Ed Gorman is back home from the Mayo Clinic and recovering. Our best wishes go out to him. In the March issue of Mystery Scene magazine, Ed wrote an article on “My 10 Favorite John D. MacDonald Standalone Novels.” And here’s the list:
1. Dead Low Tide
2. Soft Touch
3. Deadly Welcome
4. Murder in the Wind
5. The Executioners
6. Slam the Big Door
7. The End of the Night
8. A Key to the Suite
9. A Flash of Green
10. The Drowner
This week, we’re up to Number Eight on Ed’s list, A Key to the Suite published in 1962. No suspense writer captures the business world the way John D. MacDonald did. You can see this in A Key to the Suite where a business executive, Floyd Hubbard, attends a convention. Hubbard is supposed to act as a corporate hit-man and end the future employment of Jesse Mulaney, head of the sales department. Mulaney hires a high class call girl named Cory to seduce Hubbard and then to embarrass him in a desperate attempt to save his job. If you ever wondered how business executives operate behind closed doors and at business conventions, just read A Key to the Suite.
Yet another one I haven’t read. I need to catch up on some of these.
Jeff, you would enjoy A KEY TO THE SUITE. JDM knows the corporate world inside and out.
You say “If you ever wondered how business executives operate behind closed doors and at business conventions, just read A Key to the Suite.” I’d say If you ever wondered how business executives operate behind closed doors per McDonald, read A Key to the Suite. JDM had his own take on the world.
Rick, JDM was no stranger to the corporate world. I’m sure the events of A KEY TO THE SUITE are based on MacDonald’s research and experience. After all, JDM earned an MBA from the Harvard University Business School.
I think I have this and can’t wait to read some JDMs soon. Right now I am reading an Edith Wharton and an Agatha Christie, the former taking up more time. Wharton immediately after Hardy — not easy.
Prashant, I was thinking about you this week as the Boston Marathon bombing drama was playing out. It had some eerie parallels to the attack on Mumbai.