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Book Cover for: The Dreadful Lemon Sky: A Travis McGee Novel, John D. MacDonald

The Dreadful Lemon Sky: A Travis McGee Novel

John D. MacDonald

From a beloved master of crime fiction, The Dreadful Lemon Sky is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat.

Around four in the morning, Travis McGee is jarred awake by a breathless ghost from his past: an old flame who needs a place to stash a package full of cash. What's in it for McGee? Ten grand and no questions asked. Two weeks later, she's dead.

"The Travis McGee novels are among the finest works of fiction ever penned by an American author."--Jonathan Kellerman

Carolyn Milligan was only aboard McGee's boat for one night. She came to drop off a hundred grand for safekeeping. What Carrie really needed was someone to keep her safe. She said she'd be back in a month. Instead Carrie is killed in a dubious roadside accident. Now McGee is left with a fortune--and a nagging conscience.

So McGee takes a trip to the seedy little town of Bayside, Florida, to look into Carrie's life before she showed up on his boat. What McGee finds only pushes him further into the corrupt world of drugs and blood that Carrie was trying to escape. McGee is used to high stakes, but when the bodies start piling up, even he may be in over his head.

Features a new Introduction by Lee Child

Book Details

  • Publisher: Random House Trade
  • Publish Date: Sep 10th, 2013
  • Pages: 288
  • Language: English
  • Edition: Revised - undefined
  • Dimensions: 7.98in - 5.22in - 0.62in - 0.47lb
  • EAN: 9780812984071
  • Categories: Mystery & Detective - Hard-BoiledThrillers - Suspense

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About the Author

John D. MacDonald was an American novelist and short-story writer. His works include the Travis McGee series and the novel The Executioners, which was adapted into the film Cape Fear. In 1962 MacDonald was named a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America; in 1980, he won a National Book Award. In print he delighted in smashing the bad guys, deflating the pompous, and exposing the venal. In life, he was a truly empathetic man; his friends, family, and colleagues found him to be loyal, generous, and practical. In business, he was fastidiously ethical. About being a writer, he once expressed with gleeful astonishment, "They pay me to do this! They don't realize, I would pay them." He spent the later part of his life in Florida with his wife and son. He died in 1986.

More books by John D. MacDonald

Book Cover for: The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: Cape Fear, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: The Green Ripper, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: The Deep Blue Good-By: A Travis McGee Novel, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: Cinnamon Skin, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: Free Fall in Crimson, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: The Turquoise Lament: A Travis McGee Novel, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: Condominium, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: One Fearful Yellow Eye, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: Bright Orange for the Shroud: A Travis McGee Novel, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: On the Make, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: The Lonely Silver Rain: The Lonely Silver Rain: A Travis McGee Novel, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: Dead Low Tide, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: A Bullet for Cinderella (Thriller), John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: Nightmare in Pink: A Travis McGee Novel, John D. MacDonald
Book Cover for: The Last One Left, John D. MacDonald

Praise for this book

Praise for John D. MacDonald and the Travis McGee novels

"The great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller."--Stephen King

"My favorite novelist of all time . . . All I ever wanted was to touch readers as powerfully as John D. MacDonald touched me. No price could be placed on the enormous pleasure that his books have given me. He captured the mood and the spirit of his times more accurately, more hauntingly, than any 'literature' writer--yet managed always to tell a thunderingly good, intensely suspenseful tale."--Dean Koontz

"To diggers a thousand years from now, the works of John D. MacDonald would be a treasure on the order of the tomb of Tutankhamen."--Kurt Vonnegut

"A master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer . . . John D. MacDonald is a shining example for all of us in the field. Talk about the best."--Mary Higgins Clark

"A dominant influence on writers crafting the continuing series character . . . I envy the generation of readers just discovering Travis McGee, and count myself among the many readers savoring his adventures again."--Sue Grafton

"One of the great sagas in American fiction."--Robert B. Parker

"Most readers loved MacDonald's work because he told a rip-roaring yarn. I loved it because he was the first modern writer to nail Florida dead-center, to capture all its languid sleaze, racy sense of promise, and breath-grabbing beauty."--Carl Hiaasen

"The consummate pro, a master storyteller and witty observer . . . John D. MacDonald created a staggering quantity of wonderful books, each rich with characterization, suspense, and an almost intoxicating sense of place. The Travis McGee novels are among the finest works of fiction ever penned by an American author and they retain a remarkable sense of freshness."--Jonathan Kellerman

"What a joy that these timeless and treasured novels are available again."--Ed McBain

"Travis McGee is the last of the great knights-errant: honorable, sensual, skillful, and tough. I can't think of anyone who has replaced him. I can't think of anyone who would dare."--Donald Westlake

"There's only one thing as good as reading a John D. MacDonald novel: reading it again. A writer way ahead of his time, his Travis McGee books are as entertaining, insightful, and suspenseful today as the moment I first read them. He is the all-time master of the American mystery novel."--John Saul