Created by Charley Memminger
It says something about the ongoing appeal of Travis McGee that so many writers have been inspired to create Travis-like heroes themselves. But Charley Memminger’s STRYKER McBRIDE may be one of the most obvious yet.
I mean, look at that cover over there!
This Hawaiian-bound sleuth, a beer-swigging former crime reporter, also lives on a boat, but his humble floating adobe is no over-sized barge–nope, it’s a fifty-foot, lavishly appointed Vagabond houseboat dubbed… The Travis McGee.
I mean, really, could they possibly pound that drum any harder?
In his one and only novel, Aloha, Lady Blue (2013), Stryker, who lives on the dry-docked McGee with twin German Shepherds Kane and Lobo at the swank Bayview Yacht Club on the “windward side of Oahu,” agrees to look into the suspicious death of the grandfather of an old high school pal and current hottie beauty queen. In true McGee fashion, he soon finds himself tangled up in a couple of murders and several scandals, up against a vicious mobster (a former entertainer called Auntie Kealoha), and her 400 pound enforcer and right-hand man, a Chinese-Hawaiian named Tiny Maunakea.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author is an award-winning humor columnist, screenwriter, and journalist based in Hawaii whose work has appeared nationally in magazines and newspapers. He’s twice been named the top humor columnist in the country by the National Society for Newspaper Columnists. He currently lives in the sleepy windward Oahu bay town of Kaneohe with his wife, cat, love birds, geckos, and other indigenous island wildlife.
UNDER OATH
- “A great read―extraordinary! For anyone who lives in Hawaii, visits Hawaii, or even dreams of going to Hawaii. Oh, what the heck, it’s for anyone who loves a crackling good story!”
— Pat Sajak - “Stryker McBride gets my vote as Hawaii’s newest hero. I hate to say it, but move over, Magnum.”
— Kinky Friedman - “Chilling and sometimes hilarious… Shines with a cruel brilliance and an honest hypnotic power.”
— Frank South (executive producer of Baywatch) - “Laying it on with a trowel! Chuck Memminger’s new P.I. lives on houseboat called the Travis McGee in Aloha Lady Blue.”
—“Travis McGee” (Twitter, August 2015)
NOVELS
- Aloha, Lady Blue (2013) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Jean Pearson
This site’s entry on Lori Stone’s detective hero, who may or may not be McGee’s long-lost lovechild. The allusions fall like the lonely silver rain…. - The Children of Travis McGee
The literary descendants of our man Trav. - Let’s Go to Hawaii
Hawaiian Eyes - Eyes the Bye
P.I.s who live afloat…
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
