The Scarlet Ruse, by John D MacDonald

McGee is called in to help a dealer in rare postage stamps; a bank deposit box in his charge, which should have contained several hundred thousand dollars worth, has had its contents switched. It's up to Travis to work out what happened, but things aren't made easier by the fact that the owner of the collection has underworld connections. Travis ends up on the Busted Flush with limited options, and a woman who's got a price on her head.

Unfortunately it took me ages to get through this book, partly because I read Spanish Steps as well, and so I had trouble keeping track of who was who - there were a fair number of characters involved, some of whom were good guys despite being criminals. So I didn't really get into it this time.

I liked one of Meyer's monologues - "Nobody in the world will ever live as well, materially speaking, as we once did" [p115].

Fourteenth in the series of Travis McGee novels; I should probably try and read them in sequence

Completed : 29-Dec-2004

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