The Green Ripper (1979)

I was sure I could randomly pick up any Travis McGee novel by John D. MacDonald and find unpleasant scenes of diabolical sexual assault and murder, because that was my experience when I was reading them in the ‘80s. But this was my second in recent times where it didn’t happen. Maybe I’m remembering it wrong or maybe I’m tougher or maybe this is related somehow to my “best travis mcgee novels” google search? I might try a couple more and see how it goes. I’m not unhappy with this result. MacDonald and his McGee novels are very popular among fans of mystery and detective fiction and with good reason. MacDonald is good at doing this. But the rapey qualities drove me away so I’m enjoying what I have while I’ve got it. This one starts with a girlfriend dying suddenly. It’s another of MacDonald’s glowing Man and Woman relationships. One shtick in the series is that McGee is a bit of a white knight for the ladies. It’s typically heroic heterosexual sex out of the Hugh Hefner mold. I have no idea whether Gretel appears in previous novels. McGee gets around. In his defense, he may feel a little smarmy, but he always seems to deliver the noble sex of dignity and gentle care. I’ve heard these affairs described as the “sexual healing” part of the story. No raping for McGee though he lives in a world full of it. But revenge—that’s another story. Revenge he will do. Once he finds out Gretel was murdered by poison, not done in by disease, he is on the case. It leads down byzantine corridors until he finds himself in a training camp for Christian terrorists. “The Green Ripper” is a private joke with Gretel, a mangling of “the Grim Reaper.” It is here solely to get the color word into the title for the series’ ridiculous titling scheme. This is the 18th McGee novel of 21, so it’s near the end, which came with MacDonald’s death in 1986. The Green Ripper is a bit rote but pulls us right along, with few slow patches and little to distract by way of plausibility, although that’s more a personal call. I didn’t miss the various plot conveniences, but I didn’t mind them either. YMMV. A lot depends on what you think of MacDonald. I know he’s got nasty stuff out there, it just wasn’t in the two I looked at. He’s good enough I may read on. But I don’t trust him yet either.

In case the library is closed due to pandemic, which is over.