The Long Lavender Look

Early every summer, I knock back one McGee mystery before July and, try as I might to resist, I usually end up reading at least one or two more by the time fall arrives. I have Hemingway that's unread; I have Mailer and Faulkner that continually remains uncracked; and I've been meaning to tackle "The Corrections" forfreakingever. And yet... I can't help it, there's something about sun-bleached days and cricket-filled nights that lends itself incredibly well to this series. This is definitely one of the best of the McGee adventures. Trav and Meyer run afoul of backwoods law enforcement and McGee spends the rest of the book stripping away layers of vicious, small-town corruption with the admirable ease of a man peeling a banana.All the great MacDonald hallmarks are here: there's a surprising amount of eroticism, several tense face-offs and twists and turns, some slick legal manuvering, a couple of pretty scary discoveries and a cast of cool characters: the top-heavy, man-hungry waitress Betty; a pill-popping psycho with a badge and a prostitution ring; and, best of all, a crazed, superhumanly strong, swamp-bred superbabe who likes to lift up Pintos and coo in womens' ears when she's torturing them. Added to which is a great ending, plus a nice vacation from the nautical details and dense business technicalities which are staples of the series but which, as proven here, don't have to be on full display every time around.

Aside from the first Travis McGee story, this (the 11th in the series) may be the best. Here Travis and his buddy Meyer are driving on a remote road through the south Florida Everglades returning from a friend's duaghter's wedding, when trouble erupts. A girl runs across the desolate road, causing McGee to swerve and rollover into the swamp, and before McGee has gathered his wits he and Meyer are being shot at, and ultimately locked up and charged with murder. The local sheriff, a "by the book" lawman with a history of deep personal loss, lets McGee out of prison while he investigates the case, confining McGee to the local county. Before we know it, McGee is bedding down a lonely but optimistic waitress, uncovering secrets about this sleepy little Everglades town including a call girl ring. McGee is confident and clever, but there is a sense of vulnerability about him that is refreshing for a mystery series since you sense that he realizes the trouble he is in, as the bodies start piling up. I also thought some of the minor characters in the book, including the waitress Betsy Kapp and the evil Lilo, were very skillfully drawn. Without giving away any of the story, let me just say there were a handful of great twists and turns in the plot, with MacDonald building the suspense nicely. This is not War and Peace, but I give it 5 stars as one of the better mystery novels I have read in awhile.

I'm constantly amazed at the hold that MacDonald asserts over me as a reader, certainly with this character. The beginnings always seem to jump right off, even when they also seem to ramble, like in this one (McGee talking of late night rides, fishing, his old Rolls Royce truck) or the McGee novel that starts with McGee and Meyer fishing by the bridge. There's hook there, yes--a bit of action occurs within the first three pages that sits the novel rolling--but it isn't the immediate hook of the short story or the long rambling set ups of most novels (I'm thinking of the info dumps that start most SF/F/H novels).The hook isn't the only thing going for MacDonald, though. The sentences and chapters seem to flow, to beg to be read. Since I was reading this novel on breaks, at lunch, and other different odd times, I tended to read only a chapter or two at a time. Rarely did I end a chapter when I didn't find myself unconsciously moving on the beginning of the next. Part of this is due to the standard technique of cliff-hanging chapters, which MacDonald has down well. But MacDonald's cliff-hangers aren't just situations, it seems to me, but the words themselves. I need to examine the chapter endings to see if I can identify what he is doing. Since I'm reading the McGee novels in chronological order, I'll try to do it with the next.

Take a night drive on a lonely highway in the everglades, and your life turns upside down when you swerve to miss a girl running across the road. This leads to attempts on your life, and then suspicion by the local law. Is somebody in the sherriff department working for the wrong side of the law? Travis must find out as he sorts his way through a cast of mysterious women in this highly entertaining tale. Our hero is stuck in Cypress County, by order of the sherriff. Somebody in the department almost beats the life out of Meyer, putting Travis into early revenge mode, and motivating him to get involved in a mystery where nobody requested his services. In the end, I was pleased and stunned by several facets of the solved mystery, and Travis weaves his way through many harrowing experiences to stay alive. This is clearly one of the best 3 McGee books (along with Amber and Green).

MacDonald has fully hit his stride in this 11th outing with Travis McGee. "Long Lavender Look" is vintage, deep-south McGee with a strong plot matching the depth of characterization.Trav and Meyer are returning home on a little traveled route in Cypress County when a girl darts into the high beam of the headlights. In his efforts to avoid the girl, Miss Agnes (McGee's blue Rolls pickup) plunges into the ditch. When the two drag themselves out, the girl has disappeared and they face a long walk to civilization. First they are shot at, and then arrested for murder. Cypress is not a friendly county. Travis hires the slickest of slick lawyers (who, of course owes him a favor) and is hell-bent on clearing his name, avenging a vicious attack on his friend Meyer, and finding the girl who got him into this sorry mess in the first place.MacDonald creates two brilliant female characters, Betsy Kapp and Lilo Perris. Betsy enters as a one-night-stand piece of southern darlin' fluff. Travis is almost embarrassed to find himself next to her in bed. Betsy first grows on Trav (and the reader) by her kindness, fastidiousness, and unfailing optimism. Gradually her strength of character, bravery and loyalty are revealed and we are desperately rooting for Betsy's welfare. Lilo is a swamp rat of a girl, possessed of uncanny strength, sensuality and a maddeningly mocking air. She is the type other women instinctively loathe and men fall like ninepins in her path. But by no means is she a standard femme fatale; she has streaks of generosity and kindness, but does she care for anyone aside from herself? Is the animal side the only side? Somehow you want to believe in her."The Long Lavender Look" is one of the best of the series and a great place to begin your odyssey with Travis McGee. If you haven't read it, I envy you your pleasure.