Fletch, Too

Only a few days after the events of Fletch Won, Fletch and Barbara are married.  At the wedding, Fletch finally meets his mother-in-law.  Fletch's mother, Josie, also attends the wedding.  Oh, and he meets his future second ex-wife Linda there too.  After the ceremony, Fletch is handed an envelope that claims to be from the father he never knew and who he was told had died the day he was born; it was thought he crashed his plane in the mountains and the wreck was never found.  The letter comes with tickets to Nairobi, Kenya, and $1,000.  Fletch confronts his mother, who readily admits that his father may be alive, though she had him declared dead years ago.  She is opposed to his flying to Kenya.  Oh, and she writes murder mysteries for a living.  At the last moment, he had Barbara switch planes.  Instead of a ski vacation in Colorado, they go to Kenya where the travelogue begins.

Much like Carioca Fletch, this book has Fletch being dragged from place to place, experiencing the wonders and oddities of Kenya.  Instead of the scions of Brazil, his guides are Peter Carr, a middle-aged pilot and friend of his father, and Juma, a native Kenyan.  To fit the story into the standard murder mystery template of the series, Fletch witnesses a murder shortly after touching down in Kenya.  Though he can identify the murderer, he doesn't want to get entangled in Kenyan courts, especially as he learns more about the harsh penalties and considering the curious looks he drew when arriving with skis, snow boots, and sweaters.  Heck, he might get arrested for the crime.

Barbara is already a shrew, though she has a right to be.  Why she agreed to go to Kenya without at least packing a different wardrobe is inexplicable.  Both of them suffered in their skis suits rather than buy some more appropriate garb with the $1,000.  Obviously, that was done for laughs, but it was more groan-inducing.  Barbara was less grating that in the previous book, but it is still obvious this marriage is not going to last.  Still have no idea why they married.

Of particular note, Fletch cannot identify his father.  Even accepting the story that he had died long ago, one would think that Fletch had at least seen some pictures of his father.  Apparently not.  Upon seeing him, he had no idea.  Thanks, mom.  Of course, Josie certainly had reason to be upset with the husband who abandoned her.  She suspected he had not died in a plane crash, though she had not let Fletch know that.

The mystery isn't a mystery.  Fletch doesn't solve it, it just reveals itself in the end.  As with the travelogue of Rio de Janeiro, one suspects that Gregory McDonald had recently gone to Kenya and thought it would be great to use that experience for a book.  It would have been a great idea if only he had a plot that was advanced by the various locations.

Meeting Fletch's parents should have made for a much better book.  It's better than Carioca Fletch, which isn't setting the bar high.  Mediocre.