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The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1974)

de John D. MacDonald

Altres autors: Mira la secció altres autors.

Sèrie: Travis McGee (16)

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8792024,245 (3.74)42
Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:From a beloved master of crime fiction, The Dreadful Lemon Sky is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat.
 
Around four in the morning, Travis McGee is jarred awake by a breathless ghost from his past: an old flame who needs a place to stash a package full of cash. What??s in it for McGee? Ten grand and no questions asked. Two weeks later, she??s dead.
 
??The Travis McGee novels are among the finest works of fiction ever penned by an American author.???Jonathan Kellerman
 
Carolyn Milligan was only aboard McGee??s boat for one night. She came to drop off a hundred grand for safekeeping. What Carrie really needed was someone to keep her safe. She said she??d be back in a month. Instead Carrie is killed in a dubious roadside accident. Now McGee is left with a fortune??and a nagging conscience.
 
So McGee takes a trip to the seedy little town of Bayside, Florida, to look into Carrie??s life before she showed up on his boat. What McGee finds only pushes him further into the corrupt world of drugs and blood that Carrie was trying to escape. McGee is used to high stakes, but when the bodies start piling up, even he may be in over his head.
 
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The toughest thing about revisiting John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series is getting past its casual misogyny. Most of the female characters have either "Victim”" or “Bimbo” tattooed on their foreheads; many carry both messages. Even when McGee admits to admiration of a woman’s character, it doesn’t stand in the way of a bit of recreational or therapeutic sex. And all too often, she ends up dead in the next chapter.

That happens to a couple of the female characters in “The Dreadful Lemon Sky”, beginning with Carrie Milligan, an old friend (of whom McGee seems to have an inexhaustible supply) who approaches him asking him to hold a considerable wad of cash for 30 days. McGee accepts, despite knowing there’s no legitimate reason for a construction company secretary to be walking around with $94,000 in assorted greenbacks. When Milligan ends up dead on a Florida highway, McGee delays carrying out her directive to deliver the cash to her sister while he and the ever-present Meyer dig more deeply into what quickly begins to look like murder.

McGee remains a strong character to build a series around. He’s competent, smart, good-looking, persistent, and has his own very particular moral code which is essentially Good Guy Realist. Meyer is around to do the heavy lifting when a philosophical question needs to be brought into play, and MacDonald gets to use McGee as a mouthpiece for his own dismay at the untethered and (in his view) malignant growth of Florida’s wetlands and beach communities. A Travis McGee novel guarantees that the Bad Guys, on the whole, get their comeuppance and that Our Hero will survive, somewhat more battered and perhaps just a bit more cynical, to fight the good fight and live the good life another day.

“The Dreadful Lemon Sky” delivers on all those points. It’s just too bad that MacDonald’s characterization of female characters has aged so poorly. ( )
  LyndaInOregon | Feb 1, 2024 |
“He captured the mood and the spirit of the times more accurately, more hauntingly, than any ‘literature’ writer — yet managed always to tell a thunderingly good, intensely suspenseful tale.” — Dean Koontz

“A writer way ahead of his time, his Travis McGee books are as entertaining, insightful, and suspenseful today as the moment I first read them. He is the all-time master of the American mystery novel.” — John Saul


John D. MacDonald, whose Travis McGee series became, as Robert B. Parker pointed out, one of the great sagas in American mystery fiction, and about whom Mary Higgins Clark wrote, “Talk about the Best” penned The Dreadful Lemon Sky near the middle of the 1970s. It remains one of the better entries in a series littered with memorable reads. A rather protracted confrontation near the end of the book keeps it from being in the very top tier of the series for me, but it’s just a tick below them — meaning it’s almost assuredly better than just about everything else out there. This one is actually a much more complex mystery than most in the series, which is why some rank it even higher in the canon.

It begins at four o’clock in the morning, when McGee’s warning system alerts him that someone has stepped onto The Busted Flush. It turns out to be Carrie Milligan, a young woman from McGee’s past. McGee had stepped in and prevented her from being raped at a boat party on the Alabama Tiger several years before. That same evening they had their one and only intimate coupling. Carrie was very shaken by the ordeal, what might have happened, but McGee does not attempt to take advantage of her. While McGee is portrayed as somewhat surprised by what eventually did happen that night so long ago, it is clear that MacDonald understood the psychology of the moment, the instant intimacy and trust such a saving act might have on the one rescued. It is only when MacDonald the writer has his creation recall those events in his thoughts, that McGee, who had made no lecherous moves after rescuing the girl, nor had he planned any, gets a glimmer of understanding:

“It was a very gentle time, and very sweet in a strange way. In body language she was saying, This is the way it should be. And I was saying, Replace that memory with This one.”

