Soft Touch: A Novel

By John D MacDonald and Dean Koontz

Soft Touch, one of many classic novels from crime writer John D. MacDonald, the beloved author of Cape Fear and the Travis McGee series, is now available as an eBook.
 
Jerry Jamison wants out. Out of a sloppy marriage, a dull job, the empty suburban rat race. Out of the whole infuriating merry-go-round of boredom and frustration his life has become. Once Jerry had a beautiful bride and a good salary at her old man’s successful business. That was before his wife turned into a lush. Before the business started to go to pieces. And before the lazy afternoon when Vince Biskay, an old army buddy, rings his doorbell and makes an intriguing proposition that promises to bring the excitement back into Jerry’s life—but leaves only death and destruction in its wake.
 
Features a new Introduction by Dean Koontz
 
Praise for John D. MacDonald
 
“The great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller.”—Stephen King
 
“My favorite novelist of all time.”—Dean Koontz
 
“To diggers a thousand years from now, the works of John D. MacDonald would be a treasure on the order of the tomb of Tutankhamen.”—Kurt Vonnegut
 
“A master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer . . . John D. MacDonald is a shining example for all of us in the field. Talk about the best.”—Mary Higgins Clark

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9780307826831

Reviews for Soft Touch

[datrappert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

More evidence that MacDonald was one hell of a writer, though not up to par with Dead Low Tide or The Damned. Seems to have a few sloppy plot points - can't figure out why he says he can't name the South American country, for instance. That would only make a little sense if the protagonist was hiding there at the end of the book and didn't want to be found. But even that wouldn't make sense because there are enough details in the book that someone could figure it out.Don't let this one little annoyance stop you from reading what is a thoroughly black book!

[andyray_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A novel of human foibles and frivolity, and how the "soft touch" can lead one into true love.

[jbreedlove_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

160 pages worth of Travis McGee-less JD MacDonald. Time travel to the early 60's when 20 years after WWII was still in everyone's experience. Too short to develop more than the main character but w glimpses of JDM's colorful rantings on society. I didn't like the ending or the way the plot evolved. But for 160 pages it was readable.

[lamour_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jerry Jamieson was married to a lush wife, worked at a job he detested and felt his life was slipping away. An old an aquatence from his army days behind enemy lines in Burma stopped by with a proposal to use their WW II skills to steal a huge payment from a Latin America dictator intended to purchase military hardware. When things go awry, they do so in a big way leading Jerry to make some tough decisions.This a harsh novel with no pleasant characters.

[waldhaus1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Clever depection of a failing, perhaps inadequate personality. Examines the question of how deep you need to go into someone to find evil. Also exemplifies the old saw:”money is the root of all evil.”Certainly it displays the mores of a different era. MacDonald was in the OSS in the same area during the war as the protagonist had been. He certainly must have seen how the amorality of war can undermine an individuals sense of values. His discussion of the breakdown of the protagonists marriage was partly a thing of the time and partly eternal.Can unhappiness alone explain emotional breakdown?Read as part of my projected goal of reading all or MacDonald’s work.