Listen up

I just received an e-mail from Audible.com announcing that unabridged recordings of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee mysteries, all 21 of them, are now available for download. The availability of uncut readings of all the entries in this lauded series has always been the Holy Grail of audiobook enthusiasts, and now the anticipation is over.

Full disclosure: I've only read a few of these excellent mysteries before falling under the spell of Robert B. Parker's Spenser series way back when, but I really liked what I experienced. It'll be great to finally catch up with this series and all the great titles I missed, via the convenience of audio.

Someone named Robert Petkoff reads all 21 titles in these newly-released productions. The fine actor Darrin McGavin read a handful of the McGee mysteries years ago for audio, but he didn't do anywhere near all of them, and the titles he did were abridged. Mr. McGavin is sadly gone now, anyway, so here's hoping Mr. Petkoff is a worthy successor. I'm betting he's fine.

Every title in MacDonald's series has a color in its name, the first entry being 1964's The Deep Blue Good-By. Other titles include Nightmare in Pink and The Green Ripper. The series concluded with The Lonely Silver Rain in 1985, due to the passing of Mr. MacDonald after a long, productive career that encompassed scores of books.

So, all you audio enthusiasts, get cracking! I want you all up to speed when I start discussing this series from the beginning in a month or two. An added incentive to pick up these downloads is that the Travis McGee series is not yet available on Kindle!