John D. Macdonald (John Dann Macdonald) Biography

American crime writer, born in Pennsylvania; he studied at the Harvard Business School and served (1940–6) with the OSS in the US Army in the Far East, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. After contributing many short stories in a variety of genres to pulp magazines under his own name and a number of pseudonyms, he published his first novel, The Brass Cupcake, in 1950. It was followed by many others, often dealing with corporate swindles and involving greed and violence; titles include Dead Low Tide (1953), Murder in the Wind (1956; UK title Hurricane), The Only Girl in the Game (1960), A Key to the Suite (1962), and Condominium (1977). He is best known, however, for the immensely popular long series of novels featuring Travis McGee, a Florida ‘salvage consultant’, an original reworking of Raymond Chandler's knightly hero. The best of the series, all of which have a colour adjective in the title, are The Deep Blue Good-by (1964), A Deadly Shade of Gold (1965), Bright Orange for the Shroud (1965), Darker than Amber (1966), One Fearful Yellow Eye (1966), Pale Gray for Guilt (1968), Cinnamon Skin (1982), and The Lonely Silver Rain (1985).