Pale Gray for Guilt — John D. MacDonald

From a beloved master of crime fiction, Pale Gray for Guilt is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat.
 
Travis McGee's old football buddy Tush Bannon is resisting pressure to sell off his floundering motel and marina to a group of influential movers and shakers. Then he's found dead. For a big man, Tush was a pussycat: devoted to his wife and three kids and always optimistic about his business -- even when things were at their worst. So even though his death is ruled a suicide, McGee suspects murder . . . and a vile conspiracy.
 
“As a young writer, all I ever wanted was to touch readers as powerfully as John D. MacDonald touched me.” -- Dean Koontz
 
Tush Bannon was in the wrong spot at the wrong time. His measly plot of land just so happened to sit right in the middle of a rich parcel of five hundred riverfront acres that big-money real estate interests decided they simply must have.
 
It didn't matter that Tush was a nice guy with a family, or that he never knew he was dealing with a criminal element. They squashed him like a bug and walked away, counting their change. But one thing they never counted on: the gentle giant had a not-so-gentle friend in Travis McGee. And now he's going to make them pay.
 
Features a new Introduction by Lee Child