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John D. MacDonald Books In Order

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Publication Order of Travis McGee Books

The Deep Blue Good-By (1964)Description / Buy at Amazon
Nightmare in Pink (1964)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Purple Place for Dying (1964)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Quick Red Fox (1964)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Deadly Shade of Gold (1965)Description / Buy at Amazon
Bright Orange for the Shroud (1965)Description / Buy at Amazon
Darker Than Amber (1966)Description / Buy at Amazon
One Fearful Yellow Eye (1966)Description / Buy at Amazon
Pale Gray for Guilt (1968)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper (1968)Description / Buy at Amazon
Dress Her in Indigo (1969)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Long Lavender Look (1970)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Tan and Sandy Silence (1971)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Scarlet Ruse (1972)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Turquoise Lament (1973)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1974)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Empty Copper Sea (1978)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Green Ripper (1979)Description / Buy at Amazon
Free Fall in Crimson (1981)Description / Buy at Amazon
Cinnamon Skin (1982)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Lonely Silver Rain (1984)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

The Brass Cupcake (1950)Description / Buy at Amazon
Judge Me Not (1951)Description / Buy at Amazon
Weep For Me (1951)Description / Buy at Amazon
Wine of the Dreamers (1951)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder for the Bride (1951)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Damned (1952)Description / Buy at Amazon
Ballroom of the Skies (1952)Description / Buy at Amazon
Planet of the Dreamers (1953)Description / Buy at Amazon
Cancel All Our Vows (1953)Description / Buy at Amazon
Neon Jungle (1953)Description / Buy at Amazon
Dead Low Tide (1953)Description / Buy at Amazon
Area of Suspicion (1954)Description / Buy at Amazon
All These Condemned (1954)Description / Buy at Amazon
Contrary Pleasure (1954)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Bullet for Cinderella (1955)Description / Buy at Amazon
On the Make (1955)Description / Buy at Amazon
Cry Hard, Cry Fast (1955)Description / Buy at Amazon
Border Town Girl / Five Star Fugitive / Linda (1956)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder in the Wind / Hurricane (1956)Description / Buy at Amazon
April Evil (1956)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Man of Affairs (1957)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death Trap (1957)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Empty Trap (1957)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Deceivers (1958)Description / Buy at Amazon
Clemmie (1958)Description / Buy at Amazon
Soft Touch (1958)Description / Buy at Amazon
Cape Fear / The Executioners (1958)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Beach Girls (1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
You Live Once / Kill Me (1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Crossroads (1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
Please Write for Details (1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
The End of the Night (1960)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Only Girl in the Game (1960)Description / Buy at Amazon
Slam the Big Door (1960)Description / Buy at Amazon
Where is Janice Gantry? (1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
One Monday We Killed Them All (1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Key to the Suite (1962)Description / Buy at Amazon
On the Run (1962)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Flash of Green (1962)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything (1962)Description / Buy at Amazon
I Could Go on Singing (1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Drowner (1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
Deadly Welcome (1965)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Last One Left (1967)Description / Buy at Amazon
No Deadly Drug (1968)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Price of Murder (1972)Description / Buy at Amazon
Condominium (1977)Description / Buy at Amazon
Two (1983)Description / Buy at Amazon
One More Sunday (1984)Description / Buy at Amazon
Barrier Island (1986)Description / Buy at Amazon
Hurricane (2014)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

The Good Old Stuff (1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
End of the Tiger and Other Stories (1966)Description / Buy at Amazon
Seven (1971)Description / Buy at Amazon
Other Times, Other Worlds (1978)Description / Buy at Amazon
More Good Old Stuff (1984)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death Quotient and Other Stories (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Short Story Anthologies

