Chronological Fletch

The Fletch books were written out of order. The first three novels published were in order but the fourth one jumped back in time before the first book. The next two resumed the original timeline. Then the worst book of the series, Carioca Fletch, took place between the brilliant first (Fletch) and second (Confess, Fletch) novels. From there, McDonald jumped back in time to write events even earlier. This gave us the cleverly titled Fletch Won and Fletch, Too. The titles are probably the best thing about these novels. Unsurprisingly, the last trio of novels killed the series. Seven years later, McDonald returned to the character by giving him a son named Jack, creating the short-lived Son of Fletch series.

NOVELS

Fletch Won (1985)

Fletch has been with the News-Tribune for 3 months, is engaged to be married on Saturday, is supposed to meet his future mother-in-law at dinner, and has just been given the uninteresting job of interviewing an oily lawyer who is giving $5 million to the museum. Of course, being Fletch, everything goes awry. The lawyer is found dead in the newspaper parking lot. Fletch views this as great news, since his story is now a murder case. Nope. Biff Wilson of the crime beat will take over. He is sent to investigate an escort agency, something that he is less than keen to discuss with his fiancée. Worse, there is a notorious robber who bears a striking resemblance to Fletch, causing him repeated problems. Despite being pulled from the murder story, Fletch investigates, much to the irritation of his editor and Biff.

Chronologically the first book in the series, it is the 8th to be written. In the previous novels, it had been revealed that Fletch was twice divorced, graduated from Northwestern University, worked as a reporter in Chicago, and had earned a Bronze Star while serving in the Marine Corps in southeast Asia (presumably Vietnam). Here, he comes off as a fellow on his first newspaper job, stuck doing menial tasks and not having a desk to himself. There are some funny hints at the future, such as when the society page editor mentions the Stanwycks (cf. Fletch) or he mentions his interest in art (cf. Confess, Fletch).

There is a bit too much slapstick and frequently surpassing the suspension of disbelief. When Fletch is being throttled in the editor's office, I could only picture Homer throttling Bart in The Simpsons. The police chase was just ludicrous. Also, Fletch is getting married at the end of the week but has no chemistry with his fiancée. The reader already knows they are getting divorced, so why bother working on any attraction between them beyond some sex scenes? After his convincing affairs with Moxie, one expects some sparks with his first wife.

As for the mysteries, they are hardly worthy of note. The book drags out the discovery of the murderer, which required almost no deductive reasoning at all. As for the escort agency, Fletch largely outsourced that. Sure, that's good work, but it was someone else's work. Unimpressive on both counts.

Overall, disappointing.

Fletch, Too (1986)

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.

Fletch and the Widow Bradley (1981)

Irwin Maurice "Fletch" Fletcher is at a high-end hotel with a wallet filled with $25,000 in thousand dollar bills. He found the wallet and decided to return it to the rightful owner. The wallet had no ID but did have a key for the hotel and the name James St. E. Crandall. Though he called the room and explained that he had the money, Mr. Crandall never arrived to receive the money. Fletch, using an alias, informed the hotel manager and sought a home address so he could return the money. The manager was quite amazed, but could provide no information. "We will inform the police, Mr. Armistad." Fletch agreed that was the thing to do and left. While trying to track down Mr. Crandall, his editor called to say he was fired.

"What did I do?"

Fletch had submitted a financial story - he normally worked sports, but the financial reporter has a broken back - in which he quoted a man who had been dead for a year. Fletch was absolutely certain that the memos he had reviewed with the company treasurer were initialed by the dead man in the last few weeks. Something wasn't right and he intended to find out what. Even so, he was still fired. Worse yet, the treasurer had suddenly flown to Mexico on an extended vacation. So begins an investigation into the death of Thomas Bradley.

Despite having $25,000 in his pocket, Fletch romances Moxie Mooney on a shoestring budget. Moxie, daughter of the acclaimed actor Freddy Mooney, is Fletch's on-again off-again love interest. As Fletch is unemployed, she wants him to take up acting in her latest play, In Love. It has nude scenes, but her current lead actor has thick thighs and no charm. Fletch declines.

While seeking to understand why he was deceived by the company treasurer, Fletch interviews the Widow Bradley, the Bradleys' adult children, neighbors, other employees, Bradley's sister in New York, and more besides. In many of these conversations, Fletch offers an alias and a bogus profession; he is a rather good actor.

