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Rating: 
Summary: Good Story
Review: A more pessimistic MacDonald (and McGee) emerges after a writing hiatus of some years. The difference between earlier McGee stories and the 'new' series beginning with Scarlet Ruse is palpable to the devoted fan but not necessarily objectionable: McGee is growing older and so are we; not simply closer to the bone now (McDonald could always take us there) but closer to the end. Yet McDonald's exploration of a free life amidst its war with self and the criminal mind still entertains and instructs. We are not through yet and neither is our favorite beach-bum. See you in Lauderdale.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome McGee
Review: If you like Travis Mcgee, you'll like this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than buttered popcorn!
Review: Number fourteen in the Travis McGee series, and I continue to devour the things like they were popcorn, even though I want to slow down and examine how MacDonald can be so amazingly readable page after page. Maybe a MacDonald novel is like light in that famous physics conundrum (Michaelson-Morley?)--to define light, one must "stop" it in its tracks, and then it isn't light anymore, i.e. the observation of it affects it.This time McGee is trying to recover some stamps that have gotten switched for cheaper versions. Along the way McGee makes his typical observations about life and politics, adds a few more scars to his battered body, and becomes a little wiser.
Rating: 
Summary: A McGee of a different color
Review: This reads like an excellent MacDonald suspense novel. You know, those stories he wrote before McGee where a bunch of nasty characters get caught in some nefarious scheme. But it's subpar McGee. It's like MacDonald Started one type of novel and finished with another. Don't get me wrong, if McGee and Meyer had been replaced by characters named Joe Smith and Fred Jones, it would have been great. It just ain't McGee.
Rating:
Summary: Of stamps, women, and introspection.
Review: Travis McGee embarks on another of his trademark "salvage" missions involving a fortune in missing rare stamps. McGee's ruminations on people, relationships, human aspirations, money, politics, etc. are amusing social commentary, albeit thirty years later. Some of the observations of life in the '70s seem dated, but not enough to matter. Beyond this slight quibble, there is the vicious killer, and the complex mystery of the missing stamps. In addition, we have Mary Alice McDermit, a dark-haired giant of a woman with a healthy sex-drive and a troubled past. The lovable Meyer is present, still pontificating on economics and human foibles. As mystery-suspense novels go, the Travis McGee series is a perennial favorite. John D. MacDonald stresses introspection and character development rather than blood and thunder action. The typical Florida setting is exotic. Altogether, good lightweight reading material for summer vacations or anytime. ;-)
Rating:
Summary: Of stamps, women, and introspection.
Review: Travis McGee embarks on another of his trademark "salvage" missions involving a fortune in missing rare stamps. McGee's ruminations on people, relationships, human aspirations, money, politics, etc. are amusing social commentary, albeit thirty years later. Some of the observations of life in the '70s seem dated, but not enough to matter. Beyond this slight quibble, there is the vicious killer, and the complex mystery of the missing stamps. In addition, we have Mary Alice McDermit, a dark-haired giant of a woman with a healthy sex-drive and a troubled past. The lovable Meyer is present, still pontificating on economics and human foibles. As mystery-suspense novels go, the Travis McGee series is a perennial favorite. John D. MacDonald stresses introspection and character development rather than blood and thunder action. The typical Florida setting is exotic. Altogether, good lightweight reading material for summer vacations or anytime. ;-)
Rating:
Summary: A Travis Classic
Review: While I still find "Flash of Green" to be my favorite MacDonald book, there's something so appealing about the Travis McGee series that keeps me coming back to them. And "The Scarlet Ruse" has such an engaging opening sequence of events, and such an array of fascinating characters, that you cannot put this mystery down.
And while I know that MacDonald enjoyed popularity in his time, it seems that his popularity is running out of gas. I hope I am wrong because he is horribly overlooked.
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