[Travis McGee 08] • One Fearful Yellow Eye

"To diggers a thousand yeasrs from now...the works of John D. MacDonald would be a treasure on the order of the tomb of Tutankhamen."

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

How to you extort $600,000 from a dying man? Someone had done it very quietly and skilfully to the husband of Travis McGee's ex-girlfriend. McGee flies to Chicago to help untangle the mess and discovers that although Dr. Fortner Geis had led an exemplary life, there were those who'd take advantage of one "indiscretion" and bring down the whole family. McGee also discovers he likes a few members of the family far too much to let that happen....

**

### From Booklist

Travis McGee goes to Chicago? In December? It seems so wrong, but what can the beach bum do, in this eighth in the series, when one of his former wounded doves calls asking for help. The dove in question, Gloria Geis, whom Trav found homeless and starving on a Lauderdale beach, nursed back to health with a cruise on The Busted Flush, and eventually married off to a Chicago doctor, has a problem: before her husband died, he secretly converted his assets to cash, all of which is now missing. A perfect assignment for a salvage consultant who recovers missing stuff and keeps half the take. It’s a tricky one, though, involving feuding in-laws (including an ice princess who will eventually require her own cruise aboard The Flush), several layers of bad guys, and a melancholy realization by McGee that he may have let a good one get away. All standard McGee fare, competently put forth, and thoroughly entertaining, as always, though this time, MacDonald allows his hero a little too much time atop his soapbox, discoursing on, among other things, Chicago’s failures as a restaurant town (“strictly hinterland, strictly hick”), the despoiled environment, abstract expressionism, the “race problem,” etc. Typically, these rants from the determined contrarian and anticonformist McGee provide enjoyable interludes, and it’s remarkable how often, at a distance of 40 to 50 years, the opinions proffered seem right on the money. This time, however, Trav is wrong more often than not: Chicago, of course, has become a world-class restaurant town, and Lake Michigan didn’t suffer the fate of Lake Erie. It’s odd, too, how, despite MacDonald’s cranky but thoroughly liberal attitudes on social issues, his views often sound vaguely offensive by contemporary standards. His protofeminist slant, for example, can drift quickly into condescension, as can his views on the “Negro question.” Still, neither MacDonald nor McGee should be faulted out of context. Let’s leave it at this: poor Trav was a little off his game in Chicago, soured by the cold. --Bill Ott

### Review

**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