RARA-AVIS: Re: John D. MacDonald/Travis McGee

Mark Sullivan (AnonymeInc@webtv.net)
Mon, 26 Apr 1999 16:00:32 -0400 (EDT) Christopher Bahn just asked about Pale Gray for Guilt, whether he would
be hurt by reading the Travis McGee novels out of sequence.

I read them in sequence (the titles are usually printed in order,
starting with Deep Blue Goodby, on the "other books by" page) and I'm
glad I did. Nothing is "given away" in later books and MacDonald only
once or twice even refers to anything that happened in a past volume.
As a matter of fact, although McGee often mentions his last job, it's
seldom if ever from a past book.

Still, the early books, first 9 or 10, are a bit better (Pale Gray being
one of the best) and you do get to know Travis over the course of the
series. So if you can't easily find the books before Pale Gray, nothing
will be ruined, but if you're like most people, once you've read one you
will have to read them all and you might as well do them in order. I
guess I'm assuming they are all still in print, but if they're not, all
of them went through enough printings they are very easy to find in used
book stores.

Mark

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