Customer Reviews

Flynn

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After a Boeing 707 explodes shortly after take-off, unconventional Boston Police Inspector, Francis Xavier Flynn, is called in to investigate.

Inspector Francis Xavier Flynn was first introduced in the second book of McDonald's other series, "Confess, Fletch", and in this book he gets his own novel. Readers of McDonald's "Fletch" novels will, undoubtedly, also enjoy this novel as there are a lot of similarities between the characters of Flynn and Fletch; the humour is very similar; and both are written in the same heavy on dialogue, light on exposition style that makes McDonald's novels so easy to read (as an aside, McDonald's first novel, "Running Scared", was not written in this style - there is very little dialogue in it at all - and I consider it to be my least favourite of his novels that I have read).

Story-wise, this isn't one of McDonald's best. Although McDonald does present the reader with a number of suspects and has Flynn determine the killer from those suspects, I felt he spent too little time with each of these suspects, so that when the killer is finally revealed, it has very little emotional impact. I also found the ending to be anti-climatic. After investing a week of my life into reading this, I wanted something bigger. Still, the journey to the end was interesting enough, and I did like McDonald's terrorist organization, the Human Surplus League (a group that believes that there are too many humans on the planet, and that mass murder is the best solution).

This is the first novel featuring "Francis Xavier Flynn," a Boston police inspector who investigates some most unusual cases. This novel is typical Gregory McDonald, fast paced, often funny and a good mystery. Fans of his "Fletch" series, in particular, should enjoy it.

I enjoyed reading this book. I picked it up because Flynn was the Boston Inspector Fletch worked with/against in "Confess, Fletch" (a very good book). The book is a fun, engrossing read. But, the ending is a bit weak. Oh, the bad guys are found out, but there's no satisfaction in it. Various third parties clean things up once Flynn figures things out, but Flynn doesn't really get to say "I told you so" or to rub someone's nose in their stupidity. Truth, Justice, and the American Way are served, but it's an intellectual service, not a visceral one. Nevertheless, it's still a good book to read.