NEW YORK– Crime writer John D. MacDonald, a master of the genre, was so prolific that sometimes even he couldn’t keep up with what he was doing.
He may turn in dozens of stories at a time, leaving some unfinished or unpublished as he moves on to a new idea. One of the surviving manuscripts was recently discovered and appears this week in the Literary Quarterly The Beach Magazine, where rarities have passed by Ernest Hemingway,Tennessee Williams and many others. “The Accomplice” is an early work by the author, known for his Travis McGee series and for the novel “The Executioners,” which was retitled “Cape Fear” in two film adaptations.
The newly seen story, a story of lust, betrayal and dangerous choices, was found in the archives of the University of Florida.
“The raw and gritty story embraces classic noir tropes, then in typical MacDonald style, inverts them with an unexpected and thought-provoking finale,” writes Strand editor-in-chief Andrew F. Gulli in the current issue.
“The Accomplice” is set in a supermarket where an “almost” 18-year-old clerk named Joey works with the middle-aged owner, John Mallon, and his younger wife, Belle, whom MacDonald introduces as tall and long-faced. white and so thin and tight that “her hips stuck out against the dresses she wore.” It doesn’t take long before she pays a lot of attention to Joey, who – at first – would prefer if she kept it all professional.
“It scared him a little when he realized that when they were alone in the store, he would go to the area behind the meat counter or the basement entrance where the stock was kept, knowing that she would make an excuse find to go. by him,” MacDonald writes.
“When he realized this, he found it difficult to sleep at night and sometimes he dreamed about her. In the dreams she was cold to the touch, and like snakes. And then she got involved in the dream with other girls.
In a plot twist familiar to fans of ‘Double Indemnity’ and other noir favorites, Belle suggests they kill her husband and use the insurance money to go into business together.
“She whispered, ‘How are we going to do it, Joey?’”
MacDonald was born in 1916 in Sharon, Pennsylvania, and later moved with his family to Utica, New York, where he was still living when he wrote “The Accomplice.” He settled in Sarasota, Florida in the early 1950s and remained there for decades before dying in Milwaukee in 1986. His books have sold millions of copies and numerous authors, including Stephen King, have cited him as an influence. He is especially beloved in Florida, and was honored in song by another famous state resident, Jimmy Buffett, who paid tribute in “Incommunicado.”
According to MacDonald scholar Calvin Branche, the author likely wrote “The Accomplice” in the late 1940s or early 1950s and set it aside amid other projects. His wife, Dorothy, had published one of his stories while he was serving overseas in World War II, and he was eager to pursue further research and write about 80 hours a week. MacDonald was still a few years away from his Travis McGee books, but Branche said “The Accomplice” anticipated the moral struggles of McGee and other MacDonald protagonists.
“(Joey) resists her temptation, despite initially thinking her plan and a future with her could be good,” Branche said. “The reader is pleased with this conclusion, and it is the kind of insight that characters find in many of the stories.”