A Deadly Shade of Gold
When Travis McGee picks up the phone and hears a voice from his past, he can’t help it: He has to meddle. Especially when he has the chance to reunite Sam Taggart, a reckless, restless man like himself, with the woman who’s still waiting for him. But what begins as a simple matchmaking scheme soon becomes a bloody chase that takes McGee to Mexico, a beautiful country from which he hopes to return alive.
Deception. Betrayal. Heartbreak. When Sam left his girlfriend, Nora, and vanished from Fort Lauderdale, no one was surprised. But when he shows up three years later lying in a pool of his own blood, people start to ask questions. And his old friend Travis McGee is left to find answers.
But all he has to go on are a gold Aztec idol and a very angry ex-girlfriend. Is that enough to find his friend’s killer? And when the truth is as terrifying as this, does he really want answers after all?
John D. MacDonald
John D. MacDonald is the author of 21 Travis McGee thrillers, Cape Fear, and countless other novels and short stories. His works have been translated into numerous languages, with his sales in the tens of millions. Named the grandmaster of the Mystery Writers of America, he also won the American Book Award (now known as the National Book Award) in 1980, earned an MBA, and served in the army. MacDonald, a native of New York, lived much of his life in McGee's homestate of Florida with his wife and son, before passing away in 1986.
Travis McGee
Travis McGee consists of twenty-one books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.

