FORGOTTEN BOOKS #221: DEADLY WELCOME By John D. MacDonald




In the March issue of Mystery Scene magazine, Ed Gorman 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 Three: Deadly Welcome. This novel from 1959 features a State Department operative, Alex Doyle, who’s loaned to the Pentagon for a domestic mission. Doyle has to convince a key scientist whose wife has been murdered to return to the lab. But, in order to accomplish his mission, Doyle has to solve the murder. There’s a sociopath, a hidden treasure, the patented JDM romance, and a violent conclusion. I love it that JDM can put so much story into 160 pages!

12 thoughts on “FORGOTTEN BOOKS #221: DEADLY WELCOME By John D. MacDonald

  1. Jeff Meyerson

    Well, it is different. I kind of like it. I remember the Gold Medal cover. This is another one I read it 1989 and have only vague memories of the plot.

    Reply
  2. George Kelley

    Jeff, for veteran JDM readers, DEADLY WELCOME includes plenty of MacDonald’s plot staples: tormented hero, damaged love interest, a hidden treasure, and a sociopath. What’s not to like.

    Reply
  3. Richard R.

    I just got a copy, the top center edition, at Robert’s Books. Sadly he didn’t have any Dell editions, which apparently are snapped up by collectors. Still, a McGiness cover ain’t bad.

    Reply
  4. RkR

    Actually George, my copy of Deadly Welcome has black print for the title, so they must have done it in a variety of colors, perhaps to see what sold the best.

    Reply
  5. Todd Mason

    As long as the female figure has sufficiently large breasts, all is fine, clearly…

    Have you dug around in his short fiction that’s been webbed, George? I think most of them predated your active reading years by a few, at least…and it doesn’t have the Updates that Ed and perhaps Bill, James and you have bemoaned, in his collections…

    Reply

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