Unfortunately for McGee, the romantic episode was isolated, and he became someone Carrie looked up to and trusted to advise her. McGee even loaned her the use of his boat for her honeymoon — someone long gone now, and a mistake on Carrie’s part. His residual affection for her, however, makes McGee’s later actions in the novel understandable. It also reveals how forward-thinking MacDonald could be, rather than the sexist lout his tarnished hero is so often made out to be:

“They lead the singles life. Lots of laughs and lots of barren mornings. Skilled sex, mod conversation, They are not ardent libbers, yet at the same time they are not looking for some man to ‘take care.’ God knows they are expert in taking care of themselves. They just want a grown-up man to share their life with, each of them taking care. But there are one hell of a lot more grown-up ladies than grown-up men.” — McGee, thinking about Carrie and her romantic disappointments

But now Carrie is here, in the wee hours of morning, and she’s got ninety-four grand-and-change she wants McGee to hold for her until she returns — no questions asked. Well, of course McGee does, and of course Carrie doesn’t return because she can’t. McGee is going to give the money to her sister, Susan, but before that happens he and Meyer must discover if Carrie’s death in Bayside was actually an accident. It will lead to one of the most complex mysteries in the series, involving unrequited love, drug smuggling, and a lawyer and potential politician who likes to lift up every skirt he comes across. Freddie Van Harn in fact, is everything McGee is unfairly portrayed as by some, only on steroids.

Taking the Flush down to Bayside, McGee works out several stories which become fluid as he pokes around, trying to remain plausible as he looks into Carrie’s murder, which everyone has accepted was an accident. First McGee runs across Cindy Birdsong at the marina. Her husband Cal is a brute of a man whom McGee instantly notes by his movements, even while drunk, is someone more than a little formidable. Drunk, Cal slaps his wife, and McGee, who has never met these people, and has no idea what he’s stepping into, or how it will affect whatever tack he takes while looking into Carrie’s death, hesitates to become involved. McGee’s atypical hesitancy to play hero on this occasion proves warranted when he’s barely holding his own against Cal, and is saved by the cops. They’ve been following Cal’s trail of drunken violence all night, which includes a pizza guy’s broken arm, and three truckers in the hospital, beaten senseless by Cal. McGee doesn’t press charges because Cindy Birdsong asks him not to, even thanks him later.

McGee uses his wiles to discover that Jack Omaha and his partner Harry were having affairs with the help — the help being Carrie and Joanna. Omaha apparently cleaned out the building supply business before disappearing and that may or may not be where Carrie got all that cash. So McGee pokes around some more. It doesn’t go much better with Chris Omaha. Freddie is dipping into those waters already — and just about all the water in town, willing or not — and he doesn’t want her talking to McGee. Chris has already revealed herself to McGee as uncaring, and later in the book is described by Joanna as dumb, loud, greedy, and rotten to both Jack Omaha and the kids. When Freddie smacks her in front of McGee, who has conned his way into her home, McGee at first thinks Freddie has shot her. He’s relieved to discover Freddie only slapped her. Though McGee doesn’t like it much, and tries to taunt Freddie into making a move, McGee has to consider how his actions will affect his own cover story. Because it doesn’t come to that, it is still far from McGee — or MacDonald as a writer — condoning these actions. It’s a story, and there is far more going on here than meets the eye, as is borne out later.

When Carrie’s sister Susan enters the picture, she is confused and numb. In kindness, McGee offers to see what the deal is with the staggering funeral home bill. Once he realizes the director is attempting to take advantage of Susan’s grief, he returns to Susan who is sitting outside, and tells her exactly what the guy said. In essence, it empowers Susan and she is the one who goes back inside and sets things right. McGee was being a decent guy, not demeaning her, for heaven’s sake. She is in grief, still stunned at the sudden loss of her sister in the story. Even after she puts the funeral director in his place, she acknowledges how she managed it:

“I was pretending I was Carrie and it was me who was dead. She’d never let him take advantage. I was just so confused when he gave me the bill before.”

Joanna become friends with Meyer and McGee as they delve into Carrie’s death, but not before Joanna makes a play for McGee, and makes the mistake of asking him if there’s more than one reason to become intimate with someone. His response:

“The biggest and most important reason in the world is to be together with someone in a way that makes life a little less bleak and solitary and lonesome. To exchange the I for the We. In the biggest sense of the word, it’s cold outside. And kindness and affection and gentleness build a nice warm fire inside. That’s okay. But if you want to set some new international screwing record, or if you want to show off the busiest fastest hips in town, forget it.”

