FLETCH WON

by Gregory Mcdonald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1985

After a decade of well-deserved popularity in paperback, newsman/ sleuth Fletch makes a welcome return to hardcover--even if this new comic exploit (timed to coincide with the arrival of a Retch film starring Chevy Chase) isn't, alas, one of Mcdonald's better efforts. At a new low, journalism-wise, Fletch is now assigned to the society pages of the News-Tribune, ordered to do a ""discreet"" investigative report on a local exercise-salon-cum-brothel. But the story he desperately wants to cover is the murder of slimy, successful criminal lawyer Donald Habeck--found dead, via gunshot, in a parked car. So, always keeping one step ahead of loathsome Biff Wilson, the News-Tribune's star crime reporter, Fletch visits the chief suspects: Habeck's dotty first wife; his daughter, living in squalor with her mad-poet/professor hubby; his bitter son, self. confined to a monastery. Did one of these family members kill the much-loathed Habeck--who was about to donate all his wealth to a local museum? Or was the murderer someone involved in one of Habeck's many slimy criminal cases? Fletch ponders the possibilities--while surviving slapsticky mishaps (much ado about an ill-fitting suit), enduring police brutality, and sampling the sexual wares at the Ben Franklyn Friend Service. Meanwhile, too, he must try to appease fiancee Barbara. But finally Fletch not only unmasks the Habeck-case culprit (a limp revelation); he also comes up with a hot story--and some sweet revenge--from his inquiries at that trendy massage parlor. As usual, Mcdonald delivers Fletch's sleuthings through snappy dialogue-vignettes, some of them featuring likably eccentric foils for Fletch's own smart-alecky repartee. Too often, however, the gab is just smirky, strained, or unpleasant. And, though bright and fast and sassy, this is lesser Mcdonald in every department--without the flair, edge, and originality that made Flynn's In (1984) a mystery-comedy standout.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Warner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION