Quick Red Fox

The Quick Red Fox is entry number 4 in John D. MacDonald's highly successful Travis McGee series and is most certainly the best of the series to that point. On this occasion, McGee is hired by a famous screen actress for the purpose of preventing some embarrassing photographs secretly taken at an orgy from ruining her career and reputation. As McGee criss-crosses the U.S. accompanied by the actress' ice maiden of a personal assistant, he learns some very interesting things about the other orgy participants and the disreputable photographer who took the pictures in the first place. The narrative to The Quick Red Fox is unfailingly compelling as McGee encounters character after character whose lives have been irreparably shattered under a host of different circumstances. Each chapter is a page turning adventure in reading chock full of fascinating characters and unexpected plot twists. This is not a "feel good" novel. Its underlying theme is that human corruption will invariably lead to ruined, shattered lives. MacDonald's dedication to this theme is so unflinchingly complete within the pages of The Quick Red Fox even the usually unflappable Travis McGee himself ultimately becomes a victim. Highly recommended.

Even though I still find "Flash of Green" to be my favorite MacDonald book, there's something so appealing about the Travis McGee series that keeps me coming back to them. The "Quick Red Fox" is a perfect example is why. It is well-paced and the central mystery is engrossing. The minor characters are all well-drawn and memorable. And, of course, it's Travis! I hope that MacDonald continues to gain in popularity, as I feel he is horribly overlooked.

Maybe it's because of the Hollywood commentary in this mcGee outing (Trav helps a vain movie star track down photos of her, taken during a drunken beach house sex party) but this jaunt seems like one of the most vivid, cinematic of the books.Carefully detailed, pleasantly sordid and joltingly violent, "Quick Red Fox" is easy to imagine, on my mental movie screen, as directed by a period late noir helmsman like Robert Rossen ("The Hustler") or Robert Aldrich ("Kiss Me Deadly"), in crisp black-and-white Cinemascope with Paul Newman or Steve McQueen in the lead.It's not as big in scale as some of the books, but it bobs and weaves in odd directions. Trav's confrontations with a prissy ski instructor; a pair of menacing, trailer park lesbians; and a spookily rendered German trophy wife may not be politically correct but they typify what's best and occasionally worst about MacDonald's style. McGee's warnings about women who kick for the crotch chafe against political correctness but make for one hilarious scene.The first time I read it, I was pleased at how aburptly MacDonald wraps this one up. On a second reading, I thought perhaps it was a little anticlimactic but, in re-evaluating it, "Fox" ends economically and with a surpirsing level of sad tenderness. A good starting point for the uninitiated.

One thing that fans of John D. MacDonald know: any Travis McGee book will be a treasure! And in "The Quick Red Fox," the author hasn't let us down. In this installment of the 21-episode series, McGee finds himself in Hollywood, helping out some friends and trying to solve the murder of Lysa Dean, a super starlet sex symbol, some very unseedy characters, and lots of blackmail! As the "Sunday Telegraph" wrote, "...MacDonald stirs in a touch of Oedipus trouble, a touch of alcoholism, and a touch of lesbianism, and gives his engaging private investigator, Travis McGee, some straightforward enjoyment as well." In this no-holds barred book, the reader's view of humanity is not white-washed (MacDonald never does this) and the greed, lust, jealousy of humanity's detritus are never more vividly depicted. That is not to say, however, that there aren't bright spots in the book. For one, McGee, whom Time magazine calls a "knight in tarnished armor," does not disappoint us. Sometimes, it appears as if he's the only level-headed, sane person in the story. MacDonald's first-person accounting of the McGee stories never get in the way and as one follows the series' progression, one is able to see the goodness that McGee personifies. The first book in this series is titled "The Deep Blue Good-by" and ends with "The Lonely Silver Rain," pubished shortly before MacDonald died. Each of the McGee books is characterized by having a color in the title, not that Travis needs any help being colorful. He seems able to do that on his own!

Travis McGee is looking for blackmailers for a superstar actress. With her personal secretary at his side, Mcgee is combing the country for suspects who attended a sex party with the sex symbol that produced pictures of all the participants. Trouble is, all of the other suspects show up in hospitals or dead. Travis is left with a trail involving an original blackmailer and a copycat blackmailer. The last chapter which focuses on Trav, the secretary and the actress is probably one of the most satisfying single chapters in the McGee saga.