The Green Ripper

Seems my first (and probably last) Travis McGee novel is an outlier compared to the rest of the series. Primarily because he has a serious interest in and connection to the woman in his bed and the level of violence he achieves in avenging her death. Hm. Strange. The smugness level is pretty high and he's really in love with the idea of himself at the beginning, but then goes off the rails because someone took his toy away. That's how it comes off to me. Oh sure, there is a veneer of sincerity in his musings over the lost Getel, but that's all it is; a veneer. That and the solution is sloppy and unfocused. Glad it was a freebie and I know a bit more about why I have avoided these books for so long.

"The Green Ripper" is probably the tightest, most focused, of all the 21 Travis McGee novels. The title is what a young child thinks he hears when adults are talking about the Grim Reaper. And, that's exactly what comes and takes away Gretel, without whom all the time seemed "leaden and endless." She was the one who made Travis, that beach bum who trawled the waters off Florida in his 52foot houseboat ("The Busted Flush"), forget all about the girls of summer. When she dies quickly of a mysterious disease, he falls into great despair, but what happens when he figures out that Greta only died when she stumbled on a mysterious cult and saw something she wasn't supposed to see.
This novel was written in the late seventies when Jim Jones was show more busy brainwashing hundreds of people and the remnants of the Patty Hearst years and the Symbionese Liberation Army had not yet been forgotten. But, it is still relevant today in a world where crazy Jihadis are bent on destroying Western civilization. It is a terrific novel which pits a lone McGee against a worldwide cult set on blowing up modern civilization. What can this one lone treasure hunter/ beach bum do against a highly trained army of religious fanatics? It is, simply put, a terrific adventure story. show less

Dated ripped-from-the-headlines thriller that took inspiration from militaristic active-adventure movies. Some of the prose is just exceptional and called Raymond Chandler to mind. It's unfortunate that writing was in service of a hackneyed plot that could have been in a made-for-TV movie. Predictable and full of standard tropes including kicking the action off with the misogynistic murdered love interest trope to motivate the male protagonist. Fails the Bechdel test even though there are multiple differenciated female characters. 1970s popular fiction that's not likely to be long remembered.

I had been building up to this episode, having heard it was the one where Travis goes berserk. It wasn't quite as I expected. Taking up where the last book left off, Travis is enjoying his time with the girl of his dreams. Of course, his dreams aren't meant to last. And when he finds out someone was responsible for her death, his sole mission is to seek them out. How he does so is a bit improbable, but the focus and intensity of this book win out over the often rambling tales MacDonald tends to spin. We have known all along that McGee is a killer. Here, he gets to practice it for a good cause. This book, published in 1979, seems much more contemporary, although the face of terrorism has changed a bit since it was written. And it has show more more than its share of gloom and doom, whether it is Meyer's forecasts of economic collapse in as soon as five years or the seeming certainty that terrorism and bloodbaths are on their way--well, maybe it got that part right. It just took a little bit longer. Still, we don't read McGee to be uplifted, so as a reader, we just sort of nod our heads and keep reading. At least for a moment, the good guys can win. And for once, there is no ambiguity about whether McGee is a good guy or not, although MacDonald cops out a bit when it comes to his dealings with the female terrorists. Definitely a change of pace for the series, and a definitely needed one--despite the events that initiated it. show less

THE GREEN RIPPER (1980) by John D. MacDonald finds our hero, Travis McGee, in a dark state of mind. His woman (girlfriend doesn’t come close to describing the deep bond between the two) dies suddenly after seeing a sinister religious cult figure she happened to see years before. Travis, almost destroyed by his loss, decides there is only one course of action. He must write out his will, leave sunny Florida behind, cross the country and track down the hidden figures who killed her.
This is a darker book than normal, Travis a bitter avenger, but the writing is consistently of the high standard expected from MacDonald. While the book might be almost 40 years old, it could have been written today and been just as truthful.
If you show more haven’t read any of the McGee novels, start with the first in the series. All are stand alone tales, so you do not necessarily have to read from the beginning, but once you start in you’ll wish you had, just for the sheer pleasure of seeing a master writer growing in his powers. show less

McGee's investigation into the suspicious death of his most recent lover leads him to search for a mysterious religious cult in northern California, which turns out to be a front for a massive terrorist organization. Pretty grim stuff here, and his friend Meyer's gloomy predictions (a frightening number of which have come to pass since the book's 1979 publication date) don't help the overall downer tone.

It was okay, though not very much like a Travis McGee novel. The protagonist infiltrates a cell of religious extremist terrorists to avenge a woman who is fridged early in the story, culminating in an action sequence more befitting a Rambo movie than a mystery novel. It's unbelievable how quickly the terrorists accept him into their ranks, and the tone of the book suffers whiplash near the end.