A Purple Place for Dying: A Travis McGee Novel

Travis McGee is a compelling if dated version of the self-confident hero who always has the right instincts and makes the right decisions. His attitude toward women is a relic of the times he was "living" in but offensive to modern sensibilities, so just a fact you have to be willing to accept. This particular book is not one of my favorites as it is set in an area that MacDonald obviously doesn't have the same innate connection to. The plot is mediocre and there is a hint of racism in the depiction of the bad guys. So read it for the McGee wisdom and character, not the rather simple plot.

In this third book of the Travis McGee series, MacDonald takes his hero to a desert town in Arizona, where he meets a potential client who wants his help in recovering money she believes her husband stole from her. Just as he is deciding not to take the job, she is shot and killed right in front of him. Of course, rather than getting out of town as quickly as possible, Trav stays to unravel the mystery of who killed her.

I was unexpectedly impressed by the first novel in this detective series, 'The Deep Blue Good-Bye,' finding it to be much superior for the genre. Unfortunately, the second and third (this one) of the series seem to me to be not much out of the ordinary--competently written, but with little else to recommend them.

A couple of things really disturbed me here: It is revealed that the dead client's husband habitually paddled her behind until she could barely sit down when she "misbehaved." But here's the disturbing part--neither Trav nor anyone else seems to find this in any way wrong or abusive. The other thing--a reclusive, obsessive, sexually repressed, and otherwise neurotic young woman is brought to normality through the healing power of Trav's lovemaking. It would seem that he should hire out as a sexual therapist rather than as a recoverer of lost things, because he is very good at healing damaged women through his sexual ministrations. These ideas about male-female relationship seem to be severely out of date even for 1964, the year the book was written.

A fast and effortless read with a bit of suspense. That's about it.

Slightly disappointing offering from the author I like to call the Michael Jordan of storytelling.

This is above average by any means, but what went wrong exactly here? The most interesting character aside from Travis McGee dies in the first chapter for starters and there's really just a poor recollection of her legacy throughout the novel. Mona Yeoman is just a pawn in something that's greater than herself, really. And so is McGee. He's stumbling in the dark a little bit in that one. The ending comes from nowhere. I mean it's an above average mystery by any means, but it doesn't feature much of McGee's sharp psychological insight that makes McDonald's novels so good because he doesn't have any visceral ties to the crime.

There are thousands of reviews of this man's Travis McGee series. He is the undisputed king of American detective/mystery writing and if someone else makes this claim (publishers of so many iconic crime writers have done just this) THEY SHOULD BE ASHAMED.

If you are a serious literature reader and tend not to delve into mysteries and detective procedurals then this is the author to read should you be seeking a change. It is hard to imagine anyone not having read MacDonald; I cut my adolescent teeth on him.

No matter what you like to read, be it vampire serials or non-fiction, there is absolutely a place in your mind where this book and the other 20 in the series will slot in providing you moving, marvelous moments of polished writerly adventure. If you loved Treasure Island for example this man will not disappoint. Few giants deserve six stars but MacDonald does.

Noted authors such as Donald Westlake and Robert B Parker doff their cap to him, and you should too.

Synopsis/blurb....
Mona is in love with a poor, young college professor and married to a wealthy man whom she is convinced is stealing from her trust fund. So she does what any self-respecting girl would do: She hires someone to steal her money back so she can run away with the love of her life.

