Review by Booklist Review
As the first four Travis McGee novels were all published in 1964, there is some disagreement about how to place numbers two, three, and four (The Deep Blue Good-by was clearly number one). Let's call Nightmare in Pink number two, A Purple Place for Dying number three, and The Quick Red Fox number four. Interestingly, after establishing in Deep Blue Good-by what would eventually become the series standard Travis sticking close to Fort Lauderdale to do his salvage work in numbers two through four, the beach bum is on the road. In Quick Red, Travis he agrees to help out an A-list movie star, Lysa Dean, who is being blackmailed over some sexy photos taken during a Northern California orgy in which Lysa, in a funk over the rigors of celebrity, participated. The frolic has come back to haunt her, and she sends her personal assistant, the super-efficient and super-uptight Dana Holtzer, to enlist McGee's aid. He is reluctant but agrees, launching a cross-country gallivant in search of the other orgy-goers, hoping to pinpoint who did the blackmailing. After a quick trip to Upstate New York and a longer jaunt to California, it's clear that Lysa's fellow orgiasts have not been faring well: lots of dead guys and gals strewn about. Travis gets it sorted, of course, and along the way discovers that Dana, though she has some secrets, isn't really all that uptight after all (one more wounded dove restored to flight readiness). Certainly not A-list McGee the guy belongs in Florida, not Sausalito but notable for a couple of things: the first mention of Meyer, who will soon become McGee's sidekick and sounding board, and this clear statement of the McGee worldview (we'll hear many more versions as the series progresses): I get the feeling that this is the last time in history when the offbeats like me will have a chance to live free in the nooks and crannies of the huge and rigid structure of an increasingly codified society. Fifty years from now I would be hunted down in the street. They would drill little holes in my skull and make me sensible and reliable and adjusted. Let's see; that means in 2014, all we Travis-like nonconformists better be on our toes.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