San Francisco Stories (By: John Miller) (1990)Description / Buy at Amazon
Los Angeles Stories (By: John Miller) (1991)Description / Buy at Amazon
On Suicide: Great Writers on the Ultimate Question (By: William Shakespeare,Virginia Woolf,Ambrose Bierce,Leo Tolstoy,Graham Greene,Langston Hughes,Emily Dickinson,John Donne,Plato,Jorge Luis Borges,Gustave Flaubert,Robert Coles,Walker Percy,Albert Camus,Cynthia Ozick,William Styron,Dorothy Parker,Sylvia Plath,Primo Levi,Phillip Lopate,John Miller,Genevieve Anderson,Alfred Alvarez,Howard Kushner,Émile Durkheim) (1992)Description / Buy at Amazon
New Orleans Stories (By: John Miller,Genevieve Anderson) (1992)Description / Buy at Amazon
Chicago Stories (By: Stuart Dybek,John Miller) (1993)Description / Buy at Amazon
Southwest Stories (By: D.H. Lawrence,Alison Moore,Barry Gifford,Sandra Cisneros,Larry McMurtry,Sam Shepard,Leslie Marmon Silko,C.G. Jung,John Miller,Georgia O'Keefe) (1993)Description / Buy at Amazon
Florida Stories (With: Dave Barry,Elmore Leonard,Ernest Hemingway,Damon Runyon,Isaac Bashevis Singer,Nathaniel Hawthorne,Stephen Crane,Zora Neale Hurston,Elizabeth Bishop,Tennessee Williams,Alison Lurie,Wallace Stevens,John Sayles,John James Audubon,Joy Williams,Joan Didion,John Miller,KirstenMiller,William Bartram) (1993)Description / Buy at Amazon
Lust: Lascivious Love Stories and Passionate Poems (By: John Miller,KirstenMiller) (1994)Description / Buy at Amazon
Alaska Stories (By: John Miller,KirstenMiller) (1995)Description / Buy at Amazon
Texas Stories (By: John Miller,KirstenMiller) (1995)Description / Buy at Amazon
San Francisco Thrillers (By: Tim Smith,John Miller) (1995)Description / Buy at Amazon
Cape Cod Stories (By: Tim Smith,John Miller) (2002)Description / Buy at Amazon
OOB: Anthology series. The author will have written at least one story in this series.

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Murder Run-Around (2015)Description / Buy at Amazon
In a Small Motel (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
What Christmas Did for Jerusha Grumble (2019)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Masters of Noir Books

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Masters of Noir (By: ) (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Anthologies

Hard-Boiled Detectives(1953)Description / Buy at Amazon
Worlds to Come: New Science Fiction Adventures(1967)Description / Buy at Amazon
Tomorrow 1| Science Fiction by the Masters(1971)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Late Great Future(1976)Description / Buy at Amazon
Dark Crimes 2(1993)Description / Buy at Amazon
Florida Stories(1993)Description / Buy at Amazon
Law and Order(1997)Description / Buy at Amazon

John D MacDonald was an American author of science fiction, fantasy, mystery and thriller books best known for his Travis McGee series. He was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania but later moved out to Europe on his quest for adventure and photography. He studied at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Syracuse, and Harvard University. John also happened to serve in the military during the world war two.

John D MacDonald’s writing career started with the first publication that was submitted by his wife to the Esquire while he still was serving in the military. From writing short stories, John has managed to come up with several other novels and is accredited for his series Travis McGee. He has received numerous awards for his writing among them the 1980 U.S National Book Award.

The Deep Blue Good

The Deep Blue Good is the first piece in his Travis McGee series. This is the story of McGee who lives wary of credit cards, political parties, retirement benefits, television, and mortgages. His is an individual who lives for the moment where he makes money when there is a need for the same.
John introduces an antagonism between Travis and junior Allen. Allen has animalistic lust when it comes to power, but Travis is an idealist which creates a great difference between these two characters. McGee is out to help a friend recover some lost fortune while Allen is out hoarding for gold. Trevor is requested by his current lady to offer a helping hand to her girlfriend. Her father had been sentenced for moving valuables during the world war period from an area of combat.

