This is book 1 of the "Travis McGee" series.

This note contains spoilers for the book.

Haven't had a good read through the Travis McGee books in ages. Overlaps Nero Wolfe only somewhat, but they seem to come from the same world. Travis is something of a throwback.

The McGee books all have "color" titles; mostly of the same form as this one. I guess he decided making the relationship between the books visible was good marketing, or something. No reason not to.

This is in fact the first of the McGee books. Most of the furniture seems to be in place already—the Busted Flush, his profession, his philosophical meanderings, his bright blue Rolls Royce pickup truck.

The basic structure is the same, too. He takes on a recovery job for a lame duck, gets too involved, gets unlucky, and finally manages to bull through to survival, but always a rather bittersweet survival. In this one, the second woman involved in the case doesn't survive.

And there's always a fair amount of sex, both good and bad.