The two most obvious statements that can be made about John D. MacDonald as a writer are, one, that he is prolific (sixty-three novels and hundreds of short stories to date) and, two, that he is immensely popular (at least twenty-six of his titles have sold more than a million copies each). While popularity is certainly no assurance of quality, neither is it necessarily evidence of inferior work. What is readily apparent to any reader of MacDonald's novels is that he is a writer of great versatility and talent whose high standards have combined with high productivity to produce a significant body of outstanding fiction.

Slip F-18, Bahia Mar, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, has become as famous an address as Sherlock's Holmes's 221b Baker Street flat or Nero Wolfe's West 35th Street brownstone…. Travis McGee has joined the small but select company of fictional characters who manage to transcend...