Customer Reviews

Fletch Won

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is sort of a prequel to Fletch. In this book, Fletch tries his first case as an investigative reporter. This book is a great mystery novel.

I don't like it when reviewers reveal plot points, so I won't. Suffice to say, if you like other Fletch books, you will like Fletch Won. If you haven't read any Fletch books, you might want to start with Fletch, which was adapted into a funny movie starring Chevy Chase.

Fletch is a good change of pace from most sleuths. He's a learn as you go amateur who is very funny. This one features a scary violence-is-beautiful poet and the inside scoop on an upscale escort business. Easy, fun reading.

FLETCH WON by Gregory McDonald is the first in story time of this delightful series. Murder yes, right in the parking lot of the newspaper where Fletch is trying to shore up his first journalism employment.
You will laugh your way through this comic routine until the final page. The conclusion is a masterful scene by an excellent writer.
Put this Fletch novel on your to read first, which is not the way Mr. McDonald wrote the stories.
Nash Black, author of SINS OF THE FATHERS.

This brought me back and restored my faith in Gregory McDonald, especially after the dreadful Fletch and the Widow Bradley, and Fletch and the Man Who. The pacing returned, the story didn't feel like it had been phoned in, and the comic situations and Fletch's irreverence were all fresh and new again.

Irwin Maurice Fletcher -- Gregory McDonald's irrepressible Fletch -- has entertained millions of readers since his first appearance in the Edgar Award-winning novel Fletch, ten years ago. Now in Fletch Won, Gregory McDonald creates a masterful new mystery that takes readers back to the very beginnings of his career.

It's Fletch's first case. As a rookie reporter for the News-Tribune, he's been covering all the routine stories no one else wants. With his already slightly skewed view of the world the young Fletch only manages to get himself and the paper into trouble -- more trouble than his boss thinks he's worth. As a last chance, he's assigned to the society page to cover the story of Donald Habeck, a wealthy criminal lawyer who wants to donate $5 million to the local art museum.

It's a simple public relations feature -- until Habeck turns up dead in the parking lot of the News-Tribune and Fletch gets the opportunity he's been waiting for.

Digging into the case, Fletch turns up a glut of suspects. First there is Habeck's unhappy family: the certifiably crazy wife, an impoverished daughter, an avant-garde Poet of Violence, and the son who despised the old man so much he became a monk. Then there are Habeck's former clients, including a convicted child molester just out of prison and a man who once faced a murder rap and now confesses to every violent crime in the city. And underneath it all, there's the nagging, unanswered question: Why would Habeck, a man who made a fortune keeping society's lowest out of prison, suddenly become a do-good philanthropist?

As Fletch outruns the cops, the crime reporter of the News-Tribune, the seductive hostess of the Ben Franklyn Friend Service (more than just an escort agency), a refugee from the Federal Witness Protection Program, and his own fiancee, he finally stumbles across the clue that can break the case wide open -- and launch his legendary career.

Fletch's first hardcover appearance in ten years, Fletch Won is cause for celebration. McDonald's clever repartee and breakneck pacing have never been more finely honed. The story of the wise-cracking young reporter's debut, it is sure to delight his loyal fans . . . and as an intriguing whodunit, certain to enthrall all lovers of mystery.

Gregory MacDonald sure wrote the Fletch books in a confusing order. Despite this being about the 8th Fletch book, chronologically it's the first.

In this story Fletch has only been working at the News-Tribune for a few months and is getting less and less respect from Frank each day as his sarcasm and pranks are riling everybody up. Frank shifts Fletch from one section of the newspaper to the next, never knowing where he's going to cause the least trouble. Some local lawyer wants an interview to announce that he's giving 5 million dollars to a museum and Fletch is to run the (small) story. Trouble is, the lawyer, one Donald Habeck, is killed in the News-Tribune parking lot almost that very second.

Frank pulls Fletch of the story right away gives it to a big bully who's been with the paper for years. Fletch is now left with investigating some whorehouse and that he does. But he's not giving up on the Habeck story as the circumstances seem mighty suspicious, especially when he finds out that the firm Habeck worked for is probably the most crooked law firm on the planet.

It's fast-paced and full of witty, and sometimes odd, dialogue and neat little gimmicks and ironies. Fletch's detective work and level-headedness provide a sense of balance in relation to all the wierd and eccentric characters around him. And the crooked cops and authorities seem right out of a James Ellroy book. I did find a few anachronisms though. If this is set before the first Fletch book then surely there wouldn't be carphones and computers in every office. At least not a computer thats not as big as the office itself. It's a tiny little complaint though.

A good read and an involving mystery. Fletch is the best unsung hero of crime fiction.

If it wasn't for the movie 'Fletch' I would never have know the book(s) existed. Being that I have seen the movie at least a few hundred times, I decided to give the books a shot, to see how true to the books the movie was. Well, the only book I could find at the time was 'Fletch Won', and I'm glad. This book starts us out at the beginning of Fletch's illustrious and wild journalism career. Assigned to a story, then taken off it once the subject is murdered, Fletch decides to abandon all and find out the truth, despite the protests of the police, his rival reporter, his fiance, and the ever-present Frank. If you do decide to read the Fletch series, I wholly recommend reading this installment first (with the possible exception of 'Fletch' itself). You'll feel right at home in all the subsequent stories!

I hate reading non-fiction books, but I loved Fletch Won. As a fan of the Chevy Chase flicks and a fan of Kevin Smith (who will write and direct the movie version of this book), I took a chance on Fletch One to see what the fuss was about the Fletch books. If you are looking for a great mystery, look elsewhere. If you are looking for an entertaining book that is hilarious and an easy read, pick this book up. I can't wait to put my hands on the other Fletch books.

I enjoyed this book pretty well. I've seen the Fletch movies and I'm a huge fan of both, but I've never read the Fletch books. I thought I'd start with this one. The author seemed to begin to delve into some other storylines and then stopped. We were intorduced to characters that were unimportant to the story. I think maybe he was trying to use up page space or something. Anyway, the book was entertaining at best. I gave it 4 stars because I don't think the author meant it to be anything other than entertaining!