The Long Lavender Look is the twelfth novel in the Travis McGee

Travis McGee

Travis McGee is a fictional character, created by prolific American mystery writer John D. MacDonald. Unlike most detectives in crime fiction, McGee is neither a police officer nor a licensed private investigator; instead, he is a self-described "salvage consultant" who recovers others' property...

 series by John D. MacDonald

John D. MacDonald

John Dann MacDonald was an American crime and suspense novelist and short story writer.MacDonald was a prolific author of crime and suspense novels, many of them set in his adopted home of Florida...

. After the preceding book, Dress Her in Indigo

Dress Her in Indigo

Dress Her in Indigo is the eleventh novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald.-Plot synopsis:McGee investigates what happened to a young woman after she disappears into the expatriate subculture of hippies and drug addicts in Mexico, and is found dead....

, which was largely set in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, The Long Lavender Look not only returns to McGee's usual haunt of Florida, but is almost entirely set in one tiny town deep in the rural part of the state.

The plot begins when Mcgee and Meyer are driving late at night down a deserted Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 highway, when a young woman, barefoot and clad only in a nightgown

Nightgown

A nightgown is a loosely hanging item of nightwear. Nowadays the term is almost exclusively applied to women's nightwear. A nightgown is typically made from cotton, silk, satin, or nylon...

, dashes across the road just in front of the car. McGee swerves and just barely misses her, but his car is thrown in to ten feet of swamp

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

water. Soon after and to their surprise, McGee and Meyee find themselves arrested and McGee charged with murder.