The PolyBlog

Plot or Premise

Sam Taggart is an old buddy of Travis McGee, and he swings back into town carrying a Mexican gold statue. There are more where this one came from, but they were taken from him, and he wants McGee to help him get them back. Before anything comes of the plan, Taggart is murdered. So McGee sets out to find the gold and, if he can, avenge his pal.

What I Liked and Didn’t Like

The story is somewhat unusual as a big part of the timeline takes place in a remote coastal area of Mexico with a small hotel, a nearby town, and some local houses. An out-of-the-way spot where you can avoid the hubbub and remain almost anonymous, if you wish. The remote location works well, and there’s some ongoing intrigue with a potential Cuban exile.

There’s a slightly repeated storyline from book 3, with someone getting fleeced, but it’s different enough not to cause too many problems. It is almost incidental to the issue of the gold. And to be honest, nearly ALL of it is incidental to the gold. There are a lot of things going on. So much so that when a big event happens about two-thirds of the way through the book, it feels like a finale.

Except that a whole third act takes place in L.A.; action, subterfuge, and new recruits to the team. And a somewhat violent episode. McGee doesn’t escape unscathed, taking physical and substantial emotional damage through the salvage operation.

I have a few niggly concerns about the ending, the way some things worked in Mexico, and even the way things unfold in L.A. Just enough to drop the rating down a level. But it is a “bigger” story than most of the McGee series, more ambitious, and it mostly delivers.

The Bottom Line

McGee goes international and gets involved in Cuban politics