I’m a big fan of John D. MacDonald (1916–1986). Other than his sci-fi novels, I’m pretty sure I have read every full-length book he wrote. As a JDM book collector, I own all but a handful of them. So, it was a surprise for me when an Internet search turned up an unfamiliar title.
John D. MacDonald is best known for his Travis McGee series. McGee, who lives on a houseboat called the Busted Flush in Fort Lauderdale, is a “salvage consultant” and is the person to hire if something valuable has been taken from you and there is no other way to get it back.
But MacDonald was also a prolific author of standalone mysteries and thrillers. When it came to writing hard-boiled crime novels, he had few equals after he switched from short stories to books in 1950. His trademark was pitting the ordinary everyman against some of fiction’s most evil predators. The quest for easy ill-gotten money is a common theme. He was particularly good at adding a fully developed cast of supporting characters to his books. Although many of his non-McGee novels would seem quaint today, it wasn’t that way when I read them back in the day. Different times, different crimes.
Several websites serve as great resources for checking if your favorite authors have written books you don’t know about. I was browsing Book Series in Order a few weeks ago when I noticed a JDM title I had never heard of. There was a link to a listing on Amazon where I could buy a new or used paperback copy. I chose the latter. I should have done more research and had more faith in my abilities as a book collector.
The book I bought, On the Make, is an alternate title for a novel that was first published as A Bullet for Cinderella (see screen capture). Both books have 1955 copyright dates. You can also buy A Bullet for Cinderella on Amazon. However, the listed plot summaries are different for the two titles suggesting that they might be different books. They aren’t. The content is the same.
While I think it was a publisher’s decision to rename the book, I’m not sure of the reason. I don’t like the new title. It’s bland and tells the reader almost nothing. Perhaps the publisher felt that the first title gave away too much of the plot. It’s more likely though that the rename was done to help sales.
Of course, books get renamed all the time. The Executioners (1958) was renamed Cape Fear after it was adapted as a movie starring Gregory Peck. Hurricane is the title used now for Murder in the Wind (1956). I’m OK with the Cape Fear change, but not the retitling of Murder in the Wind even though a destructive hurricane is central to the plot.
Back to A Bullet for Cinderella/On the Make. Briefly it’s the story of a Korean War POW who shows up in a small town to look for $60K a fellow prisoner who died in the camp embezzled and buried before being drafted into the Army. What he doesn’t know is that a psychopath from the same POW camp got there about a year before and is also looking for the money. I would rate it somewhere in the middle of MacDonald’s standalone titles, OK but not great.
I finished reading On the Make a few days ago. What surprised me is that I didn’t remember anything from the first time I read it. Nothing. None of the plot. None of the characters. At least I think I read it before because A Bullet for Cinderella is in my collection and there are no other unread novels in my box of JDM books. So, ironically it was like reading a new MacDonald book even if it wasn’t.
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