It’s almost startling how often McGee declines overtures from the opposite sex in this series, and yet you so rarely read about those instances in reviews. Hmmm. Here Joanna becomes friends only, at least for a time. But a lot happens in this one, and there is eventually a pretty high body count. The story is very complex, delving into the ins-and-outs of the traffic, and the morality surrounding the quick buck to be had by doing so. Then there is the question of who took the money, not to mention an investigator who realizes right off the bat, that McGee and Meyer have ulterior motives for being in Bayside which doesn’t coincide with any story they’ve told — to anyone. The Busted Flush takes some heavy damage in this one, as does McGee. A violent and slightly too protracted conclusion is followed by an even more violent but much more succinctly written anti-climax.

There is a romance of sorts here between McGee and someone, and their coupling will eventually take on a rich and mature hue. McGee is damaged externally, the woman damaged internally. It will in fact be McGee who wants to continue the affair. The woman, however, needs more time, because she has discovered things about herself of which she’d formerly been unaware. There is a realness to her reasons filled with MacDonald’s unspoken psychological understanding:

“Guilt is the most merciless disease of man. It stains all the other areas of living. It darkens all skies.” — McGee

On a lighter note, we get McGee’s take on why he doesn’t do pot, and why music should be ‘over there’ instead of all around you, and we get to hear Meyer’s hilarious reasons for not jogging. So it isn’t all darkness, but there is a more serious shading to this one which resonates with the reader. It’s probably a 4.5 for me, but I’ll round up. A fabulous mystery this time out for McGee, with a story so dense and complex, so humanistically shaded, that it almost masks how much violence there is in Dreadful Lemon Sky. Highly recommended! ( )
  Matt_Ransom | Oct 6, 2023 |
3.5* ( )
  leslie.98 | Jun 27, 2023 |
Good- but not great Travis McGee. Story is of a young former gal friend of Travis's who brings him 100K for him to store in case anything happens to her. Something (of course) does happen her- and Travis goes hunting out what the story is. Turns out she was mixed up in bringing drugs in from Jamaica and a smooth talking lawyer was doing most of the bad work. Meyer goes along to saying smart things and Travis is almost killed several times by the lawyer... most memorably as he is forced to around and around a huge horse grave on a farm being chased by a jeep (i think) and he needs to trick the jeep into the grave so he can do his Travis charm and get the guy. He beds the widowed owner of the marina he is tied up in this one and - conveniently- she decides not to go off with him on the boat, as that would have possibly gotten in the way of Travis's travels. ( )
  apende | Jul 12, 2022 |
Another good thriller by the great John D. McDonald. This was not up to his usual standards but still a good story. I'll give it 3.5. As always I will continue to read a all of McDonald's books. He is the author who showed everyone else how to make pulp adventures into solid novels. ( )
  ikeman100 | May 13, 2020 |
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Nom de l'autorCàrrecTipus d'autorObra?Estat
John D. MacDonaldautor primaritotes les edicionscalculat
Child, LeeIntroduccióautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Hiassen, CarlIntroduccióautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
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Life is not a spectacle or a feast: it is a predicament.
—SANTAYANA
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For each true friend of Travis McGee
Primeres paraules
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I was in deep sleep, alone aboard my houseboat, alone in the half acre of bed, alone in a sweaty dream of chase, fear, and monstrous predators.
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I did not think I could placidly endure another gleaming salesman tell me that I had to have quadrophony sound, coming at me from all directions. I have never felt any urge to stand in the middle of a group of musicians. They belong over there, damn it, and I belong over here, listening to what they are doing over there. Music that enfolds you, coming from some undetectable set of sources, is gimmicky, unreal and eminently forgettable.
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Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:From a beloved master of crime fiction, The Dreadful Lemon Sky is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat.
 
Around four in the morning, Travis McGee is jarred awake by a breathless ghost from his past: an old flame who needs a place to stash a package full of cash. What??s in it for McGee? Ten grand and no questions asked. Two weeks later, she??s dead.
 
??The Travis McGee novels are among the finest works of fiction ever penned by an American author.???Jonathan Kellerman
 
Carolyn Milligan was only aboard McGee??s boat for one night. She came to drop off a hundred grand for safekeeping. What Carrie really needed was someone to keep her safe. She said she??d be back in a month. Instead Carrie is killed in a dubious roadside accident. Now McGee is left with a fortune??and a nagging conscience.
 
So McGee takes a trip to the seedy little town of Bayside, Florida, to look into Carrie??s life before she showed up on his boat. What McGee finds only pushes him further into the corrupt world of drugs and blood that Carrie was trying to escape. McGee is used to high stakes, but when the bodies start piling up, even he may be in over his head.
 
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