Book Details
| Title: | Fletch Too | |
| Author: | Gregory Mcdonald | |
| Times Read: | 1 | |
| Last Read: | 12.31.24 |
Other Books Read By This Author (8)
- Carioca Fletch
- Confess, Fletch
- Fletch
- Fletch and the Man Who
- Fletch and the Widow Bradley
- Fletch Won
- Fletch's Fortune
- Fletch's Moxie
| Date Read | Note |
| 12.31.24 | The 9th Fletch book. This one picks up immediately after the end of Fletch Won (a first) where Fletch, just after being married, gets a mysterious letter from his presumed-dead father along with tickets to Africa. In many ways this one is more similar to Carioca Fletch than the rest of the series but also serves to fill out some of those prequel tropes I praised the previous book for avoiding. Not in a bland way, but we do see the seeds of why Fletch's first marriage doesn't work out and get a sense of where he came from father- and mother-wise. The murder mystery aspect of the book however is the most tangential in all the series, even moreso I thought than the 30-year old cold case Fletch encounters in Brazil. It's mentioned so little in this book that it's almost a coincidence that it gets solved at all. Mostly this this an adventure book detailing the charming exoticism of Kenya. I'm not sure if this was partly a response to Out of Africa or what but it seemed a random choice to me, but then again it's no less random than Brazil... I attribute both books to Mcdonald vacationing in these locales and calling them work expenses. Here we see Fletch with an actual partner which I suppose is a new occurrence that serves to make him less wild, less snarky, almost reasonable. Also, knowing the next book in the series is called "Son of Fletch", the very ending seemed a lot like a finale for the character (another reason I'm glad I read these in order of publication). I'd guess it makes a somewhat odd transition to Widow Bradley-era Fletch but the same could be said about watching The Godfather chronologically. I enjoyed this one pretty well. Personally, I feel less allure for mid-80s Kenya than I do for early-80s Rio but I still enjoyed the adventure and was glad for Mcdonald reasoning that Fletch would not have the wherewithal to mastermind a solution to a whodunnit like the series format demands. I wonder if some of his more strict fans have similar problems with this one as they do with Carioca. I didn't like it as much but also didn't not like it by any means. Food for thought coming into the last two books and my upcoming ranking. Until then, Onto the next! |
 |