One Fearful Yellow Eye

Probably the worst of the McGee series I have yet read (I'm reading them all in order). It goes on way too long and has a deus ex machina ending that is just silly. Along the way, McGee pontificates on the city of Chicago (he really hates it and the book has more than a few paragraphs about it), other men's reactions to homosexuals (the ones who doubt their own masculinity are hostile), the "Negro Problem" (the Southern Whites who most persecute and lynch Negroes are the ones who appear to have some Negro blood in them!), even surfing. Not to mention probably a dozen other things I have (thankfully) forgotten. It is exhausting. The story is sordid from beginning to end, filled with women who can only be saved by McGee, as he tries to show more track down what happened to $600,000 a deceased doctor was supposed to have left to his wife and children. I feel like I need a long shower after reading this one. show less

"One Fearful Yellow Eye” is the eighth Travis McGee novel. If you are not familiar with this series, McGee lives on a 52-foot houseboat in Fort Lauderdale. He has no regular job, except, when he needs funds, he does “salvage work” and, by salvage work, he does not mean deep- sea diving for buried treasure. Instead, he does favors for friends or friends of friends who have lost or been conned out of something of value. His fee is fifty percent of the recovery, if there is one. His specialty is helping out wounded sparrows who the world has chewed up and spit out. These novels are filled not just with dark mysteries, but also philosophy and pondering.

This novel, however, does not feature the ocean or the sands or the rolling waves show more crashing on the beach. McGee receives a call from a friend in Chicago who has no one else she can turn to for help and, reluctantly, he flies into Chicago and it seems, at first, that the entire city is against his beach bumming instincts. He is cynical about the flight and about the city. But, Gloria is a dear friend he had once rescued on a beach in Florida and he can’t abandon her. Gloria has married into big money with an older gentleman, a rich surgeon, who died after a short period of time. His grown children resented the presence of this young, vivacious woman in their father’s life and, when, it is discovered, after his death, that his vast estate had been liquidated and disappeared into thin air, relations between this family are not good. Gloria, who barely has enough to last a few months, has no idea what happened to all the money and her late husband’s children think of her as a conniving she-devil who siphoned all the funds out and is ready to disappear with some boyfriend from her past.

Bit by bit, McGee sets out to discuss the matter with the principals involved and unravels family secrets and bitterness and psychological problems. There are scandals upon scandals hidden there. Much of the book moves slowly with character development as McGee comes no closer to the answer, but, by the end, events move swiftly and things unravel quicker than he can keep them together.
This is yet another terrific entry into the series and, in the end, quite satisfying even though the image of the fearful yellow eye will be left etched upon your memories. show less

Second time I’ve started this book. I have to call it quits at ~20%.

I don’t know what was going on in the author’s life at the time, but the whole tone is darker and more depressing. Maybe it was the time he was writing (post Kennedy assassination, civil rights riots).

I will skip this one and move along in the series. Hopefully, things will get back on track for McGee and his devil-may-care lifestyle touched by chivalry.

An old man dies and when they go to assess the estate its discovered its been stripped bare by the old man with most assets converted to cash and then withdrawn from the bank. The young wife calls in Travis McGee for help and the investigation begins.

Good plot, developments unfold nicely slowly building to a pretty decent climax.

Travis McGee has faced just about every kind of bad guy that's out there... from the mob to international terrorists to Latin American drug lords. This story pulls up an evil that is a bit unexpected, older, more experienced, and worse. Travis wins out in the end as he always does, but needs a bit of help, and loses the girl yet again. A disturbing story and one that I'm not sure I had read before.

A little dated but still an intriguing mystery with interesting characters.

Another good Travis McGee thriller. Fun read. This author just did it better then his contemporaries.