John D. MacDonald: I’ve Read A Bunch of His Books, But I Can’t Remember A Thing!

I’ve forgotten a lot of what I’ve read over the last few decades, but my forgetfulness seems to happen more for me with books written by famous old mystery writer John D. MacDonald than with other authors whose books I’ve read.  Maybe there’s a formula in John D. MacDonald’s writing that makes his stories seem similar.

I’ve read a bunch of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels (pictured above), and I read them over a span of several years.  It’s not like I binge read them so that all the stories ran together, but, even so, I don’t recall much about individual plots.  

I remember that the sometimes investigator (when he needed the money) Travis McGee lived on his boat, and that in each novel a different woman was either staying with him on the boat or hanging around a lot.  Sometimes the woman was directly involved with the plot.  Sometimes she incidentally or accidentally got herself involved with the plot. 

Sometimes it felt like the major female character was there just because the author John D. MacDonald needed a woman in the story.  It’s possible to write a short mystery story without a major female character, but it’s a bad idea to try to write a mystery novel without one.

That’s all I remember.  I seriously don’t remember any of the plots of these books.  I know that I liked all the Travis McGee novels, especially their cynical commentary about American culture in the 1960s.  Man, if only John D. MacDonald could only see what’s going on now! 

I also enjoyed McDonald’s short story collection The Good Old Stuff because of its understated title.  McDonald calls his writing ’stuff.’  He says it’s ‘good’ and doesn’t try to overhype it.  He admits that it’s ‘old.’  Keep in mind that this book came out in 1982.  43 years ago, this stuff was ‘old.’  Now it’s really ‘old,’ but I don’t think the new edition is going to be named The Really Old Good Old Stuff.

I’ve read all of the stories in The Good Old Stuff, but I don’t remember any of them, except for one where a guy decides to murder his wife. He starts putting his plan into action, and everything he plans works out perfectly, so perfectly that he gets himself killed too.

“Death Writes the Answer”… THAT’s the name of that story (I just found it).  It originally was published in May, 1950 in some pulp mystery magazine that is no longer in publication.  If you’re mad that I spoiled the ending, there are 12 other stories in The Good Old Stuff that you can read.  Then, since I don’t remember any of the other stories in the book, you can spoil the ending for me in the comments.

Just so you know, I’ve never planned on killing my wife.  I always told my wife, though, that if she ever decides to kill me to please make it quick and don’t get caught.  I’d be pissed if my wife murdered me and didn’t get to cash out on the life insurance.  I’d rather my murderess wife keep the insurance money than for the insurance company to hold on to it. Insurance companies… what a scam.

But my wife isn’t planning to murder me. So if anything happens to me, it was an accident, I promise.

But enough about me! What do you think? Have you read any of John D. McDonald’s books? What books or book series have you completely forgotten about? Has your spouse ever tried to mur…. ? Never mind.

 *****

I’m not “one of the world’s supreme storytellers,” but I’ve written one decent novel that people seem eager to talk about with me when they’re done reading.

A grammar-obsessed English teacher falls in ‘luuuvvv’ but discovers how chaotic and dangerous ‘luuuvvv’ can be.

Or you can buy a copy here on Amazon!

Not sure? Read a sample chapter of The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy.