The American Spectator

Alexandra Haropulos br> Rockville, Maryland /p> p> Thanks to Lawrence Henry for making my week! What a treat to relive the exploits of McGee and the superb writing of John D. MacDonald, not to mention the winding down of the McGee saga! I’m a MacDonald fan since the '60s and have read and reread just about everything the master wrote; my dog eared shelf of paperbacks bear me witness. What a storyteller! What an incisive analyst of human nature! He is indeed missed. br> — Frank Stevenson /p>

My husband & I share in Mr. Henry’s love affair with Trav McGee (and we always wanted to name a male dog Meyer the Hairy Economist — maybe we still will). My in-laws introduced us to McGee & MacDonald, through books on tape of all things. We borrowed a couple to take on a road trip and were completely entranced, not just by Travis and the pace and style of MacDonald’s writing, but also by Darrin McGavin, who reads all the Trav books. When we began reading the books themselves, we heard McGavin’s voice, especially when McGee’s women spoke… McGavin had an absolutely charming falsetto he used whenever he read the words “Oh Trav!”

As brilliant as McDonald and his McGee stories are, McGavin’s reading of them is equally so… he truly inhabits the role, and becomes the voice of Travis McGee. The “I’m reading a book to you” quality of the whole books on tape genre completely disappears here… listening to McGavin gave me the same engrossed satisfaction as actually reading the books myself (which is really hard to do!).

My husband and I had always hoped someone would option some of the books for film… what wonderfully fun movies they’d make! But we always knew we’d be disappointed with whoever they’d cast as Trav… no one would have That Voice, and so he could never truly be Travis McGee.

p>Thanks for a great article… I’ve been looking for something to read, and I think I’ll start with McGee again, from the beginning! br> — Julie Sweeney br> Wausau, Wisconsin /p>