Gregory Mcdonald

In return for immunity from prosecution for tax evasion, Fletch is forced to bug the bedrooms of famous American journalists at their convention and gather evidence against a newspaper tycoon, but the case is soon complicated by murder. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

Fletch's Fortune

Fletch, as unbridled as ever and still living the good life in Italy on his ill-gotten fortune, gets a surprising visit from two surly FBI agents. The pair offers him a deal: either he attend the American Journalism Alliance convention and work as an undercover spy for them, or be shipped back to headquarters and face jail time for tax evasion. Reluctantly agreeing to the scheme, he catches a red-eye flight back to the States. But just as rubber hits tarmac in Virginia, news breaks on a murder at the convention. The victim-a newspaper tycoon and former employer of I. M. Fletch-was no stranger to enemies. And at a hotel full of reporters who'd all had their dealings with the tyrannical leader, everyone's a suspect.

Chris Aldrich

Fletch's Fortune has a great high concept plot, which is really saying something for Fletch novels which all seem to have a high concept start from a sprinting position. It also allows for a fairly closed setting and lots of satire. The fact that Fletch is somehow both journalist and not journalist allows for some interesting dynamics.

For a parlor-type mystery, there were almost too many characters/suspects, but given the potential size of the conference, I'll let Mcdonald take a flier on it as he did an excellent job fleshing out each of the characters to make them unique enough to stand on their own without giving up too much. I also suspect that he may have thought of cute little character descriptions over one afternoon and then assigned them to people as they appeared--some of them are really delicious particularly:
The man’s shoulders were little more than outriggers for his ears.
One of my favorite constructs in this book that sets it apart from others in the series were the conference session titles being used deliciously as chapter openers. Many of them provide some hilarious counterpoint to the plot and certainly add to the humor of the overall piece.

Another interesting turn was the romantic portion of the plot in which one of Fletch's unfortunate choices of pseudonym finally gets him into trouble, though not in the way in which one might otherwise suppose. The sub-plot with Freddie was hilarious and tense without actually coming to a final head. (Writing this after I've now read Fletch and the Man Who makes me even more glad that it didn't. Their relationship is like the unrequited Sam/Rebecca pairing in the NBC television series Cheers, which this book preceded by several years.)

The humor at Crystal's expense was all great if perhaps maybe even too much, though it was done with enough warmth that it's obvious that Fletch is doing his part in the nicest way. (Now that I'm in the midst of Son of Fletch, it's interesting to think back on his relationship with Crystal.)

This book read very quickly and was well plotted though the ending was perhaps all too quick. I would have preferred a slower unfolding in the third act. At least in this one, we get the payoff in the end of seeing some of Fletch's machinations coming to a head all at once--something we didn't get to see in Fletch when he set both of his ex-wives up to unwittingly move in together with each other while thinking that they were getting back together with him.

This is sure to rank at the top of my favorite Fletch novels by the time I'm done with the series.

(This review was syndicated from my blog, which also contains additional highlights, notes, and marginalia from my copy of the book.)

Fletch's Fortune

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