Pale Gray for Guilt
From a beloved master of crime fiction, Pale Gray for Guilt is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat.
Travis McGee’s old football buddy Tush Bannon is resisting pressure to sell off his floundering motel and marina to a group of influential movers and shakers. Then he’s found dead. For a big man, Tush was a pussycat: devoted to his wife and three kids and always optimistic about his business—even when things were at their worst. So even though his death is ruled a suicide, McGee suspects murder . . . and a vile conspiracy.
“As a young writer, all I ever wanted was to touch readers as powerfully as John D. MacDonald touched me.”—Dean Koontz
Tush Bannon was in the wrong spot at the wrong time. His measly plot of land just so happened to sit right in the middle of a rich parcel of five hundred riverfront acres that big-money real estate interests decided they simply must have.
It didn’t matter that Tush was a nice guy with a family, or that he never knew he was dealing with a criminal element. They squashed him like a bug and walked away, counting their change. But one thing they never counted on: the gentle giant had a not-so-gentle friend in Travis McGee. And now he’s going to make them pay.
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John D. MacDonald
John D. MacDonald is the author of 21 Travis McGee thrillers, Cape Fear, and countless other novels and short stories. His works have been translated into numerous languages, with his sales in the tens of millions. Named the grandmaster of the Mystery Writers of America, he also won the American Book Award (now known as the National Book Award) in 1980, earned an MBA, and served in the army. MacDonald, a native of New York, lived much of his life in McGee's homestate of Florida with his wife and son, before passing away in 1986.
Travis McGee
Travis McGee consists of twenty-one books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.