Many of the exchanges are quite comical or just bizarre. He's entirely unflappable and usually has a quirky reply to questions. He often disarms those he is interviewing by offering information in an outrageous way.

I suspect I read this book before as I figured out the solution long before Fletch suspected. Then again, the solution is ho-hum in our modern world, but would have been astonishing when the novel was written. A friend had read all the Fletch novels and passed several to me back in the 1980s.

A good read, but not as good as either Fletch or Confess, Fletch. Fun and quick book.

Fletch (1974)

Fletch is lying on the beach when a well-dressed man makes him an offer. "I want you to kill me." Fletch is intrigued. The man says he is dying of cancer and wants to avoid the suffering. Fletch says, "Sure." As it happened, Fletch was on the beach to uncover the source of drugs that had been plaguing the area for years. He is a reporter for the News-Tribune in California and had been posing as a drug addict on the beach for a few weeks. Not having made much progress on that story, he jumped to investigating Alan Stanwyck, the man who wants to be killed. The story has lots of humor, mostly from Fletch's quirky takes and off-the-wall comments.

As it is Fletch, he can't just have two storylines. No, his first ex-wife, Barbara, has sent a lawyer to extract alimony from him. His second ex-wife, Linda, has also demanded back payment for alimony. Then there is his editor, an incompetent who only has the position because she is sleeping with the editor-in-chief, who demands that he attend a ceremony to be awarded the Bronze Star that he won in Vietnam. She thinks it will be a feather in the cap of the paper.

Fletch is a professional at social engineering, able to use tidbits of key knowledge to win the confidence of anyone. He can step into any setting and immediately set people at ease. He then proceeds to milk them for information, which they offer willingly with only general steering from Fletch. Better yet, they find him utterly charming and are eager to invite him for lunch, dinner, or - in the case of ladies - to hop in the sack.

As I had just read Fletch and the Widow Bradley and commented how it wasn't as good as Fletch, I decided to reread it. I stand by that assessment. Of note, though written later, the Widow Bradley is a prequel and occurs immediately prior to Fletch. Gregory McDonald has a quick style that makes for a highly readable novel. I started the book on Friday and finished on Saturday. I can't remember the last time I read a book that fast. Now to watch the Chevy Chase movie again to see how it compares.

Highly recommended.

Carioca Fletch (1984)

Six weeks after Fletch left California with $3 million in cash, he is immersing himself in Brazilian culture. While having drinks in the afternoon with his girlfriend, Laura, and a poet, Marilia, he spots Joan Stanwyck, widow of Alan Stanwyck and the source of the $3 million. No sooner has he avoided her than an old woman accosts him, claiming he is Janio Baretto. He speaks virtually no Portuguese, so he understands little of what she says. Laura translates, explaining that Fletch is the reincarnation of her husband, Janio, and he must reveal who murdered him 47 years ago. Though he views this as ludicrous, Laura warns that he won't rest until he finds his murderer.

It is Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, a time when people go crazy. As predicted, Fletch suffers insomnia and cannot rest for the duration of Carnival. He spends most of the time trying to avoid the various Baretto relatives who follow him with demands of solving his murder. He is conscripted into the adventures of the idle rich, a quartet of young men known as the Tap Dancers. By this means, Fletch discovers what it means to be Carioca, a native of Rio de Janeiro.

More travelogue than mystery, Fletch is along for the ride. He spends most of the time complaining that he doesn't understand the culture of Brazil or why he should be expected to solve a murder from long before he was born. The greatest failing of the book is that it is not Fletch. Sure, he looks like Fletch and he has the same backstory as Fletch, but he has a completely new personality. Where Fletch is usually out making things happen, learning what he can, playing aces that the reader doesn't see until the climax, this Fletch let's himself get dragged around and waits to be struck across the face, literally! The book takes place between Fletch and Confess, Fletch, the two best books of the series.

Skip this one. Not only was Fletch so unlike himself as to seem a different character, the travelogue was more of a warning to avoid Rio de Janeiro than an advertisement to visit. I don't think that was the intent, which further diminishes the novel.

