The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

I wanted to share another one of those wonderful old covers on a used book I just bought.



This is the first book in his Travis McGee series, published in 1964. I believe this is the original cover. It's a slim paperback - only 144 pages - that cost 50 cents. The pages are yellowed to the point of being orange and the cover is slightly warped. No cigarette smell, thank god. I love it! It reminds me of something you'd pull off a bookshelf at a summer cottage rental.

I was looking for another long series to dive into since I've been caught up on Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series for a while now. Waiting for the next book is not as much fun as having 20 more just waiting for you to get to! Luckily Mr. MacDonald was a very prolific guy.

So far I am loving the writing. Here's a sample:

It was one of those Florida houses I find unsympathetic, all block, tile, glass, terrazzo, aluminum. They have a surgical coldness. Each one seems to be merely some complex corridor arrangement, a going-through place, an entrance built to some place of a better warmth and privacy that was never constructed. When you pause in these rooms, you have the feeling you are waiting. You feel a door will open and you will be summoned, and horrid things will happen to you before they let you go. You can not mark these houses with any homely flavor of living. When they are emptied after occupancy, they have the look of places where the blood has recently been washed away.

Now doesn't that paint a picture? Don't you just know exactly the kind of place he's talking about? I love reading these old masters.

oh, great cover! I really loved this series. I read them all over a couple of years when I was a teenager. He really got the feel of Florida, the smells and the heat and the mangroves. I lived in Key West briefly as a kid and always felt nostalgic after reading his books.