Dress Her in Indigo

A Travis McGee Novel, Book 11

By: John D. MacDonald

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

A wealthy old man laid up in the hospital is desperate to understand the last months of his daughter's life before she was killed in a car crash in Mexico. It was puzzling. She'd cleaned out her considerable bank account, left Miami and hadn't been heard from again.

Travis McGee ventures into the steep hills and strange backwoods of Oaxaca through a bizarre world of dropouts, drug freaks, and kinky rich people - and begins to suspect the beautiful girl's death was no accident.

©1969 John D. MacDonald (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

McGee is the man!

I can’t get enough of these books. Travis is the man, it’s the best of a James Bond type + Sherlock homes.

is there a bad McGee novel?

Fantastic across the board. From story to narrator. Nothing more comforting then a Travis McGee book. Thank you for your creation John D Macdonald.

The performance makes this series.

Travis McGee comes to life through the performance and isn't the same without the voice of Robert Petkoff.

An unusual story, sad and too close to reality.

Love Travis McGee

Would you consider the audio edition of Dress Her in Indigo to be better than the print version?

Haven't read the print version. Just love to be read to, while sewing, on road trips, while folding the laundry and walking the dog

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

You don't know till the very end who did it?? Keeps you thinking

What about Robert Petkoff’s performance did you like?

I started at book 1 and have now just finished Book 11 and I'm am enjoying Robert Petkoff.

At the beginning I was missing Darin McGavin but I am coming around.

The Great John D MacDonald

Always a favorite to reread, and enjoy knowing that the great John D MacDonald's Travis McGee is the inspiration for the Jack Reacher series as well. The great American novel doesn't get any better than this!

Awesome story. Petkoff does an excellent job!

What made the experience of listening to Dress Her in Indigo the most enjoyable?

Great story and characters. And, Petkoff's ability to carry the dialog in the various accents

Too many loose ends tied up by dying

Several unexpected twists but I believe it was MacDonald's least favorite McGee. An unappealing crowd of drug users becomes decimated by greed. Back in Mexico with echos of MacDonald's time there.
Part of the McGee Cannon.

A creepy view of the 1970s "Drug Culture"

In the early 70s I thought I was a hippie, but not like these folks. Perhaps there had to be some like these to supply the drugs that seemed to be everywhere at the time, but thank God I never met any. (That I know of!) I really enjoyed the vision of Mexico at the time though. It seems so strange to hear now that the "Mexican peso was rock-solid" and that American investors were lining up to invest in Mexico. This has to be one of my favorte Travis McGee adventures.

Mexico, Hippies and Murder

Travis and Meyer are in Mexico at the behest of a disabled businessman that Meyer knows in passing. They're mission; and they've decided to accept it, is to travel to Oaxaca and find out how things were for the man's dead daughter in the last year of her life. What they find is two men and two women being controlled and manipulated by a predator. One of those women is the man's daughter. The story of their time in Mexico is nothing that they can tell her father; so what to do? while they're attempting to discern their purpose Travis is used as a sex toy by an eccentric English woman. They make a local friend; one Enelio Fuentes who helps them with local matters and introduces them to a couple of beautiful sisters who are secretaries in one of Fuentes' family businesses in Guadalajara.
There is also a gay man named Bruce Bundy involved. MacDonald had a tolerant attitude towards gay men at least for the era but his extreme bias against lesbians; revealed in The Quick Red Fox is again on display in this work. Though it is done a great deal more subtly in this book than it was in that one it is still there. Despite the limitations inherent in a book created 45 years ago in a culture that is radically different the work stands up fairly well. As always where this author is concerned the plot, the characters and the pace of the book are all well done.

A particularly good one

One of the better-plotted stories, and a great setting in Oaxaca. Meyer is there throughout, which always gives good balance. Some unnecessarily sordid notes and some non-PC stances, of course, but all in all a good one. Fantastic voice performance, complete with Mexican, French and Midwestern accents.