TRAVIS McGEE He's a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He's also a knight errant who's wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out and his rule is simple: he'll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half.

Travis McGee’s permanent address is the Busted Flush, Slip F-18, Bahia Mar, Lauderdale, and there isn’t a hell of a lot that compels him to leave it. Except maybe a call from an old army buddy who needs a favor. If it weren’t for him, McGee might not be alive. For that kind of friend, Travis McGee will travel almost anywhere, even New York City. Especially when there’s a damsel in distress. The damsel in question is his old friend’s kid sister, whose fiancé has just been murdered in what the authorities claim was a standard Manhattan mugging. But Nina knows better. Her soon-to-be husband had been digging around, finding scum and scandal at his real estate investment firm. And this scum will go to any lengths to make sure their secrets don’t get out. Travis is determined to get to the bottom of things, but just as he’s closing in on the truth, he’s knocked out and taken captive. If he’s locked up in a mental institution with a steady stream of drugs being siphoned into his body, how can Travis keep his promise to his old friend? More important, how can he get himself out alive? “As a young writer, all I ever wanted was to touch readers as powerfully as John D. MacDonald touched me.” — Dean Koontz “I envy the generation of readers just discovering Travis McGee, and count myself among the many readers savoring his adventures again.” —Sue Grafton “Travis McGee is the last of the great knights-errant: honorable, sensual, skillful, and tough.” —Donald Westlake

A beautiful woman calls Travis McGee to Arizona. She needs his help recovering the money that her good-for-nothing, soon-to-be-ex-husband stole from her. But she's not long for the world, and even though his employer dies, Travis isn't giving up. It's not often he leaves Florida, and he's not about to go home empty-handed. The third Travis McGee adventure.

Quick Red Fox (Travis McGee, No. 4)

The three novels in this volume were published in separate hardcover editions in the trade by J. B. Lippincott Company, and are included in this special book club edition, Shades of Travis McGee, with their permission. The original publication and copyright information for each of the novels is as Quick Red Fox, 1964Pale Gray for Guilt, 1968Dress Her in Indigo, 1969

When Travis McGee discovers a face from his past lying in a pool of blood on a cheap motel room floor, he wants answers. But so far, all he has are questions—plus the dubious inheritance of his friend's vengeance-driven girlfriend, and a valuable ancient Aztec golden idol. Part rebel, part philosopher, and every inch his own man, Travis McGee plunges into a wild and perilous trek for a killer that takes him from the Lauderdale beaches to the seething corruption of American expatriates in a distant Mexican town, to the lush high life of the California jet set.

Travis McGee is looking forward to a "slob summer," spending his days as far away from danger as possible. But trouble has a way of finding him, no matter where he hides. An old friend, conned out of his life savings by his ex-wife, has tracked him down and is desperate for help. To get the money back and earn his usual fee, McGee will have to penetrate the Everglades—and the mind of a violently twisted grifter. McGee has never seen a man so changed by one year of life. Arthur Wilkinson had been an amiable and decent young man looking to invest some of his considerable inheritance in a marina enterprise. Then a pretty blonde named Wilma Ferner showed up. She was soon Mrs. Wilkinson, and it only took her a year to leave Arthur bankrupt and broken. But what starts out as a simple job turns into a dangerous situation when McGee comes face-to-face with a quick-thinking and quicker-fisted foe in the Florida swamps. Now Arthur's fortune isn't the only thing on the line: This job may mean McGee's life.

A great bestseller starring Travis McGee, a real American hero—and maybe the star of a new movie franchise! Reissue. Helping damsels in distress is nothing new for Travis McGee—it's basically how he spends his life. But this one was different right from the start. Tossed off a bridge with cement wired to her feet, dragged to safety by Travis and Meyer, she was a hot Eurasian beauty with a cold heart...ready to snare them in a murder racket to end all murders....

How do you extort $600,000 from a dying man? Someone had done it very quietly and skillfully to the husband of Travis McGee's ex-girlfriend. McGee flies to Chicago to help untangle the mess and discovers that although Dr. Fortner Geis had led an exemplary life, there were those who'd take advantage of one "indiscretion" and bring down the whole family. McGee also discovers he likes a few members of the family far too much to let that happen....

Tush Bannon was in the wrong spot at the wrong time. His measly plot of land just so happened to sit right in the middle of a rich parcel of five hundred riverfront acres that big-money real estate interests decided they simply must have. It didn’t matter that Tush was a nice guy with a family, or that he never knew he was dealing with a criminal element. They squashed him like a bug and walked away, counting their change. But one thing they never counted on: the gentle giant had a not-so-gentle friend in Travis McGee. And now he’s going to make them pay.

