The Dreadful Lemon Sky

⚖The case for it

Fine, McGee's routine of mending broken women aboard his houseboat curdles a little more with each reread, and the speeches about greedy developers keep landing right on schedule. Read past that and MacDonald delivers a cold report on how a modest sum of stolen money poisons everyone it touches, turning ordinary want into something meaner. Travis chose a floating, off-the-books life so he could sit close to other people's trouble and say plainly what he sees. Even a slighter entry in this series watches its small Florida town harder than most crime writers manage at full effort. Stephen King read every one.

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

McGee's habit of healing damaged women in the bunks of the Busted Flush reads worse with every passing decade, and the sermons about what money has done to Florida arrive twice a chapter, right on time. This entry runs the series at cruising speed: a dead woman, a small town's dirty cash, no turn a series reader will not see coming.

— the honest librarian