Free Fall in Crimson

This was a very good addition to the Travis McGee series. A quick read, but very rewarding. Nobody can write so well about the seedy underbelly of society quite like John D. MacDonald. In this installment, our gallant beach bum hero takes on a case for an artist named Ron Esterland, who wants McGee to find out who murdered his dying millionaire father. The mystery pits McGee up against an array of possible suspects along with a brutal and sadistic outlaw biker. If you're a fan of the mystery/noir genre, John D. MacDonald will not disappoint with this chapter of the Travis McGee series.

I'm running out of room on my bookshelf--MacDonald's Travis McGee series is eating up all the space. And now I've just added "Free Fall in Crimson" to that shelf. \ One of the other reviewers remarked that this was the 19th installment of this series. Amazing! And I really wish I had read these great thrillers in the order in which they had been written. No matter. "Free Fall in Crimson" holds as prominent a spot among its tribe as any of the other ones. As I have mentioned in other reviews, MacDonald's "A Flash of Green" had always ranked at the top of my list. "Free Fall in Crimson" has now taken over that spot.

This is a great book if you're in the mood for a philosophy lesson on the meaning of life and how to maintain it. John D. MacDonald knows how to keep the action flowing, without hitting the reader over the head. It's nice to be treated as if you are an intelligent reader, which is why I keep coming back to the McGee series. Travis helps out a man whose father was killed, shortly before cancer would have taken him anyway. As Travis pokes around, he finds a web of dispicable characters hiding behind the entertainment industry. Justice is served to the guilty, as usual. Unfortunately, some of the innocent do not come out of this one, but only those who are not as careful as our houseboat hero. This is definitely one of the better entries in the McGee series, but one should read "A Quick Red Fox" first.

In "Free Fall in Crimson," the 19th Travis McGee episode, author John D. MacDonald refuses to be tied up with boundaries. In fact, this book seems a great deal like a geography lesson, as the plot takes him from Ft. Lauderdale, to other Florida parts, to Beverly Hills, and, finally, to Iowa for the climactic scene! However, readers should not let that put them off another top-flight installment in the McGee series--this time involving, yes, a murder and other corruption, a hotair balloon competition. The plot is set aloft when Ron Esterland approaches Travis for help--seems he's been completely cut out of his inheritance when his father was murdered two years earlier (most of the estate has been left to his estranged wife and her filmmaker friend). Ron wants Travis to find the truth about the murder, suspecting that the wife and friend had much to do with it. Travis' pursuit then takes him cross country, eventually landing in Roseland,Iowa, where a film is being made about a hot-air balloon meet. As with the other McGee stories, MacDonald keeps us on the edge until the final pages. It is not that we don't know the guilty party; it is just that Travis must find a way to secure justice--usually his own brand--as many of the guilty are "out of bounds" to legal prosecution. Readers will not be disappointed in either the story or McGee! While the series does not require a chronological reading, the earlier books establish the characters (especially McGee and economist friend Meyer). The first book is "The Deep Blue Goodby"--and it's a good place to get started, to "channel" the McGee interest. But regardless, "Free Fall in Crimson" merely adds to the charm of the series and of the character--it will leave you grasping for air!([email protected])

Dishing out heavy doses of moral philosophy, McDonald always keeps the reader entertained and thought provoked. Not quite on par with some of the earlier McGee's, but never-the-less, vintage McDonald. 30+ years of reading his novels, one can only morn the loss that Travis, Meyer and the rest won't have a new tale to tell.