The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper by John D. MacDonald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A quick, enjoyable read.
Travis McGee stands smack in the tradition of the likeable hard-boiled gumshoe. A rough and ready, very sympathetic protatonist, MacDonald writes McGee with humor, verve, and an appealing narrative voice. He invests enough emotion in the story to have some gravitas, but keeps from becoming introspective or morbid.
This is not the sort of mystery that keeps you guessing “whodunit,” but transitions in the third act to “how to prove it?”
Gritty without being graphic. A lot of fun. This was my first read of John MacDonald, and I’ll be putting more of his work on my to-read shelf.