The Literary Descendants of Our Man Trav…
I guess it says something about the ongoing appeal of John D. MacDonald‘s Travis McGee that so many writers have been inspired to create Travis-like heroes themselves. Some are more obvious than others, and of course anyone who lives on a boat, shows any concern for the environment or views Florida with a jaundiced eye is going to be tagged as owing MacDonald a large debt, but there are a few distaff and defiantly unorthodox characters that might justify a literary paternity test or two…
Here are a few of the more obvious:
- John Caine by Charles Knief
- Carver by John Lutz
- Max Freeman by Jonothan King
- Morgan Hunt by Geoffrey Norman
- Jake Lassiter by Paul Levine
- Logan by Alan Joseph
- Tony Lowell by E.C. Ayres
- Stryker McBride by Charley Memminger
- Jean Pearson by Lori Stone
- Thorn by James W. Hall
- Mike Travis by M.E. Knerr
- Doc Ford and Hannah Smith by Randy Wayne White
- And of course almost every hero and anti-hero Carl Hiaasen has ever created in his Florida novels.
