Great entry in the Travis McGee canon. Perhaps a little too deeply into philately - the first 50 pages- the story drifts to a mystery about how a tough guys stamps disappeared. Was it the old guy- friend of Meyer and senility? one of his apparently faithful lady workers? or .. what? the book soon becomes a slow seduction of one of those ladies who has a very rough troubled past (a threatening, rich old husband left behind). McGee - of course- saves her .. and takes off with her (while still working on the stamp problem (?)) ... and begins to weary of this lady (Mary Alice) in ways that are rather interesting for the rather macho Mr. McGee... ( )

Another pretty good John D. McDonald thriller. Always enjoyable. ( )

Travis always manages to find trouble despite his careful pondering of danger. He seems to find threats to his life coming from unexpected directions. And of course there are always the woman. Part of what makes the series fun is Macdonald’s ability to make the characters distinct and believable. The reader is privy to what is going on in his mind most of the time - but there are always a few twists held back. Meyer’s role as a counterpoint and thought provoker adds to the interest of the stories. The first person point of view adds excitement to the narrative. ( )

Travis McGee is asked by his friend, Meyer, to look into a problem that an elderly stamp dealer named Fedderman was experiencing. Fedderman thought he had been relieved of thousands of dollars worth of rare postage stamps but could not figure out how it had been done. Travis is not interested until he meets Fedderman's beautiful employee, Mary Alice McDermit.

Travis is also having to find another mooring site for the houseboat on which he lives as the city commissioners have passed legislation banning permanent residents living on boats in city marinas.

The stamp switch involves gangsters trying to launder money via buying and selling rare stamps. Things become complicated and dangerous for Travis. ( )

After being a bit disappointed with the last book in the series, Tan and Sandy Silence, I was immensely pleased to see MacDonald is back on form here in The Scarlet Ruse. A good mystery, organised crime, stamp collecting and murders - what more could you want?

The plot moves along methodically and logically keeping you interested and trying to guess whose responsible, then when you think you've got it all worked out another leaf unfolds changing things substantially.

The ending was a bit more sombre than usual, but that's not a bad thing, I would say it brought more depth to the character. ( )