Travis isn't sure he wants to help out until he sees Mona getting shot and killed out on the cliffs near her cabin. Now he's a lead suspect in a plot to help her escape, and to clear his name, he needs to get to the bottom of things. But the murders just keep mounting, and for Travis, even working with Mona's husband doesn't seem to help matters. Will he be able to uncover the complex plot in time to save his own skin?
A short review or summary for a short novel.......no a brief Q & A session with myself instead,
Did you enjoy it? Hmmm, yes, not over-whelmed, not under-whelmed either - it was ok in an averagely good sense.
What didn't engage you? Well McGee seems to be the go-to-chap when the dame needs rescuing. He couldn't save the first, but lo and behold there was a second one along a while later that he could save. Maybe there's a bit of a formula developing with this series. If the next 18 or so are the same it might be a test of endurance rather than a reading pleasure.
That seems unnecessarily harsh......Probably with a bit of hindsight, maybe I just woke up grumpy! I will persevere with the series and I expect to enjoy them as I go.
Marks from 5? This would rate as a 3. Not as enjoyable as the first in the series - The Deep Blue Goodbye.
Where did you get your copy from? On-line at the store quite recently.
Thanks for your time..... You're welcome.

A diverting mystery novel that gets things moving with a bang, "A Purple Place For Dying" keeps you guessing, and guessing wrong, for most of its short length. It's the kind of tough-guy fiction that's easy to read and hard to put down.

Travis McGee is in a desert town to meet Mona Fox Yeoman, beautiful wife of one of the county's most powerful men, Jasper Yeoman. We read she's "a big ripe-bodied blonde of about thirty" who carries herself with "a mild invulnerable arrogance." Not happy in her marriage, Mona asks McGee for help getting out from under Jasper's big heel. One might expect McGee and Mona to be making time behind a cactus before chapter two, but like I said, the novel has you guessing wrong.

That's the best thing for me about this, the third Travis McGee novel published in 1964. Add to that an exciting pace and a narrative packed with MacDonald's salty observations about life as channeled through McGee, like "Cop-taunting is a stupid and dangerous habit" and "Figures lie and liars figure, and the only thing worth all the trouble is a good bourbon, a good bed and a busy woman."

One of the more gripping angles of this multi-angled story has McGee and Jasper taking their measure of one another, and actually developing a mutual warmth despite the circumstances. Moments like Jasper mooning over a jackrabbit he ran over make it hard not to share Travis's sympathies, even as you wonder whether Jasper's as legit as the old boy makes McGee think.

Travis also has a sheriff to deal with, who explains his favorable treatment of Jasper as "old-fashioned." "The people who pay a hell of a lot in taxes get a hell of a lot in service." Then there's Isobel, the academic, spinstery sister of a missing man. McGee is ready to provide her with the help she needs uncovering the sensual woman she has denied in pursuit of a career. "A Purple Place For Dying" will rub many modern readers wrong in that way and others, but Travis's relationship with Isobel is handled with tenderness and a markedly welcome lack of affectation.

Not everything works so well in "A Purple Place For Dying." Most of the flaws come in the second half, like an over-explanatory stand-off scene with a cocky villain and a moment where McGee happens to spot someone he is looking for along a busy street despite having never set eyes on her in his life. "A Purple Place For Dying" has a good enough story that you wish MacDonald gave its denouement more room to unfold, but he probably had to write tight to fit a paperback book of just over 150 pages. Here the emphasis is as much on the characters involved as the murders that bring them together.

All in all, "A Purple Place For Dying" was undeniably gripping, and a noticeable improvement from the first McGee book I read, the dreadful "A Nightmare In Pink." Having had this second round with this reluctant, hard-nosed sleuth, I'll now be a little more eager to read him again.

This is the third of a series featuring Travis McGhee as a sometimes detective. He works when he needs money, otherwise enjoys his time on his boat. This takes him away from his normal Florida setting and to a remote setting where he has been summoned to help a young wife prove that her much older husband has stolen her inheritance so she can divorce him for a young college professor.

It is typical of the McGhee series. The book is quite short, like most of the earlier books in the series, and are all good, light reads. They are a little dated (I think this was written in the late 1960s, so there are always a few lines that make me remember how things used to be done. For example, in this book McGhee mentions “what are now called senior citizens”. I don’t really remember when that wasn’t the case. He also doesn’t seem to be concerned when the husband refers to hitting his wife to punish her. This is a concept that I am still aghast was ever acceptable and makes me remember that the “good old days” weren’t always.

