{"id":21778,"date":"2026-03-09T17:54:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T21:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21778"},"modified":"2026-03-09T17:54:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T21:54:50","slug":"pale-gray-for-guilt-by-john-d-macdonald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21778","title":{"rendered":"‘Pale Gray for Guilt,’ by John D. MacDonald"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The shape of larceny is, in time, written clearly enough on a man\u2019s face so that it can be read. Constant greed and sharp little deals and steals had left the sign on Preston LaFrance. There is the old saying that God and your folks give you the face you\u2019re born with, but you earn the one you die with.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ah, the joys of settling down<\/strong> with another Travis McGee novel. Even when author John D. MacDonald\u2019s philosophy rings a little tinny, and the predictions have proven wrong in hindsight, Travis himself remains the best of friends \u2013 not only highly entertaining but reliable. Pale Gray for Guilt<\/a><\/em> came out in 1968 and is one of the best in the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tush Bannon is one of Travis McGee\u2019s best old friends from his football days. He\u2019s a big, cheerful, uncomplicated fellow, running a small business, raising a nice family. He has everything Trav can never have unless he alters his lifestyle, and Trav knows it. Then somebody decides to take Tush\u2019s business away, and they take his life along with it. Travis is guilty that he wasn\u2019t there to help. So he makes up his mind to get something back for the widow and the kids. And if a bad guy happens to get in the way of justice, he won\u2019t hesitate to extract some blood too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the help of his economist friend Meyer, Trav sets up a neat and appealing con. The author of the book had a business degree from Harvard, and this sting, involving inflating a stock and getting out ahead of the pigeon before it crashes, was a little complex, but convincing. Along the way, McGee and Meyer have ample opportunity to look into the Abyss themselves, and glimpse it looking back at them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pale Gray for Guilt<\/em> has the added element, in retrospect, of setting up a poignant plot element that will only bear fruit years later, in the last book of the series, The Lonely Silver Rain<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An outstanding entry in a classic series, Pale Gray for Guilt<\/em> gets this reader\u2019s highest recommendation. Cautions for adult situations, somewhat racy for the quaint old days of the 1960s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The shape of larceny is, in time, written clearly enough on a man\u2019s face so that it can be read. Constant greed and sharp little deals and steals had left the sign on Preston LaFrance. There is the old saying that God and your folks give you the face you\u2019re born with, but you earn … Continue reading ‘Pale Gray for Guilt,’ by John D. MacDonald<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[3868,5886,3869],"class_list":["post-21778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-john-d-macdonald","tag-pale-gray-for-guilt","tag-travis-mcgee"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21778"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21781,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21778\/revisions\/21781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}