Confess, Fletch (1976)

Fletch has only just arrived in Boston and is surprised to discover a beautiful naked woman on the floor of his apartment. She's dead. After pouring himself a whiskey, he calls the police. Not the emergency line, since it's no longer an emergency. Soon, the police arrive. Detective Flynn notes that Fletch is the obvious suspect. Fletch agrees, but assures him that he is innocent. Flynn says it would be so much easier if he would just confess. Fletch declines. Flynn takes his word for it and, to the horror of his partner/stenographer, declines to arrest Fletch.

Fletch is in Boston to look for missing paintings. His would-be father-in-law, an Italian count, was kidnapped and eventually murdered for lack of a ransom payment. Some years earlier, the count's fortune in paintings was stolen. Fletch found some clues that a couple of the paintings had been sold through a Boston art dealer. To complicate matters, his would-be step-mother-in-law, Sylvia, has followed him and demands he not rob her of the paintings when he finds them. Then his fiancée arrives.

While getting leads on the missing paintings through the art dealer, he must also investigate the murder for which he is the prime suspect. Though he finds Inspector Flynn a charming fellow, the man has overlooked a number of suspects, from the drunken next-door neighbor, the owner of the apartment, the owner's former wife, and perhaps even the fiancée of the murdered woman.

As with the first book, Fletch proves to be able to win everyone's confidence and elicit all sorts of useful information or convince people to do him favors that aren't always above board.

Truly an outstanding follow up to Fletch. Flynn proved to be a highlight and had a series of spinoff novels, which I'll have to get around to reading. Highly recommended.

Fletch's Fortune (1978)

Fletch returns to his Italian villa from the beach and discovers two men waiting inside. They are CIA agents who want him to attend a journalists' convention in Virginia. While there, they expect him to plant bugs in all the rooms and record the private conversations. Of course, Fletch declines. At which point, they explain that he has not filed taxes - ever - and has a lot of money for an unemployed journalist. Threats of extradition and jail convince him. They are particularly interested in recordings of Walter March, the owner of a large number of newspapers and current President of the American Journalism Alliance. No sooner does Fletch arrive in the United States than he learns that Walter March has been murdered. Nonetheless, the CIA want him to continue the operation.

Another page-turner in which Fletch must solve a murder, turn the tables on the CIA, resolve his tax issues, avoid a ceremony to receive his Bronze Star, and get back to his villa in Italy. The book also provides some background for Fletch's time as a reporter in Chicago, introducing a former colleague and the return of Jack Saunders (Confess, Fletch). It is entertaining to discover that Fletch solves the case while the reader isn't looking. He does it right in front of us, a simple line, that comes and goes with nary a thought.

Excellent book. Highly recommended.

Fletch's Moxie (1982)

No sooner has Fletch arrived at the Florida filming location for Midsummer Night's Madness, the latest film by his on & off love interest, Moxie Mooney, than the producer is murdered on the set. It turns out that everyone had a reason to kill Steve Peterman, especially Moxie. Fletch absconds with Moxie and her even more famous father, legendary actor Freddy Mooney, to Key West. The Fort Myers police are unimpressed. Soon, the major cast members, the current director, the fired director, and a cast member's wife are in residence at the home Fletch had rented in Key West. Fletch is unimpressed; this was supposed to be a hiding place but has instead become a stop on the local bus tours. Per his usual, Fletch spends a lot of time trying to ferret out who murdered Peterman, frequently fearing that it may very well have been Moxie. To add to his trouble, Freddy is a drunkard who often wanders off, which requires Fletch to scout the local bars to retrieve him. Then there is the man from whom he rented the Key West house, who is apoplectic about the news that it is housing a suspected murderess and many Hollywood notables.

McDonald delivered another enjoyable page turner. Unlike other notable sleuths, Fletch often comes to the wrong conclusions. He followed the wrong track in Confess, Fletch; it was Inspector Flynn who solved the crime. Of course, the crime was something of a sidetrack in that novel, as Fletch was investigating some missing paintings. Here too, he goes on some wild goose chases before his epiphany. He's an investigative reporter, not some Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot. It makes him more human than some of the superhero detectives. Plus, there's more humor.

In retrospect, there are some aspects that make no sense. Peterman's machinations look to have been pointless and wasteful. Maybe he was incompetent in addition to being crooked. Nonetheless, it's a good read and definitely recommended.

