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Rating: 
Summary: Classic Travis
Review: Even though 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. The "Quick Red Fox" is a perfect example is why. It is well-paced and the central mystery is engrossing. The minor characters are all well-drawn and memorable. And, of course, it's Travis!
I hope that MacDonald continues to gain in popularity, as I feel he is horribly overlooked.
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Summary: A Warning
Review: Here's a quick heads-up to anyone thinking of checking out this book: as per usual, MacDonald indulges his sexist attitudes towards women by having his hero, Travis McGee, meet up with a physically attractive, sexually repressed female whom he subsequently restores to mental good health by way of the bedroom. Anyone who's read this far in the series will not be surprised by that particular plot development. However, the book also indulges, in one brief but potently worded scene, some seriously homophobic sentiments. This, of course, fits in nicely with McGee's habit of handily pigeonholing virtually everyone he meets. Like the previous three McGee books (which are all I've yet read), the attitudes may be outdated, and to some degree offensive--but the writing's good stylistically, plot and pacing are tight. If you're looking for a light but suspensive read (or if you're sexist and homophobic), McGee's your man.
Rating: 
Summary: John MacDonald's Travis McGee Series -20 books
Review: John MacDonald, a prolific mystery/terror novelist, created the Travis McGee series. The Quick Red Fox is one of the earlier ones, and the story is rather tacky. What is important about the Travis McGee series is that there is much philosophy about life which rings very true today, even though MacDonald died in 1996.
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Summary: Cinematic McGee
Review: Maybe it's because of the Hollywood commentary in this mcGee outing (Trav helps a vain movie star track down photos of her, taken during a drunken beach house sex party) but this jaunt seems like one of the most vivid, cinematic of the books.Carefully detailed, pleasantly sordid and joltingly violent, "Quick Red Fox" is easy to imagine, on my mental movie screen, as directed by a period late noir helmsman like Robert Rossen ("The Hustler") or Robert Aldrich ("Kiss Me Deadly"), in crisp black-and-white Cinemascope with Paul Newman or Steve McQueen in the lead. It's not as big in scale as some of the books, but it bobs and weaves in odd directions. Trav's confrontations with a prissy ski instructor; a pair of menacing, trailer park lesbians; and a spookily rendered German trophy wife may not be politically correct but they typify what's best and occasionally worst about MacDonald's style. McGee's warnings about women who kick for the crotch chafe against political correctness but make for one hilarious scene. The first time I read it, I was pleased at how aburptly MacDonald wraps this one up. On a second reading, I thought perhaps it was a little anticlimactic but, in re-evaluating it, "Fox" ends economically and with a surpirsing level of sad tenderness. A good starting point for the uninitiated.
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Summary: McGee sees red in this action-packed episode
Review: One thing that fans of John D. MacDonald know: any Travis McGee book will be a treasure! And in "The Quick Red Fox," the author hasn't let us down. In this installment of the 21-episode series, McGee finds himself in Hollywood, helping out some friends and trying to solve the murder of Lysa Dean, a super starlet sex symbol, some very unseedy characters, and lots of blackmail! As the "Sunday Telegraph" wrote, "...MacDonald stirs in a touch of Oedipus trouble, a touch of alcoholism, and a touch of lesbianism, and gives his engaging private investigator, Travis McGee, some straightforward enjoyment as well." In this no-holds barred book, the reader's view of humanity is not white-washed (MacDonald never does this) and the greed, lust, jealousy of humanity's detritus are never more vividly depicted. That is not to say, however, that there aren't bright spots in the book. For one, McGee, whom Time magazine calls a "knight in tarnished armor," does not disappoint us. Sometimes, it appears as if he's the only level-headed, sane person in the story. MacDonald's first-person accounting of the McGee stories never get in the way and as one follows the series' progression, one is able to see the goodness that McGee personifies. The first book in this series is titled "The Deep Blue Good-by" and ends with "The Lonely Silver Rain," pubished shortly before MacDonald died. Each of the McGee books is characterized by having a color in the title, not that Travis needs any help being colorful. He seems able to do that on his own!
Rating:
Summary: Like eating potato chips...
Review: Reading John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series is like eating potato chips: you can't eat just one. But unlike potato chips, each book tastes better than the last. In The Quick Red Fox, the 4th book in this series, MacDonald really hits his stride.
Film-star Lysa Dean calls in McGee on a top secret and very sensitive job. Dean was at a party with nine other people when some compromising pictures were taken. The actress has been blackmailed once over these photos, and a year after the original blackmail scheme, she receives more photos and a threatening letter. Afraid that the release of these pictures will jeopardize her film career and interfere with her planned marriage to husband number five, she asks McGee to investigate. She also gives McGee her young, beautiful and efficient, but very frosty personal assistant, Dana Holtzer.
McGee and Holtzer crisscross the country trying to interview the other members from that fateful party. Some are scarred, some are missing and some are mysteriously murdered. But despite all the odds and lots of dead ends, McGee is able to assemble the pieces of this intriguing puzzle.
The Travis McGee series continues to get better and this was the best one yet. I can't wait to start number five.
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Summary: Solving Blackmail
Review: Travis McGee is quick to come to the rescue of damsels in distress and doesn't need much coaxing this time when actress Lysa Dean cries out for help. Lysa is being blackmailed over some photos that were taken during a 4 day drunken party, catching her in some pretty explicit scenes. She has already paid off the blackmailers once, but it would seem that the photos still exist and the blackmailers are coming back for another bite of the cherry. Travis is given a list of 10 people who knew about the party and so uses it to begin his investigation into which one of them organised to have the photos taken. To help him during his investigation, Lysa supplies Travis with her own personal secretary Dana Holtzer, a highly organised, very professional and of course , strikingly beautiful woman. She also has some personal secrets that makes her cold and aloof, particularly when it comes to men. Travis, being the diligent investigator that he is, goes about unlocking the secrets to Dana's heart while he's unlocking the identity of the blackmailer. This is a lively mystery which turns out to be more of a mystery than it appears at first glance. The solving of one part leads us onto the next, leading Travis and Dana across the country and forcing them closer and closer together. It's an entertaining entry in the Travis McGee series.
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