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by William Toohey
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by Campbell Alla Bozarth, Alla Bozarth Campbell
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by Bil Keane
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by Robert E. Galinas
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by John Wesley Howard
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Bright Orange for the Shroud
by John D. Macdonald
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Fawcett (1985-05-12)
ISBN: 0449129888
EAN: 9780449129883
Mass Market Paperback: 190 pages
SKU: mon0000037217
Condition: Good
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Editorial Reviews
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Book Description
A Travis McGee mystery, this is the story of an immensely clever confidence scheme run by a group of vicious double crossers. An old friend of McGee's is sucked into their trap and bled financially and physically. Before the story ends, McGee is forced to use dirtier tactics than ever before. He becomes more cunning and heartless than the men he is pursuing. Along the way he discovers an innocent-looking blonde whose treachery includes the blackest arts of love.
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Customer Reviews
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Not for the squeamish.
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-05-28
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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Timeless good read
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-09-01
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!
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Very dark
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-07-30
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.
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One of MacDonald's darkest
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-05-24
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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Perhaps the best, surely the most intense, McGee story
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-02-17
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
I have read the entire McGee series and am now working my way through the unabridged audiobooks which were published by books on tape.
This is perhaps the simplest plot of the entire series. The fewest characters. No visit from Meyer, the economist.
Just three good guys, some medium bad guys, and one really memorable, but believable, super bad guy.
John MacDonald demonstrates that a uncomplicated and realistic plot with great and convincing characterizations is a much better read than a complicated, hard to believe plot. When you finish, you will muse that this could have been true, and suspect the author heard the germ of this story over a few beers in South Florida 50 years ago.
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