Fawcett: 1962

    Somewhere at this moment Bonny Lee and Kirby are driving some one

    mad, and enjoying every moment of it.

    If you have ever had a yeasty yearning for complete freedom and

    complete immunity, you will covet something those two have. This

    book will tell you what to look for, and how to use it if you can

    steal it.

    Best of luck.

    In this book, John D. MacDonald turns from suspense to

    A story of fantasy . . .

Fawcett: 1982

JDM chose these stories after Francis Nevins and Martin Greenberg, along

Walter ,Jean Shine, and Sam Gowen’s help in assembling them out of

hundreds of short stories he had published in the pulps between 1947 and

1952, at the urging of Nevins and Greenberg, who thought the project would

be very worthwhile. Sales of the collection proved them right.

Table of contents:

“Murder for Money”  “ A Time For Dying” “Death Writes the Answer”

“Noose For A Tigress    “Miranda”  “Murder In Mind”

“They Let Me Live”  “Check Out At Dawn     “Breathe No More”             

“She Cannot Die” “From Some Hidden Grave”  “Dead On The Pin”

“ A Trap For The Careless”

Fawcett: 1984

Sales of The Good Old Stuff proved to be so good that a second collection was published two years later in 1984.

Table of Contents: 

“Deadly Damsel”    “State Police Report That”  “Death For Sale”

“ A Corpse In His Dreams”    “I Accuse Myself” “ A Place To Live”

“Neighborly Interest”   “The Night Is Over” “Secret Stain”

“Even Up The Odds” “ Verdict” “ The High Grey Walls Of Hate”

“Unmarrried Widow”  “You Remember Jeanie”

     Fawcett: 1951

    She turned to face him and all the light had gone out of her blue eyes.

    They looked dead, long buried.

    "It's only a matter of time," she said. "I know sooner or later you'll ask

    me how I became what I am. Men seem  to have a compulsion to ask that

    question. So let's have a pact. Don't ask me, and you won't make it

    necessary or me to invent some tragic story to satisfy your curiosity.

    "Just take me for . . . granted," she whispered.

Fawcett: 1962

    In this swift and striking novel, John D. MacDonald examines the

    ferment of a big-time convention - the plots, the savage

    maneuverings, the dreadful ease with which a man or a dream can

    be destroyed.

Doubleday: 1966

    MURDER AT SEA.

    NO SURVIVORS.

    NO EVIDENCE.

    NO REASON NOT TO BE $800,000 RICHER.

    Crissy Harkinson knew all about the cash that had left the Gold

    Coast of Florida, headed for the Bahamas on board a pleasure boat.

    It was Texas money—unrecorded, intended as a bribe. And there was

    enough of it left to change a dozen lives. Or end them . .

Dell, 1959

Mystery Writers of America anthology, edited, with intro by JDM

   1951 by Fawcett: 1951

    "SHE MAY LOOK LIKE AN ANGEL . . . but she's a tramp."

    That's when I hit him, my best friend. I thought of Laura and our

    three day honeymoon. I thought of the sting of her full lips, the

    long, lush lines of her warm, wonderful body, her throaty,

    delighted laugh. And I thought of all the nights we were going to

    spend together.

    Paul had stumbled to his feet, and there was blood on his mouth.

    "You need a keeper," he said heavilly and contemptuously. "To save

    you from yourself—and her."

First published 1956 by Dell

Murder In The Wind is, beyond a doubt, one of the most compelling

    and suspenseful of Macdonald’s novels. . Anawesomely described hurricane

    literally drives his fascinatingcast of characters together. Their refuge from the

     driving windand rising water become a sort of grand (and grisly) hotel.

    (NOTE: WEST COAST FLORIDA RESIDENTS SHOULD READ THIS BOOK--

    AND CONDOMINIUM-- EACH SPRING LEST THEY BECOME COMPLACENT....)

Lippencott: 1977

Welcome to Golden Sands, the dream condominium built on a weak foundation

and a thousand dirty secrets. JDM’s powerful novel is a panoramic look at the

shocking facts of life in a Sun Belt community: the real estate swindles and political

payoffs, the maintenance charges that run up, and the health benefits that run out,

the crack-ups and marital breakdowns, the disaster that awaits those who play in

the path of a hurricane.

 Fawcett: 1953

The smell of stale bedrooms and warm gin hovered over that whole section of town. the women,even the young girls, walked a certain way.

There was a drifting threat of violence everywhere, and the kids of the neighborhood knew allabout knives, garrison belts and bicycle chains long before they were pushed into high school byweary truant officers.

  Fawcett 1968

The best-selling author of the Travis McGee novels tells the riveting tru story of the notoriousCoppolino murder trial.

Note: JDM paid tribute to John Pete Schmidt who had suggested he write about the trial, and whoworked with JDM “all the way” as JDM noted.

In 1996, as a guest at our 6th John D. MacDonald Conference, in Sarasota, Florida, we heard a very touching story by John Pete Schmidt The setting was MacDonald’s home, now owned by

a private party, who invited all conferees to have a barbecue lunch on the verandah. 

Mr. Zenk told us that in 1985, while he was undergoing a very difficult time, both personally and

medically, and a check for a sizable sum of money appeared out of nowhere--the

explanation was that it was for some”royalties” long overdue from further sales of the book. 

There was not a dry eye in the house when Zenk told us that it was not until after JDM’s death

that he found out that the money was simply given by JDM to Zenk under the “guise” of a

royalty payment.