Fletch and the Man Who (1983)

Fletch has been called by his old commanding officer, Walsh Wheeler, to fill in as a press secretary for his father's presidential campaign. Fletch accepts the position and arrives to discover crime reporter Freddie Arbuthnot - last seen in Fletch's Fortune - among the press. She is investigating murders that have occurred on the fringes of the Wheeler campaign. Fletch has been given strict instruction to not let the murders get associated with the campaign, as that would be the kiss of death. His idea of calling in the FBI is dismissed as that would be the story of the campaign from thence forward. Very quickly, Fletch finds he likes Governor Caxton Wheeler, the Man Who could be the next president of the United States, and wants to protect his chances by exposing the murderer before it unravels the campaign. There are a surprising number of suspects. When not surreptitiously investigating, Fletch mingles with those on the campaign trail. There's is the Man Who, his driver, his wife, the speech writers, the strategists, and a sea of journalists from various papers and magazines. He even has conversations with his predecessor, who had been abruptly fired but still wants to help the Man Who could be president.

An entertaining yarn that explores political campaigning and offers some background to Fletch's military past. He had some outside-the-box thinking to keep his platoon alive, something that Lt. Walsh Wheeler well-remembers. Fletch is back to his quirky self and this is a fun entry in the Fletch series.

Recommended.

Son of Fletch (1993)

Fletch and long-time girlfriend Carrie are driving back to the Tennessee farm when they encounter a roadblock. The deputy explains that there are four escaped prisoners in the area. In fact, the sheriff wanted to know if he could borrow Fletch's jeep to do some offroad searching. Stopping well-before the farm, Fletch and Carrie approached the house on foot. After seeing Carrie safely into a room and arming her with a shotgun, Fletch went back for the jeep. Upon his arrival, he turned on lights and left the door to his study unlocked. Soon after, someone arrived. "Hi, son," Fletch greeted without turning around.

Jack Fletcher Faoni is the child of Crystal Faoni, who appeared in Fletch's Fortune and with whom Fletch had a brief dalliance. Jack admits to being one of the escaped prisoners and says his crime was attempted murder. Though the right age and having a strong resemblance to Fletch, Fletch is skeptical. Jack reveals that his fellow escapees are in the barn and their destination is Alabama. Mildly curious about this son he never knew he had until today, Fletch plays along but makes sure to have several aces in his pocket should things go sideways.

The escapees are members of The Tribe, a white supremacist organization with dreams of conquering Miami, Florida. Much of the story covers Fletch's doubts about Jack even being his son. This is made all the more difficult when Fletch is unable to contact Crystal so she can confirm or deny Jack's story. However, Jack does know a lot about Fletch.

The villains are only occasionally threatening. Mostly they are the keystone cops of white supremacy, causing far more trouble for themselves than to others. Where other Fletch novel's had murders to solve, this one was about confirming whether Jack was Fletch's son or not. Toward the end of the novel, Jack took over as the main character.

Overall, it started fairly well but the story became less believable as it progressed. The complete haplessness of The Tribe really diminished most of the tension. It does make for an interesting follow up to Fletch, Too, in which Fletch met the father he never knew.

Just okay.

Fletch Reflected (1994)

Jack has only just finished his story on the Tribe (Son of Fletch) for GCN when he gets a call from an old flame. Shana is engaged to Chet Radleigh, son of famed inventor Dr. Chester Radleigh. Dr. Radleigh has an immense estate in Georgia called Vindemia, where he has created an idyllic setting for his family. However, someone is trying to kill him. Shana invites Jack to investigate. Having soured on GCN, Jack heads to Georgia and gets a job at the estate.

Meanwhile, Fletch retrieves Jack's mother from the fraudulent weight loss clinic and drives her from Wisconsin to Wyoming. He plans to deposit her with a man who trains boxers. On the road, he often chats with Jack to learn the latest events and offer sage advice.

The Radleighs are the standard dysfunctional family in a Fletch novel. With the exception of Shana and the doctor's mother-in-law, everyone expresses bitterness toward Dr. Radleigh. Shana believes that Dr. Radleigh's four children are responsible for the multiple attempts on his life. There is the oldest, Amy, who has been thrice married and has 7 kids, Chet the Phi Beta Kappa law student who is being groomed for politics, Alixis the nymphomaniac actress, and Duncan the racecar enthusiast. Doctor Radleigh's wife is a walking case of depression. Even the employees speak ill of Dr. Radleigh. There will be no shortage of suspects if a murder is successful.

