Our best wishes go out to Ed Gorman for a quick recovery. 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 Four: Murder in the Wind (aka, Hurricane). In this 1956 thriller, John D. MacDonald employs one of his patented plot devices–throw some troubled characters together and threaten them with an outside force. JDM comes up with a major hurricane that forces 13 (unlucky number!) people traveling in the storm to hunker down in an abandoned old house. The hurricane, a murder, and the tension among the strangers makes Murder in the Wind one of JDM’s most suspenseful novels.
Great stuff George and I love how varied the approaches are in the covers – ranging from Gothic to pul explitation!
Sergio, I left out the more modern, abstract, covers for MURDER IN THE WIND. As you note, an interesting spectrum of art styles!
I love the way that first cover manages to get the word “naked” in there.
I read this one on a JDM binge back in 1989 but don’t remember much other than the basic situation. Can’t wait for the top 3!
Jeff, it’s been fun to reread these JDM novels. These 10 novels really display MacDonald’s range.
This is a good one, one of the few non-McGee books I’ve read, though like Jeff a long time ago, so about all I recall id that I liked it. That Dell cover is fabulous.
Rick, the artwork on those old paperbacks was one of the prime reasons I started collecting them decades ago.
My cover is considerably tamer than any of those shown here. I should’ve taken it with me on my trip to New Orlenas last month when we bypassed several tornadoes on our trek across the panhandle of Florida to Louisiana. That scary weather (and it was truly frightening) would’ve been an appropriate mood enhancer for reading this book. I’ll have to pull this out of the JDM bag and dig in.
John, the tornadoes that hit Dallas were powerful, too! Stay safe!
Another one with a McGinnis cover that sounds like a great read too. I’m adding it to my list of books to keep an eye out for.
You can’t go wrong with these John D. MacDonald novels, Carl.
Glad to hear it. I need to see if I have any of his in the basement in my pile of McGinnis covers.
Carl, Art Scott has collected thousands of paperbacks (and hardcovers) with McGinnis covers. Art’s collection is the most complete that I know of.