    1981 by Harper and Row: 1981

    John D. MacDonald & Captain John H. Kilpack

    FOR CRUISE VETERANS

    FOR ARMCHAIR TRAVELERS

    NOTHING CAN GO WRONG . . . But everything does in this exciting

    tale of the last long cruise of a U.S. passenger ship by superb

    storyteller Captain John H. Kilpack and renowned author John D.

    MacDonald.

    When the S.S. MARISPOSA set sail in 1977 for a 77-day journey from

    San Francisco to Leningrad and back, crazy antics, practical

    jokes, human quirks, and an old ship with more than its share of

    mechanical troubles created a memorable adventure for everyone

    aboard.

    This wild tour takes us twice through the Panama Canal, to more

    than a dozen European ports, to Alaska, and to sultry Caribbean

    isles in a uniquely amusing and entertaining book.

    Fawcett: 1963

    Who in the hell did she think she was, plunging into his present

    life, pleading with him to forget his past, promissing him the

    impossible?

    Sid Shanley couldn't stay in one place very long. He had to keep

    on the run, changing towns, changing jobs, changing women. He

    worked out the perfect setup—no attachments, no trails, no

    explanations. But now a girl had caught up with him. Her name was

    Paula—and a million dollars lay behind her strange invitation . .

    Fawcett: 1961

    ARCHITECT OF EVIL

    Step by step, Dwight McAran built a wall of vicious hate around

    himself.

    It was easy. He was a man who could slap one woman to death

    because she loved him, and hum a love song to another while he

    raped her.

    Sure, he did some time in jail. He sat in a cell for five long

    years until he harbored a core of stark, steaming evil designed to

    explode in a fury of vengeance.

    Revenge was all he craved—and a plan was what he had—a plan just

    cruel enough to please him, just crazy enough to work.

 Knopf: 1984

    Remember all those televangelist scandals in the late 80’s ?

    JDM wrote this book years before.....prescient as usual...

Fawcett 1960

SHE WOULD NEVER ESCAPE HER PAST--HER FATE TO BE CAUGHT FOREVER IN THE SICK GLITTER OF THE GREAT SUCKER TRAP.

Coney Island in the desert. Miami Beach with an ocean. Nothing but sand and neon and money, money, everywhere. Big-name entertainers rubbing elbows with big name ganGsters over the green-baize craps tables.

Bare-breasted showgirls conning the big spenders in the small hours. All-night marriage chapels......Little white balls bouncing around all the roulette wheels....

World without end....

VEGAS!!!!

Simon and Schuster:  1959

    ART, EROTICA, AND TEQUILA

    When a jaded exponent of the Fast Buck hitches his starload of

    schemes to the salacious bent of a well-heeled, well-oiled

    divorcee, the result is a daffy mail-ordered Mexican art colony

    known as the Cuernavaca Summer Workshop.

    The unique goings-on and comings-off of the members of this

    oddball establishment are the stuff a he-mans dreams are made of.

    It is a positively no-money-back, uninhibited, unabridged romp

    through passion and Picasso, under the naked Mexican sun, where

    East meets West, North meets South, Madison Avenue goes native,

    and the long-stemmed Texas lovelies unveil their astonishing

    natural equipment in the hallowed name of Culture.

(NOTE: A REALLY “FUN “ READ)

    Dell: 1957

    She was so alive and he needed her so badly there was nothing to

    do but kill her . . .

Gold Medal: 1971

    Contains the following short stories:

    "The Random Noise of Love" "Dear Old Friend" "The Willow Pool"

    "Quarrel" "Woodchuck" "Double Hannenframmis" "The Annex"

    Fawcett: 1960

    Beneath the relaxed exterior of their lush beach life, the year

    round sun tans, the unmeasured cocktails, the casual embraces

    there pulses an insistent, blood-warm note of violence, of

    unspeakable desire.

    Before the story is done, the pulse has run wild.

DELL: 1958

    HE WANTED OUT.

    Out of his job, out of his marriage to a well-heeled lush. And

    there'd never be another chance like this one.

    A big, big caper, but simple as pie. A suitcase bursting with

    tightly packed stacks of nice, worn, unmarked bills. And nobody

    would get hurt - supposedly.

    But the sight and feel of all that money can warp a man, can make

    him decide not to split it up. And it can make murder look easy.

  Fawcett: 1951

    Emily was demure, beautiful. Only she loved money as other women love men.

To satisfy her craving, she seduced Kyle Cameron,drained from him his manhood, his

morals and his soul. . .

(Note: JDM wished he could have bought all copies of this book so he could burn them...

not his best effort--and rare to find).

    Fawcett: 1961

    A lonely cottage on an empty Florida Key

    An escaped convict

    The woman who took fatal pity on him

    A wealthy man who lives in - retirement

    His alcoholic wife, a prisoner behind drawn blinds

    An ex pro-football player who thought he'd lost his nerve

    A lone girl on a deserted beach

    Popular Library: 1956

    Clint Sewell knew there wasn't a wife within fifty miles who

    didn't have reason to kill Mary Olan - because there wasn't a

    husband around who didn't think the grass was greener in Mary

    Olan's bedroom. The latest occupant was Clint's boss, a nice guy,

    but not above deceiving his wife - and maybe not above letting

    Clint be the patsy when the fabulous Mary Olan was found dead in a

    closet, with Clint Sewell's belt around her lovely neck.

 Published AGAIN IN 1961 AS