More hard-boiled … more ‘Travis McGee’ novels …

Sometimes this idle aimless browsing leaves you in a dilemma … here I was at a loose end and found myself looking for novels by Ross Macdonald … totally unintended … yeah, it is true that secondhand copies of Ross Macdonald’s Archer novels are not that easy to come by … I had located some Archer novels a couple of months ago, and after a lot of to buy or not to buy, and futile resistance, I finally gave up and gave in … it was in the aftermath of the placing of this order and waiting for the books to be delivered that I was typing ‘Macdonald’ in the search boxes … at one of the portals, my search results saw me staring at a list of John D. MacDonald’s ‘Travis McGee’ novels …  I had unexpectedly ‘discovered’ John D. MacDonald and his series of Travis McGee novels in 2015 (while looking for Ross Macdonald novels) and had picked up quite a good number of the novels in the series in two big bursts (described with a great deal of zest and zeal here and here) …

And now, two years later, I was looking at four more Travis McGee novels … prices were reasonable … no reason to dilly or dally … or delay … and the four novels arrived two days back … I just loved the covers … and the blurbs on the covers … and take a look at the titles … each title has a ‘colour,’ no? … all Travis McGee novels have a ‘colour’ word in their titles … it was suggested by John D. MacDonald’s publisher and was supposed to act as a mnemonic device for the reader …

Dress her in Indigo … a slight hint of indigo on the cover … the 11^th in the series … came out in 1969, and this is the 35^th reprint 1991 edition …

The Green Ripper … nice green coloured cover … the 18^th in the series, published in 1979, and this copy is the 1980 edition …

Free Fall in Crimson … crimson coloured cover … the 19^th in the series, published in 1981 … and this copy is a 1981 edition … first edition … hmmmm ….

 

The last novel in the series … The Lonely Silver Rain … you can see the silver in the title letters … came out in 1985, and this is a 1986 edition …

I like these details which makes the whole collecting and reading experience interesting … the other series that innovates with titles is Simon Brett’s Fethering Mysteries … do check out the titles … the novels are also very good ...

A chota crime fiction haul from www.secondhandbooksindia.com

I haven’t been able to visit Abids for more than a month now and am missing all those secondhand books … whether I buy books there or not, going there and meeting friends and wandering head-bent along those book-laden roads is itself a thrill … anyway, not that I was missing books or reading … I had bought some travelogues online and was reading them (will do a post about them soon) … I was also catching up with those Ross Macdonald novels that I had purchased earlier … and I used to check www.secondhandbooksindia.com regularly … and a week back something turned up at this site … a Ross Macdonald novel, The Galton Case … and another John D. MacDonald novel, One Fearful Yellow Eye, which I didn’t have, was already on display for quite some time now on the site … and I also saw that two novels by Simon Brett had surfaced … I selected one of the Brett novels … a ‘Charles Paris’ novel … Situation Tragedy …

Read The Galton Case already and couldn’t help laughing at the line that a poet chap, Chad Bolling, throws in the novel … You can’t make a Hamlet without breaking egos … too good!!

Secondhand Bookshops – Three – Afzal Ansari of Matunga, Mumbai … and the 6 books I bought from him …

The Sunday we last met (the day which set off this Macd(D)onald frenzy in me…), Vinod also told me about a second-hand bookseller in Mumbai, with whom he had placed an order for Ross Macdonald novels … I couldn’t gather the name then … I asked him again after I came home and he told me that it is one Mr Afzal Ansari who sells secondhand books in Matunga, Mumbai … Vinod gave me Mr Ansari’s number and told me to send him a text message with my email … once Mr Ansari receives my message, he would then send me his list of books as attachment … I then see what I want and send him a mail with my requirements … he sends the books across …

I wanted to find out more about Mr Ansari and while browsing for information, I found this article … http://www.thealternative.in/lifestyle/afzal-matungas-bestselling-bookselling-secret/ … 