The storyline with Fletch driving the morbidly obese Crystal across the country is often a lesson on weight control. It was funny when Crystal suggested that Fletch write a book on the subject since this book offers lots of pop-psychology on the topic. Meh. The whole thread of Fletch & Crystal across America is weak and generally not believable.

Jack is a pale reflection of his father. Where Fletch would cleverly insert himself into social situations and pump people for knowledge, Jack just openly pries. There's nothing subtle in his questioning. Mostly, everyone just spills their guts when he's around. Let's air our dirty laundry with this new anonymous employee. Some of that is played as the ignore-the-help snobbery of elites but quite often he is poking his nose where lowly servants ought not.

In the end, most of the mysteries that littered the story are not resolved. The conclusion is disappointing, having comically bad events with a descent into madness. Not to ruin it, but it has one of those Murder on the Orient Express villains, i.e., everyone did it. It is not surprising that this was the conclusion to the Fletch series.

Skip this one.

THOUGHTS ON FLETCH THEMES

After re-reading the series, I noted that dysfunctional families are a major part of every novel. Why is that? My guess would be that McDonald had a difficult relationship with his father. Some important plot points are revealed here, so spoiler warning. If you want to read the series, skip this until after you are done.

Fletch Won: The family of the murder victim is generally indifferent to his death. His wife is loopy, his daughter is married to a crazed poet and has a litter of children, and his son has retreated to a monastery to try to atone for the sins of his father.

Bad father, mentally ill mother, broken son

Fletch, Too: Fletch has just married Susan and he gets a letter from his deceased father. Dad has requested that he visit him in Kenya for his honeymoon. Fletch’s mother, a mystery novel writer, offers little more than an indifferent shrug when Fletch confronts her about his father being alive. Fletch’s father had fled the country on the day of Fletch’s birth!

Bad father

Fletch and the Widow Bradley: The Bradley family are in turmoil thanks to the father’s sex change operation. The ‘widow’ is coping fairly well as is the daughter. However, the son – a college student – is an absolute basket case. On a side note, Moxie Mooney is introduced as Fletch’s current love interest and there is talk of her famous and unstable father, Freddy Mooney.

Bad father, broken son

Fletch: Alan Stanwyck has told his wife that his parents are dead, but they are actually alive. Moreover, he visits them regularly. His marriage is open and generally loveless. In fact, he has plans of running away to Brazil with an old flame and her son, leaving his wife and daughter behind to cope with his faked death.

Bad father

Carioca Fletch: The Baretto family demand that Fletch – as the reincarnation of Janio Baretto – must solve Janio’s murder. The Barettos are superstitious but maybe not dysfunctional. However, Joan Stanwyck has come to Rio de Janeiro, abandoning her daughter in California, to confront Fletch. She disappears into what turns out to be lunacy. The Tap Dancers, a quartet of young scions, have crazy families that prove to be entirely accepting of the death of one of them as just an ordinary thing. In fact, let’s prank the American at the funeral.

General familial breakdown

Confess, Fletch: Fletch is on the trail of art thieves on behalf of an Italian count. As it happens, Fletch is engaged to the count’s daughter and later finds himself in bed with the count’s second wife, who might soon be his mother-in-law. The daughter and her former art teacher prove to be the culprits. Of note, Detective Flynn is introduced and proves to be the father of a highly functional family, an unusual change for McDonald.

Disloyal daughter

Fletch’s Fortune: William March is dead and it turns out his wife killed him. Better yet, her son found out that she did it and is having a mental breakdown. Then there is the illegitimate son of March to throw into the mix. This also sees the introduction of Crystal Faoni, the future mother of Fletch’s son, Jack.

Bad father, broken sons

Fletch’s Moxie: Moxie is suspected of murder and her drunken father, Freddy Mooney, tells tales that make Fletch believe it is possible that she is guilty. In fact, Freddy hasn’t been drunk in years – it is an act so that his daughter won’t throw him out – and he is the true murderer. Moxie’s mother is in an institution and she blames her father.

Bad father, mentally ill mother, broken daughter

Fletch and the Man Who: Walsh Wheeler came back from Vietnam as a broken man but has kept it mostly contained. His mother is a shrew who browbeats everyone, including her husband and their son. His father, Governor Caxton Wheeler, is running for president. The stress of the campaign has led Walsh to kill random women, beating them to death.

