Bright Orange for the Shroud (ISBN 0449224449)

Not for the squeamish.:
In Bright Orange for the Shroud, intrepid investigator Travis McGee uses brains and brawn to restore dignity and self respect to Arthur Wilkinson, a former McGee acquaintance who has lost everything in a real estate swindle. Not only did Wilkinson lose every last cent he ever had but he must live with the knowledge that one of the swindlers was his own wife. This is a page turner of a novel that is part sting operation and part action adventure. Much of the book's interest quotient derives from the presence of Boone Waxwell, a menacing criminal who will remind readers and moviegoers of the villian in Cape Fear, another John D. MacDonald creation. The action unfolds entirely within Travis McGee's beloved home state of Florida and is chock full of lush descriptions of the beaches, swamps and waterways that go to make up the Sunshine State. Bright Orange for the Shroud is an excellent example of crime writing. One that holds up well even after 40+ years. Recommended to fans of hardboiled crime.

Very dark:
A friend of Travis McGee has been fleeced of all his money by a group of con artists. McGee promises to try and recover the pilfered money. Originally his plan is to con the cons, but he soon realizes that one of the gang is capable of murder. This is a very good entry in the Travis McGee series (the sixth, I believe). In `Bright Orange for the Shroud' McGee faces one of the most brutal and memorable antagonists in Boone Waxwell, a local Floridian who is familiar with all the swampways, and is rumoured to have buried a few bodies there. The result is one of the darker and more violent of the McGee novels I have read.

Timeless good read:
I really enjoyed this more classic McDonald book. I had just finished 'Dress Her in Indigo' and was very disturbed by that book. It was too dark for me, too mean, violent and too much senseless descriptive sex and musings thereof. Also, too many characters to keep track of most of them left you wondering at the end what their pertinence was, but I digress, this is a review of 'Bright Orange for the Shroud'. With the name of this book I couldn't imagine what it would be about and was completely surprised with the book and when the meaning of what it meant was revealed. It was all pretty sad. This book took me back to the days of the "land deal" when you went to Florida in those days you were sure to be sharked by someone hustling you off to some "free" steak dinner to then con you into a purchase of a lot in one of these phony developments. Looking back on it I can't understand why nothing was done about it and why Florida was allowed to be raped by so many con artists. It was in a way a bad place, a taken advantage of place seems to be so to this day. It's all rather depressing which I think is what drove McD to write and muse about it and it colored his whole life and thoughts. To see such destruction so fast, so close up and to be there when poverty, ambivalence, shock, disbelief and naïvety prevented much being done about anything by the locals, was pretty sad indeed. So anyway, it was a really good book and one this time I could relate more to the characters. One thing about Travis is that he seems attracted to sleazy women, they disappoint him, turn him off in the end and this keeps him free and clear of commitment...clever. One other observation is that Trav claims to have a "Calvinistic" conscience that keeps him from letting himself go too long out of shape physically but doesn't seem to apply to having a steady job with same work ethic. Pretty funny!

One of MacDonald's darkest:
I've read almost every title in the McGee series, and this is surely one of McGee's more disturbing adventures. As in 'A Fearful Yellow Eye', one of the villains is a rapist, so the reader should be prepared to read about that particular evil. (But it is just one aspect to the story, though.) I concur with other reviewers -- the plot is straightforward. And the characters -- particularly the protagonists -- are easy to identify with and enjoy. One thing was missing, however: MacDonald, through the worldview of McGee, usually works in a few mini-essays into the narrative. These insightful asides are usually about people, politics, or life in general. I don't recall any from this particular McGee mystery.

Greed Loses:
A Travis McGee is an essential for all fans of the detective story. BRIGHT ORANGE FOR THE SHROUD is number six in this enduring series where Travis takes the Busted Flush to the Gulf Coast of Florida to help two friends recover an inheritance and their lives. Step into the world of a battered knight who seeks his personal grail while aiding the less fortunate. John D. MacDonald's McGee is the quintessence of every one's dream to get away from it all, but discovers "it all" is hidden in the battered kit bag. A McGee fix for detective fans is the same a Christie fix for cozy mystery fans, the masters always keep up coming back and wishing there were more. Nash Black's stories are now available on Amazon Kindle.