A Purple Place for Dying

A Purple Place for Dying

First edition cover
Author	John D. MacDonald
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Travis McGee
Genre	Mystery
Publisher	Fawcett Publications
Publication date	June 6, 1964[1]
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	158
ISBN	978-0-449-22438-0
OCLC	34612267
Preceded by	Nightmare in Pink
Followed by	The Quick Red Fox

A Purple Place for Dying (1964) is the third novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald.

Plot summary[]

McGee is drawn away from his usual haunt of Florida by a job offer from Mona Yeoman, who suspects that her estranged husband has stolen from her considerable trust fund. Before the investigation begins, Mona is murdered before McGee's eyes by an unseen gunman. By the time he summons the police to the scene, her body has disappeared. McGee then sets out to solve her murder.

The back of the first edition reads, "McGee did not like Mona Fox Yeoman. She seemed artificial and self-important. She was provocative rather than seductive, a dare more than a desire. She made a man want to shake her up, to mat that twenty-five dollar hairdo and knock that lady-of-the-manor style of hers on its can. --- But nobody ever would. Because in one minute she was a big creamy bitch standing right next to McGee - and suddenly she was fallen cooling flesh skittering into the dust with a hole as big as your fist through her wishbone. For McGee that should have been it. The client was dead. No fee. No tears. Forget it, bot. Pick up and pack out. --- Yeah. Sure. You better believe it. --- Not McGee."

The book takes place in "Esmeralda County." The state is not mentioned, but it states that the county is fairly populous. There is an Esmeralda County in Nevada, but it is the least populated county in Nevada. Other geographic references in the book, such as the Phoenix airport, seem to indicate the book takes place in Arizona.

Themes[]

The title phrase, "A Purple Place for Dying" is found verbatim in the first paragraph of Chapter 14. The color appears at Arizona dawn, it is the color on the rocks they are hiding in. It describes the place in the hills, hiding with IZ for their lives, where he thinks he will not survive, "a foolish end...in a purple place for dying". Pablo, and his knife-wielding brother Charlie, were the ones who died in a purple place, however. On page 150 of the first edition, it reads: "As I stood in the dusty road and pointed at the place they would find the bodies, I saw that the purple look had faded away. It had been a place for dying, but not for us."

This is the first book of the Travis McGee series that quotes the title phrase in the book. All of the books that follow mention the title phrase at some point, usually near the end.

A brilliance of MacDonald is that while McGee articulates his constant concern for money, his actions always show he could not really care any less about money when right and wrong are around. The book finishes with McGee opening the world's wonders to Iz, (Isobel Webb) on a private island in the Bahamas. She is the sister of the slain professor, and paramour of the victim Mona. It ends with a splendid line. A kind never before, nor since seen. Making this one of greatest novel in the history of American literature. In referring to penance, he tells us: "there are never enough kinds....And certainly not for you, my friend"

Popular Culture[]

Although Tales from Margaritaville was published by Jimmy Buffett in 1989, he wrote an updated preface published in 2002. In it he tells a story of finding a copy of A Purple Place for Dying at a flea market in Huahine in French Polynesia. Jimmy Buffett writes, "Six thousand miles away from slip F-18 at the Bahia Mar yacht basin in Ft. Lauderdale, I read the opening lines. That afternoon, leaning against a palm tree, I finished the book, and as beautiful as paradise was, Travis McGee had rekindled my love for the quirky and insane things that were Florida to me, and I missed them."

Although Buffett refers to McGee in Florida, this Travis McGee novel does not take place in Florida, but rather in the American West.

References[]

• Merril, Hugh (2000). The Red Hot Typewriter: The Life and Times of John D. MacDonald. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Minotaur. ISBN 978-0-312-20905-6.
• Geherin, David (1982). John D. MacDonald. F. Ungar Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-8044-2232-1.