Is contained inDistinctionsNotable Lists
Fiction.
Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
HTML:From a beloved master of crime fiction, The Dreadful Lemon Sky is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat. Around four in the morning, Travis McGee is jarred awake by a breathless ghost from his past: an old flame who needs a place to stash a package full of cash. Whatâ??s in it for McGee? Ten grand and no questions asked. Two weeks later, sheâ??s dead. â??The Travis McGee novels are among the finest works of fiction ever penned by an American author.â?â??Jonathan Kellerman Carolyn Milligan was only aboard McGeeâ??s boat for one night. She came to drop off a hundred grand for safekeeping. What Carrie really needed was someone to keep her safe. She said sheâ??d be back in a month. Instead Carrie is killed in a dubious roadside accident. Now McGee is left with a fortuneâ??and a nagging conscience. So McGee takes a trip to the seedy little town of Bayside, Florida, to look into Carrieâ??s life before she showed up on his boat. What McGee finds only pushes him further into the corrupt world of drugs and blood that Carrie was trying to escape. McGee is used to high stakes, but when the bodies start piling up, even he may be in over his head. Features a new Int No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813Literature English (North America) American fictionLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
That happens to a couple of the female characters in âThe Dreadful Lemon Skyâ, beginning with Carrie Milligan, an old friend (of whom McGee seems to have an inexhaustible supply) who approaches him asking him to hold a considerable wad of cash for 30 days. McGee accepts, despite knowing thereâs no legitimate reason for a construction company secretary to be walking around with $94,000 in assorted greenbacks. When Milligan ends up dead on a Florida highway, McGee delays carrying out her directive to deliver the cash to her sister while he and the ever-present Meyer dig more deeply into what quickly begins to look like murder.
McGee remains a strong character to build a series around. Heâs competent, smart, good-looking, persistent, and has his own very particular moral code which is essentially Good Guy Realist. Meyer is around to do the heavy lifting when a philosophical question needs to be brought into play, and MacDonald gets to use McGee as a mouthpiece for his own dismay at the untethered and (in his view) malignant growth of Floridaâs wetlands and beach communities. A Travis McGee novel guarantees that the Bad Guys, on the whole, get their comeuppance and that Our Hero will survive, somewhat more battered and perhaps just a bit more cynical, to fight the good fight and live the good life another day.
âThe Dreadful Lemon Skyâ delivers on all those points. Itâs just too bad that MacDonaldâs characterization of female characters has aged so poorly. ( )