With an introduction by CARL HIAASEN JOHN D. MacDONALD ."..the great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller." —STEPHEN KING ."..a master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer." —MARY HIGGINS CLARK ."..a dominant influence on writers crafting the continuing series character." —SUE GRAFTON ."..my favorite novelist of all time." —DEAN KOONTZ ."..the consummate pro, a master storyteller and witty observer." —JONATHAN KELLERMAN ."..remains one of my idols." —DONALD WESTLAKE THE TRAVIS McGEE SERIES ."..one of the great sagas in American fiction." —ROBERT B. PARKER ."..what a joy that these timeless and treasured novels are available again." —ED McBAIN

A wealthy old man laid up in the hospital is desperate to understand the last months of his daughter's life before she was killed in a car crash in Mexico. It was puzzling. She'd cleaned out her considerable bank account, left Miami and hadn't been heard from again. Travis McGee ventures into the steep hills and strange backwoods of Oaxaca through a bizarre world of dropouts, drug freaks, and kinky rich people—and begins to suspect the beautiful girl's death was no accident....

A lovely young girl steps in front of Travis McGee's headlights. McGee misses the girl but lands in ten feet of swamp water. As he's limping along the deserted road, someone in an old truck takes a few shots at him. And, when he goes to the local sheriff to complain, the intrepid Travis McGee finds himself arrested and charged with murder. And he can't help but ask himself, is this what they call Southern hospitality...?

Being accused at gunpoint of hiding another man's wife is a rude shock. But it's an even bigger shock when Travis McGee discovers that the woman in question is Mary Broll, a dear old friend. Now she's disappeared, vanished without a word to anyone.

A Novel. A Vintage Collector's Edition. P2744.

"One of the most enduring and unusual heroes in detective fiction."THE BALTIMORE SUN Now that Linda "Pidge" Lewellen is grown up, she tells Travis McGee, once her girlhood idol, that either she's going crazy or Howie, her affable ex-jock of a husband is trying to kill her. McGee checks things out, and gives Pidge the all clear. But when Pidge and Howie sail away to kiss and make up, McGee has second thoughts. If only he can get to Pidge before he has time for any more thinking....

Travis McGee has been offered easy money by a longtime lady friend. But when she gets killed, McGee's got a boatload of mystery. Navigating his boat into troubled waters, he heads for the seamier side of Florida—where drug dealing, twisted sex, and corruption are easy to find—but murderous riddles are hard to solve....

"The professional's professional of suspense writers." THE NEW YORK TIMES Van Harder, once a hard drinker, has found religion. But that doesn't keep folks from saying he murdered his employer, Hub Lawless, whose body hasn't been found. To clear his name, and cear up the mystery, Van asks friend-in-need Travis McGee to find out what really happened. What McGee finds is that Timber Bay is a toug h town to get a break in when you're a stranger asking questions. But what he also finds is that, dead or alive, Hub Lawless is worth a lot of money. Some are eager to get a piece of that action—and some are willing to take more than a piece out of anyone who gets in the way....

Beautiful girls always grace the Florida beaches, strolling, sailing, relaxing at the many parties on Travis McGee's houseboat, The Busted Flush. McGee was too smart—and had been around too long—for many of them to touch his heart. Now, however, there was Gretel. She had discovered the key to McGee—to all of him—and now he had something to hope for. Then, terribly, unexpectedly, she was dead. From a mysterious illness, or so they said. But McGee knew the truth, that Gretel had been murdered. And now he was out for blood...

McGee tracks killers who brutally murder an ailing millionaire. He renews unfinished adventure with Hollywood actress who leads him into a nasty nest of murderers involving a motorcycle gang, porn movies, and mad balloonists. And Mcgee relearns old lesson. Only close to the edge of death does he feel completely alive.

When Travis McGee's friend Meyer lent his boat to his niece Norma, and her new husband Even, the boat exploded out in the waters of the Florida Keys. Travis McGee thinks it's no accident, and clues lead him to ponder possibilities of drugs and also to wonder where Evan was when his wife was killed.... "Proves again that MacDonald keeps getting better with each new adventure." THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

"Travis McGee is back in action and he is in fine, fine form....What a treat. It is John D. MacDonald's 21st Travies McGee book and, without reservaton, his best."THE SAN DIEGO TRIBUNE Searching for a wealthy friend's yacht, Travis McGee puts himself square in the center of the international cocaine trade, and finds himself the target of some of the most ruthless villains he's ever met. Contemplating his own mortality for the first time, Travis McGee discovers amid all the danger the astonishing surprise behind the cat-shaped pipe cleaners someone is leaving at his door. This is vintage McGee in a novel that confirms John D. MacDonald's reputation as one of the greatest storytellers of all time.