Rating: 
Summary: Good Old Storytelling at its Best
Review: A boat blows up coming into harbor in the Florida Keys. Within hours a Chilean Terrorist group claims responsibility for planting the bomb with intent to kill the famed economist Dr. Meyer. Private Detective Travis McGee is suspicious and tracks Meyer -- a good friend -- down and finds he was in fact, not aboard the ill-fated boat.Photographs from a nearby boat reveal that a man Evan Lawrence also may not have been aboard the boat. Lawrence recently married Meyer's niece, and when McGee's suspicions seem confirmed, the two friends (he and Meyer) begin a hunt to find out about Evan Lawrence's past. Thus begins Cinnamon Skin, a taut, fun mystery thriller that leads two friends through the criminal past that formed a killer. Some of the most deft touches in the novel come when MacDonald describes the lives of people along the Rio Grande Valley in southwest Texas. At one point, I actually got out a road map and traced their quest from Eagle Pass to El Paso and back all the way to Brownsville. MacDonald blends fact with fiction at just the right pitch in this, his twentieth Travis McGee novel. MacDonald writes like a writer who has earned it, man. He seems to know his story so well, there is very little drift in the way he tells a story. Each sentence is exact or darn near exact, and the end result is a taut mystery that is very fun and very entertaining -- the kind of novel you'll want to talk about with friends. I highly recommend Cinnamon Skin to folks who like good old storytelling at its best, most genuine form. It is the perfect airplane, poolside, vacation novel to help you beat the heat this summer. And its depth will leave you feeling satisfied at any time of year. Good stuff. Please hit the "helpful" button if you found this review helpful. I like to know you care. Stacey
Rating:
Summary: Simply The Best
Review: As a mystery writer making the convention circuit as my debut novel is in initial release, I find that John D. MacDonald's name frequently comes up in discussions with readers and authors. While Travis McGee is always Travis McGee, I always contend that CINNAMON SKIN is the best work in MacDonald's colorful series. Meyer's niece is killed and our gentlemen adventurers hunt down the woman's killer. They end up in the jungles of Mexico, Mayan Country. That final detail is important, and you have to read the book to find out why.
Rating:
Summary: Simply The Best
Review: As a mystery writer making the convention circuit as my debut novel is in initial release, I find that John D. MacDonald's name frequently comes up in discussions with readers and authors. While Travis McGee is always Travis McGee, I always contend that CINNAMON SKIN is the best work in MacDonald's colorful series. Meyer's niece is killed and our gentlemen adventurers hunt down the woman's killer. They end up in the jungles of Mexico, Mayan Country. That final detail is important, and you have to read the book to find out why.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic McGee - on a mission for a friend
Review: For McGee afficionados, this is a must read. Travis is in classic form, driven to avenge the wrongful death of the niece of his closest friend, Meyer. Tracking down the killer by digging into his past is the best part of this book. About 2/3rds of the way through it, I said to myself, "this is definitely a five star book." However, the story gets bogged down in Mexico as McGee waits out the perfect opportunity to trap his prey. I felt like there were about two or three too many chapters written after Travis/Meyer's arrival to Cancun. As a side story, Travis is again torn between his woman of the book, versus his beach bum lifestyle, as she takes takes a career progression move out of Florida. Will he move with her? Of course not, John D. MacDonald wasn't finished with Travis yet. Never fear, McGee couldn't come out alone at the end, could he?
Rating:
Summary: Classic McGee - on a mission for a friend
Review: For McGee afficionados, this is a must read. Travis is in classic form, driven to avenge the wrongful death of the niece of his closest friend, Meyer. Tracking down the killer by digging into his past is the best part of this book. About 2/3rds of the way through it, I said to myself, "this is definitely a five star book." However, the story gets bogged down in Mexico as McGee waits out the perfect opportunity to trap his prey. I felt like there were about two or three too many chapters written after Travis/Meyer's arrival to Cancun. As a side story, Travis is again torn between his woman of the book, versus his beach bum lifestyle, as she takes takes a career progression move out of Florida. Will he move with her? Of course not, John D. MacDonald wasn't finished with Travis yet. Never fear, McGee couldn't come out alone at the end, could he?
Rating:
Summary: A classic mystery novel, one of MacDonald's fine early works
Review: I like the solid character development and enjoy the clever ways MacDonald finds to draw McGee into events that, at first, seem to have little to do with him.
Rating:
Summary: a good mystery
Review: I really enjoyed the book. The most interstering parts were when Travis was thinking about why he didn't want to leave Florida.He was thinking about the dolphins and the birds that he would miss. It felt like I wouldn't want to leave either. Another part I like was when travis and Meyers were walking through the shopping mall and the difference between the neardie teens and the teen who were playing the average vidio games. I almost cried. I was thinking about the teens from Colobine High School from Colorado. If those kids have hung in there they would have been the new elete. and the jokes would have been middle magement if that. I loved the part about how Travis was talking to the lady from a small town in Texas to find killer. I am from Texas and that how talk. It was really funny
Rating:
Summary: Gets better with age
Review: If there's anywhere I'd rather go with Travis McGee other than Florida, it's Mexico. John D. MacDonald dives into the country's culture and landscape in "Cinnamon Skin" with his patented combination of cynicism, idealism, lechery and expertly rendered action, and you'll be really glad you came along for the ride.
"Cinnamon" is one of the later books in the series, and finds Travis and Meyer a little the worse for wear, time and loss having taken a toll. Travis starts the book by losing yet another good woman, and Meyer's still traumatized by events in the book before. That's what makes this series so great--the author's willingness to bring us along as his characters age, suffer and make mistakes.
I'm a younger, female reader, but have yet to find any mystery writer working today who even comes close to MacDonald. Basically, when I need a mystery fix, I'm more likely to re-read one of these than bother with the hacks that clutter the best-seller lists. Warm thanks to the publishers who brought out these spiffy new editions--even though a big part of the fun of discovering MacDonald is stumbling across the tattered original paperbacks with 1970s reciepts used as bookmarks and "Valley of the Dolls"-like babes on the covers.
Enjoy, and don't waste any more time on the inferior imitations!
Rating:
Summary: Meyer Takes The Lead
Review: In the last few Travis McGee novels, MacDonald focuses more than before on McGee's close friend Meyer. CINNAMON SKIN is a story in which Meyer takes the lead. He has to fight the demons of his past cowardice and also avenge the death of his niece. CINNAMON SKIN is one of the very best entries in the McGee series.
Rating:
Summary: MacDonald's BEST "Travis McGee" Mystery Novel?
Review: It wouldn't take much of an argument to convince me that CINNAMON SKIN is the best -- or at least one of the best few -- of the fine "color-titled" Travis McGee mystery novel series by prolific John D. MacDonald (author of CAPE FEAR, etc.). This actually is at least two novels in one, as Trav and best-friend Meyer first travel America (mostly the Texas-area Southwest) ferreting out the murderous past of a serial killer -- then track him to his current lair in the Cancun-Yucatan area of Mexico and lay a dangerous jungle trap for him there. VERY highly recommended for fascinating characters (good and bad), local color, and tense action. Of course, as with all JDM's work and especially the McGee series, CINNAMON is well-crafted and written. Enjoy!
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