This article reveals quite a lot about Mr Ansari’s passion for books and commitment towards his customers … this article also gives a link to his book lists, and also his phone number … the book lists could be dated and so it is always better to send him a message and wait for him to send the lists to your mail box … Mr Ansari’s phone number is 09967960583 …

I sent a text message to Mr Ansari immediately, and by evening he had sent me a mail with an attachment that contained three lists of books … I went through the lists eagerly to see if any Ross Macdonald novels were still left … I found two and sent my request … he wrote back saying that the books I saw had already been booked by Vinod, and he sent me a list of 5 books, of which 2 each were by Ross and John D., respectively and one by Jonathan Ross … out of these, I already had one John D. novel and told him that I’d glad to have the other four in the list … then there was some toing and froing of mails to decide what was the best way to send the books across … I didn’t want a VPP or COD method, and we finally decided to rely on our good old India Post …

A couple of days later, I received a text message asking me if I would be interested in 2 books by John Dickson Carr … I hadn’t read any books by Carr, and didn’t know about the author either, but no harm in trying a new writer … I was anyway trying out Ross Macdonald and John D. MacDonald …

These 6 books were packed and sent through India Post and I received them on Friday (7 Aug 15) … the books were packed well and the package looked safe and sturdy …

I enjoyed this interaction and made a new book-friend in Mumbai … and received 6 books in really good condition … thanks Mr Ansari, but yeh dil maange more … aah yes, these are the 6 books … most importantly, two Lew Archer novels by Ross Macdonald, The Wycherly Woman and The Blue Hammer ... John MacDonald's A Deadly Shade of Gold ... John Dickson Carr's The Mad Hatter Mystery and The Curse of the Bronze Lamp ... and Jonathan Ross' A Rattling of Old Bones ...  

A greedy haul of Macdonalds at Best Book Centre, Lakdi-ka-Pul …

There were supposed to be three more Ross Macdonald novels at the Lakdi-ka-Pul branch of Best Book Centre (which is actually the HQ of Best Book Centre), according to Vinod’s tip … I had opted to go on Wednesday to the YMCA branch to get Black Money, as it was closer … considering the price I paid for Black Money, I was not very sure about going to Best Book Centre Lakdi-ka-Pul, wondering what the prices there would be … but by Thursday evening, I thought, why not go and see (half the troubles in this world start with ‘why not just go and see..’) … so the next day, I took off in the late afternoon and reached Lakdi-ka-Pul … Best Book Centre is just opposite the Lakdi-ka-Pul bus stand … this was the first time I was visiting the Best Book Centre HQ and I was just amazed at the range and number of books that were arranged in those two long rooms … searching for three books in this sea of books was going to be a difficult task … I took the easy way out and used the search option (i.e. asked the person there to assist me …) he showed me a stack of John D. MacDonald-Trevor McGee books … no, no, the other Macdonald … Ross Macdonald … he then went to the shelf at the end of the room and plucked out two Ross Macdonald-Lew Archer novels and gave it to me … but there was supposed to be three, Vinod told me … never mind, maybe somebody picked up the third one … I was happy with these two ... for the time being … he he … I got these two …

  

And then the stack of John D. MacDonald-Trevor McGee books smiled at me … won’t you even look at the titles, they seemed to ask … how can you go away like that … by now, I was emboldened by the fact that the two Rosses hadn’t cost as much as I had imagined … but these were older and not in as good condition as Black Money … but I had some ‘unspent’ money and I moved towards the John D. MacDonald stack … just to see only (another killer) … and to cut the long story short … I just couldn’t resist … the prices were also considerably modest and I ended up buying 6 John D. MacDonald-Trevor McGee novels … greedy fellow … but what to do ya, that money was marked for books … if I hadn’t bought these books, then the ‘unspent’ money will become sad, no … dil ko khush rakhne ka jai-lib yeh khayal achcha hai …

As I was hauling the haul back to my den … I thought I should tell Vinod that his tip was good as gold and thank him …

Coming back from BB LKP; got 2 Ross McDs…who teesrawala ud gaya shayad…thanks for the tip…

Which two? Small hardbacks?