They don’t need to be read in order, but it is nice to see how his character develops over the years.

A Purple Place for Dying, entry number three in John D. MacDonald's highly successful Travis McGee series is even better than the two that preceed it. This is a well crafted murder mystery that takes place in the deserts and mountains of the Western US, a world removed from the Ft. Lauderdale marina Travis McGee calls home.

Emotional tensions run deep in this compelling story of death and betrayal. The many characters are multifaceted and the ways in which they relate to one another are complex. This book bears John D. MacDonald's distinctive touch. The detailed and loving descriptions of nature. The interesting insights into human behavior. And of course the unrepentant and, at times, exasperating misogeny of Travis McGee, the last of the male chauvinists.

In some ways, A Purple Place for Dying unfolds like a Ross Macdonald novel, saturated as it is with dysfunctional families, unfulfilled lives and disturbing secrets guarded decade after decade.
Bottom line: A page turner of a mystery with lots of meat on its bones. Highly recommended.

When a friend recommends Travis McGee as the perfect man to solve a problem, Travis McGee finds himself employed by Mono Yeoman - a woman who is as tough, and as hard, as nails. McGee leaves his Florida houseboat for the Nevada desert, where he expects to to help Mono untangle her estate from the greedy fingers of her estranged husband. But he barly gets his bags unpacked when a sniper does away with his employer.
Any fan knows that nothing is more calculated to upset McGee than murdering someone right under his nose. The detective/troubleshooter has very little patience under the best of circumstances and he takes that kind of interference very personally. So client or no, McGee dives in to find the killer. And uncover a complex land and money scheme at the same time. In short order it becomes obvious that nothing is ever as obvious as it first seems and McGee is on his way to a showdown that might bring an unexpectedly swift end to John MacDonald's series.
McGee is the classic not-quite-noir hero, mad of the same cloth as Nero Wolfe's Archie. Tough, a dash sarcastic, but basically a defender of the underdog, his solutions to problems combines subtlety and violence in just the right mix. By now generations of mystery lovers have come to see McGee as their man in Lauderdale. A solution up to the toughest challenge. This is one of the earliest McGee's (The Deep Blue Good-by was first) and remains one of the best after nearly 40 years .

In this book McGee is trapped outside his usual operating sphere, and forced to learn how to deal with the oligarchy running a small town.

The real catalyst is the murder plot. Jas Yeoman is wildly in love with his wife Mona, but suddenly she conceives a romantic passion for a teacher and decides to run off.

I won't spoil much by telling you that the murder of Mona Yeoman is one of the first things in the book, and that Travis McGee spends the rest of the book trying to figure out what happened.

Excellent reading, as always!

The John MacDonald books were among the best of their time. Unfortunately, that time was long ago. The text dates the novel as taking place quite a while ago. Would benefit most of his works to be amended to reflect current times without the plots, etc. being disturbed.

This, the third book in the Travis McGee series, sees him travel to the midwest. Although out of his normal element, he is able to adapt. This is an excellent example of the private eye novel, and I can't wait to read more in the series.

Travis McGee finds healing in the strangest places. Swapping the humidity of Florida for a drier and more rugged environ, he solves a mystery for two dead clients and rescues yet another damsel in distress.

For someone who goes through mysteries like water, this was a refreshing trip back in time. Remeniscent of the good old days when a private eye had to talk to people to figure out the mystery, no help from finger prints and DNA. Very well written, a must if you prefer PI mysteries to forensic science mysteries.

Full of suspense, intrigue, twists, and turns. I am already hooked on the character Travis Magee from this author's previous books. He introduces several new characters. Some you hate, some you pity, some you fall in love with, Well written. Great read.

The telling is in the details and there are plenty details in this story. It is Travis McGee at his sarcastic best.Isabella was an interesting addition. Mona was outrageous. There are too many colorfull characters to name each one so I will just say this is a book that should not be missed.