Slam The Big Door

I just finished re-reading John D. MacDonald's book Slam The Big Door. MacDonald is better known for creating the character of Travis McGee, one of the best mystery series ever written. But his other novels are just as good. MacDonald toiled in the paperback field, back when such an undertaking ususally meant that the writer wasn't good enough to produce hardback books. That was definintely not the case with MacDonald (and a host of others too). His books could stand up the best of the more "literary" hardbacks. But his novels were mainly mysteries or potboilers, stories that weren't taken seriously. Yet in his novels you could learn more about the human condition than in many more important works. In most of his novels there was always a moral pointman, a man that knew what was right and what was wrong. In some of his earlier novels you can see the blueprint for Travis McGee being written. Every few years I go back and re-read the entire Travis McGee series, starting from the first and ending with the last one written. In interviews MacDonald used to say that he had written a "final" McGee novel, but we've never seen it so I guess he didn't. Which while it would be interesting to see how he would have ended the McGee series probably is for the best, we can imagine the beach bum knight still out there, helping out those that need help and sitting on his boat "The Busted Flush" and watching the new crop of beach bunnies invading his turf. Which is as it should be.