Ek HB one PB…find a victim & ivory grin…

The third one is another shelf.  Poochna tha na bhai.

Woh hamed ali se poocha, une yeh donon booksaan nikaalke diye…tumhaarse poochna tha…woich…

Asal aadmi se nai poochey tum.  Kya bhai aisa kaiku kar re aaj kal?

Galti ho gayi bade bhai, tengshung mein bhul gaya ji…agli baar yaad nahin bhooltoon…

Theekh hai.  Jaando abhi.

Tumhaara dil nahin, dariya hai, bade bhai…

Bahut khush hua main.  Kabhi chai pilaathoon.

Looking for Ross Macdonald and finding John D. MacDonald ... the first packet of JDM novels arrives – Part 2

Both writers were born one year apart and were contemporaries, and passed away within three years of each other.  In fact, Ross Macdonald, whose real name is Kenneth Millar, experimented with various pseudonyms.

“For his fifth novel, in 1949, he wrote under the name John Macdonald, in order to avoid confusion with his wife, who was achieving her own success writing as Margaret Millar. He then changed his pen name briefly to John Ross Macdonald, before settling on Ross Macdonald, in order to avoid being confused with fellow mystery writer John D. MacDonald, who wrote under his real name.”

So, there is a connection after all … good … now, to move further … is John D. MacDonald a prolific writer? Oh god, yes … ‘prolific’ describes him … around 75 novels and 5 short story collections … awesome, na … (trying to use new lingo!!) … John D. MacDonald too comes under the ‘hardboiled’ mystery writers’ category like Chandler, Hammett, and Ross Macdonald … these are all ‘hard-boiled’ writers … tough cookies, eh … John D. MacDonald too has his own favourite gumshoe, and wrote 21 novels featuring Travis McGee, an “intelligent and introspective” man, with a “hard cynical streak.”  He is a “salvage consultant” and “knight-errant.” “McGee made his living by recovering the loot from thefts and swindles, keeping half to finance his "retirement," which he took in pieces as he went along.” 

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._MacDonald)

And ... this is how John D. MacDonald looked like ... 

Ah, yes … it was his novel The Executioners, which was made into the movie Cape Fear, in 1962, with Gregory Peck, and it was remade in 1991 by Martin Scorsese …

All these decided me … I went back to the secondhand books site and checked the available titles against the Trevor McGee list … 5 titles … and one collection of John D. MacDonald’s early mystery stories … great … the price ranged from Rs.75 to Rs.90 per title … not bad at all … I tried not to compare the prices with ‘what if I had got these at Abids’ prices … tch tch ... bad habit only ... 

And I received these 6 titles by John D. MacDonald yesterday (24th July 2015).

This is the first in the Travis McGee series ... written in 1964 ... this one is a 1984 reprint ... I am happy and relieved that I got the first one in the series ... 

Darker than Amber is the seventh in the Travis McGee series and was published in 1966 ... and ha ha ha ... can you believe this?  This copy I got is the first edition ... ha ha ha ... 

Published in 1970, The Long Lavender Look is the 12th in the series ... 

This one is the 15th in the series ... and was published in 1973 ... 

Cinnamon Skin was published in 1982 and is the 20th in the Travis McGee series ...

Did you notice something?  Each title has a 'colour' word ... unless you see four or five at a time, you wouldn't notice this ... this colour word, suggested by John MacDonald's publisher was supposed to act like a mnemonic device for the readers “...so that when harried travelers in airports looked to buy a book, they could at once see those MacDonald titles they had not yet read.” 

And The Good Old Stuff is really the icing on the cake as far this collection is concerned for me ... this is like aged malt or something like that ... this book contains 13 stories of his pre-Travis McGee years ... these stories were published between 1947 and 1952 in magazines like Detective Tales, New Detective Magazine, Doc Savage Magazine, Dime Detective, Mystery Book Magazine, and others ... this edition has an introduction by Francis M. Nevins, Jr. and a foreword by John D. MacDonald ... 

I strongly feel I should begin with this good old stuff ...