Slice of P.I.: “Darker Than Amber”

(Part of a series celebrating fictional private eyes.)



Darker Than Amber, by John D. MacDonald (Fawcett Gold Medal, 1982). Cover illustration by the great Robert McGinnis.

Originally published in 1966, this was MacDonald’s seventh outing for Travis McGee, a handsome Florida houseboat resident, former footballer, and sometimes gumshoe, who calls himself a “salvage consultant”—meaning he recovers valuable lost property for a fee equal to 50 percent of its value. He also helps people get out of trouble with the police. The blog Cannonball Read provides this plot summary:

Travis McGee and his trusted friend Meyer are fishing in a secluded location late one night when a car stops on the bridge overhead. Next thing they know a woman wearing cement shoes is thrown into the water and sinks to the bottom. Acting quickly, McGee is just barely able to get her out alive. Once she’s recovered from the shock, she tells them the shocking story. A beautiful young woman, Evangeline (“Vangie” to her friends) has been a prostitute since she was a teenager, and found herself wrapped up with a gang of criminals who target lonely, foolish men with money to spend and no one to miss them. She’s vague on the details, but Vangie eventually grew a conscience and was nearly killed for it.

Once she learns about McGee’s line of work …, Vangie wants his help getting her nest egg back. She’s been squirreling away money in case she ever needed an escape. She’s willing to split it with McGee if he can help. McGee could use the money, since his “retirement fund” is running low, but he’s also drawn to something more. Feeling a duty to Vangie since he saved her life, and unable to shake the image of all those men the gang has disposed of, McGee wants to take down the whole operation.

It’s been a long while since I last read this book, but my memory is that—befitting its title—it is somewhat darker than many McGee yarns, with renowned economist Meyer playing a most substantive sidekick role. Those ingredients might have contributed to film director Robert Clouse’s decision to bring this story to the screen, as he did in 1970, with Australian actor Rod Taylor playing McGee. (That was a year before Taylor co-starred with Dennis Cole in the TV crime/adventure historical series Bearcats!) At least for now, you can watch the entirety of Clouse’s Darker Than Amber on YouTube.