9 October, 2001: The Long Lavender Look
The formula of the Travis McGee books -- one of his friends or acquaintances has been somehow fleeced, often ending up dead in the process, and Travis sets out to serve justice -- didn't stand up well to tampering. In The Long Lavender Look, events (being arrested for murder, for starters) sweep Travis along. Without the central premise of Travis as the outside enforcer, brought in to settle a score, the delicate balance of McDonald's writing seems slightly off. The idea that McGee is, to use the frequently repeated phrase, a "knight errant" in tarnished armor, doesn't seem quite right when he is reacting rather than acting (and when he lacks the not-entirely restrained avarice and lust that gets him involved in most of the books). McGee books are always worth it for the musings on a rapdily suburbanizing Florida or the mid-Seventies remnants of the counterculture, but The Long Lavender Look (like another McGee book that messes with the formula, The Green Ripper) is probably for enthusiasts only.