Broken son

Son of Fletch: Fletch’s father knowingly abandoned him but Fletch unknowingly fathered a son with Crystal Faoni. Much like he got to know his father by spending time with him in Kenya, now he gets to know his son by spending time with him in Tennessee and Alabama. The Tribe encampments is full of families in various states of disarray that are soon killing one another.

General familial breakdown

Fletch Reflected: The Radleigh family is probably the most dysfunctional of any family on the list. Chester has tried to create a utopia and has instead managed to be loathed by his wife, his children, and even his employees. In fact, he has somehow inspired them to attempt to murder him. His wife is a drug addict who is suffering severe depression. His older son plans to ‘marry’ in order to conceal his homosexuality for a political run. One daughter has had children by four different men while the other is close to being a porn actress. His other son fancies himself as a racecar driver. The family implodes comically at the end of the book. Of course, there is also Fletch, Crystal, and Jack, who have an unconventional family that copes effectively with its dysfunctional foundation.

Bad father, mentally ill mother, broken sons, broken daughters

MOVIES

Fletch (1985)

Fletch (Chevy Chase) is on the beach when a man, Alan Stanwyck (Tim Matheson) requests that Fletch kill him. He says he is dying of cancer and wants to be spared the worst of it while still providing his life insurance to his wife. Fletch agrees to kill him. Fletch happened to be on the beach, because he is investigating the drug trade. His investigation so far has only revealed that Fat Sam (George Wendt) is the onsite seller but who is giving him the drugs? Police Chief Karlin (Joe Don Baker) is quite hostile to Fletch's investigation, threatening to kill him if he doesn't stay away. While laying low on the drug story, Fletch digs into the life and history of Alan Stanwyck, meeting his wife, Gail (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), doctor, father-in-law, parents, etc. His investigation paints a very different picture of Alan Stanwyck than was provided.

Though the movie generally follows the book, it is all zany comedy. The Chevy Chase version of Fletch has him in goofy disguises and offering slapstick humor to discover the truth. It is often puerile. I remember enjoying it when I saw in theaters those many years ago but now it was mostly one long cringe fest. Part of that is I had never read a Fletch novel when I first saw this, so didn't know the character. Also, this sort of dumb humor is better suited for a younger audience. It certainly doesn't work for solo viewing at this point. The movie ends entirely differently from the book. Here, Stanwyck is part of the drug smuggling ring. Also, Fletch and Gail travel to Rio de Janeiro together, where in the book Fletch went alone with all of Stanwyck's ill-gotten gains.

Disappointing. See the Jon Hamm version (Confess, Fletch) instead.

Confess, Fletch (2022)

Fletch (John Hamm) is exploring the house he rented in Boston when he discovers a dead woman. Soon, detectives Monroe (Roy Wood Jr.) and "Griz" (Ayden Mayeri) are on scene to investigate. Monroe says it will be much easier if Fletch just confesses. Fletch counters by offering to assist since he was a somewhat famous investigative reporter. When asked why he is in Boston, he claims it is to research a book. In fact, Count Clementi Arbogastes De Grassi (Robert Picardo) hired him to locate several stolen paintings, two of which were resold by Mr. Horan (Kyle MacLachlan), a Boston art dealer. To further complicate matters, Countess De Grassi (Marcia Gay Hardin) arrives in Boston to demand a progress report on 'her' paintings. Additionally, Fletch is having an affair with the Count's daughter, Angela (Lorenza Izzo).

Though a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the novel, the most noteworthy change is the lack of Inspector Flynn. Flynn's appearance in the novel launched a series of Flynn mysteries and those rights were not available. Thus, Detective Monroe is his replacement. However, Monroe is overshadowed by his partner, Griz. Whereas Flynn's sidekick was mostly a mute notetaker, Monroe's is the brains of the operation while Monroe is literally asleep in many scenes. Though I was skeptical of John Hamm as Fletch, he is quite good in the role. In fact, he is much closer to the literary Fletch than Chevy Chase. He doesn't do goofy disguises and slapstick silliness. He's got the smart aleck comments and the clever social engineering to convince strangers to talk to him.

The movie ends with talk of Walter March, a character from Fletch's Fortune; clearly, there is a path to a sequel. Sadly, that looks unlikely. It only opened a week ago and yet is only playing in one theater here. The box office is unimpressive, and I've seen no ad campaign for it.

Good popcorn fun!