Then, Allen realizes that there is some treasure somewhere and motivated by greed and malice closes in on the girl and takes everything away from her. What is worse is the fact that he goes out to cripple her beyond the point that she was before he took advantage of her where he takes advantage of her desperation and benefits on the girl’s treasures. Trevor comes in to correct the mess that had been created and the antagonism between the two characters is well seen as the two moves out to fulfil their missions which are entirely different from each other. It does not go smoothly for McGee as along the way he experiences numerous problems and surprises that almost make it impossible to achieve his goal. Though Travis lives a free life, he seems to have a caring heart towards such instances.

John D MacDonald has a great way of showcasing the characters of his story and mainly how he puts different characters on board and create one incredible piece.

Nightmare in Pink

Nightmare in Pink is the second piece in the Travis McGee Series. Trevor is not a policeman neither is he a private detective but a salvage consultant who lives on a boat. He has a simple life where he looks for money only when he needs it and then he proceeds to enjoy what he has earned until it is finished.
McGee has his operational base as, but he now decides to leave for New York. While Travis was in service, he had a friend by the name Mike who also had a small sister who is now a grown lady. Things have gone south for Mike’s sister after her husband is killed in a mugging. It is as a result of this tragic happening that he is called in from Florida. The mugging looks just like any other until something unusual happens. They find a considerable amount of money in cash in their apartment after his killing. Facts seem to point to the possibility of embezzlement happening before his death.

A series of events follow these incidences pointing instances of conspiracy, action, and romance in the course of the story. Though Travis is being led by guilt after what happened to his friend Mike, he still is after unravelling a mass of evils that he discovers has been going on in the city. The deeper he goes, the more he finds about the rot that has gripped the community which also does endanger his life.

The author is good at exposing many evils that happen in the society in the form of a narrative. His plot of things seems to depict what happens in the current society by a huge extent.

A Purple Place for Dying

A Purple Place for Dying is the third instalment in his Travis McGee Series. Travis has been called into Arizona by a beautiful lady to assist in a case that involves recovering some money that has been stolen by a guy who she is supposed to be divorcing. Things, however, go sour as she dies before Travis can fully help her fulfil her wish. This, however, does not stop him as he continues with his mission despite her absence.

McGee is pushed by the fact that he got pissed by the shooting of his potential client and not even due to the money. After she is shot, he rushes to the police to report the case, and on coming back, he finds nobody at the scene, something that angers him and pushes him into the quest for justice for the slain client. It’s a journey filled with instances of relationships gone awry, small towns intrigue, and other surprises that come in to complicate his quest. Along the story, McGee brings out a lot about women and the nature of human beings.

He joins efforts with the police as they try to connect the facts and get to the reason for this killing, the case he had been called on and the disappearance of his client’s body. It is an exciting story with a turn of events that are suspenseful and frightening at some points.

It’s a storyline that has been well planned putting events in such a way that the reader can follow along smoothly. His description of characters is one that is vivid and well-fit to make an incredible story.

Book Series In Order » Authors » John D. MacDonald

5 Responses to “John D. MacDonald”

  1. Jane Carter: 2 years ago

    My dad knew John, and I was just a child, so did not pay attention to the stories they used to talk about. They would sit on our boat in Bahia Mar, and tell wonderful stories, and I wish that my brother and I had paid attention to them back then. I have collected about one third of all his books and am on the trail of more.
    So if anybody wants to sell/give/donate any, we will be very happy.
    I put in my email here, so that anybody here can contact us.
    Thank you,
    Jane

    Reply
    • Judy Hutchings: 1 year ago

      Hello, I do have some of his books that my husband collected. If you are still looking, let me know which ones you need.

      Reply
      • Jane Carter: 1 year ago

        I found an old friend, who had his entire collection. He lent them to us, and I am keeping them in a temperature controlled room in our house for him.

        Reply
  2. Gem: 2 years ago

    I recently read a Patterson articular and he said you were a very good written and he had learned a lot from your books. So if it’s good enough for James Patterson it’s good reading. I can’t wait til I get my book in.
    Gem

    Reply
  3. Mark McGhee Sr: 2 years ago

    I have read every novel but one and numerous short stories and he is by far one of the greatest authors of all time. It is very difficult to put one down without finishing it in short fashion

    Reply

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