Question: Travis McGee was a precursor to what contemporary mystery protagonist in a series that has been on multiple best seller lists?

Passages:
Midnight in Peking is the true story of the murder of a young British woman in January 1937 Peking written by Paul French.  It was first published by Penguin Australia in association with Penguin China in 2011 and has since been published by Penguin Books in the UK and by Penguin Group USA.  It has appeared on international best seller lists including the "New York Times" Best Seller List and the "South China Morning Post" Best Seller List.  Additionally the book was adapted for radio by "BBC Radio 4". "The New York Times" Best Seller list for manga published in the United States was introduced on March 5, 2009, along with two additional lists for hardcover and paperback graphic novels.  The three lists are grouped under the "Graphic Books" category.  Deborah Hoffman, an editor for the Best Seller lists, explained that the term "Graphic Books" was selected to create an "inclusive and expansive" list which can extend to works of both fiction and non-fiction.  Journalist George Gustines announced, in his introduction of the new lists, "Comics have finally joined the mainstream."  The announcement was made the week the film "Watchmen", based on the comic book of the same name, was released in movie theaters throughout the U.S.  The Best Seller lists are printed weekly in "The New York Times Book Review" magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of "The New York Times" and as a stand-alone publication. Lisa Dickey, a native of Pensacola, Florida, is an American author and book collaborator.  Since 1997, she has helped write and/or edit 17 nonfiction books, in fields ranging from technology to politics to Hollywood memoirs.  Eight books she worked on have been on the New York Times best seller or extended best seller lists.  In January 2017, St. Martin's Press published her first non-collaborative book, "Bears in the Streets: Three Journeys Across a Changing Russia". Travis McGee is a fictional character, created by American mystery writer John D. MacDonald.  Unlike most detectives in mystery/detective fiction, McGee is neither a police officer nor a private investigator; instead, he is a self-described "salvage consultant" who recovers others' property for a fee of 50%.  McGee appeared in 21 novels, from "The Deep Blue Good-by" in 1964 to "The Lonely Silver Rain" in 1984.  In 1980, the McGee novel "The Green Ripper" won the National Book Award.  All 21 books have the theme of a color in the title, one of the earliest examples of detective/mystery fiction series to have a 'title theme' (e.g. the Sue Grafton 'alphabet' series; Janet Evanovich's 'number' series of Stephanie Plum books, etc.) "A Heart Full of Love (For a Handful of Kisses)" is a 1948 single by Eddy Arnold.  Written by Eddy Arnold, Steve Nelson and Ray Soehnel, the song was Eddy Arnold's eighth number one, where it spent one week at the top of the Best Seller lists.  The b-side of "A Heart Full of Love (For a Handful of Kisses", a song entitled, "Then I Turned and Slowly Walked Away" hit number four on the Folk Best Seller lists. Janet Evanovich (born Janet Schneider; April 22, 1943) is an American writer.  She began her career writing short contemporary romance novels under the pen name Steffie Hall, but gained fame authoring a series of contemporary mysteries featuring Stephanie Plum, a former lingerie buyer from Trenton, New Jersey, who becomes a bounty hunter to make ends meet after losing her job.  The novels in this series have been on "The New York Times", USA Today, "Wall Street Journal" and Amazon bestseller lists.  Evanovich has had her last seventeen Plums debut at #1 on the "NY Times" Best Sellers list and eleven of them have hit #1 on "USA Today" Best-Selling Books list.  She has over two hundred million books in print worldwide and is translated into over 40 languages. The Last One Left (1966) is a mystery novel by John D. MacDonald.  The story largely takes place in southern Florida and the Bahamas, and is similar to many of the author's Travis McGee stories.  The book is in fact dedicated to McGee "who lent invaluable support and encouragement," and a named runabout motorboat later appears in the McGee novel "Pale Gray for Guilt".  The book's subtitle is "A story about money and dying", and it is written on several different levels.  Throughout the plot are subtle discourses on what it means to have a "good" life, how people deal with stress and uncertainty, and at what point will someone reach out for healthy human contact, or else take self-interest as their highest goal. A Tan and Sandy Silence (1971) is the thirteenth novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald.  The plot begins with Harry Broll, husband of McGee's longtime friend Mary, shows up at his houseboat The Busted Flush with a gun, threatening McGee and accusing him of hiding Mary aboard.  The rest of the novel involves McGee's search for Mary. Darker than Amber is a 1970 film adaptation of John D. MacDonald's mystery/suspense novel, "Darker than Amber".  It was directed by Robert Clouse from a screenplay by MacDonald and Ed Waters.  It starred Rod Taylor as Travis McGee.  "Darker than Amber" and "The Empty Copper Sea" (adapted as the film "Travis McGee" (1983) starring Sam Elliott) remain the only McGee novels adapted to the big screen as of 2017.  The film also marked the final onscreen appearance of actress Jane Russell prior to her death in 2011, with the exception of a documentary appearance in 2007. "Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype" is a book by Jungian analyst, author and poet Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D, published in 1992 by Ballantine Books.  It spent 145 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list over a three-year span, a record at the time.  .  Estés won a Las Primeras Award from the Mexican American Women's Foundation for being the First Latina on the "New York Times" Best Seller list.  The book also appeared on other best seller lists, including "USA Today", "Publishers Weekly", and "Library Journal".

Supporting sentences:
 All 21 books have the theme of a color in the title, one of the earliest examples of detective/mystery fiction series to have a 'title theme' (e.g. the Sue Grafton 'alphabet' series; Janet Evanovich's 'number' series of Stephanie Plum books, etc.)  She began her career writing short contemporary romance novels under the pen name Steffie Hall, but gained fame authoring a series of contemporary mysteries featuring Stephanie Plum, a former lingerie buyer from Trenton, New Jersey, who becomes a bounty hunter to make ends meet after losing her job.  The novels in this series have been on "The New York Times", USA Today, "Wall Street Journal" and Amazon bestseller lists.