Skylar in Yankeeland [Hardcover]

Gregory McDonald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1997

In the latest mystery from the creator of Fletch, sexy Skylar clears a broad path from Tennessee to Boston.

Skylar Whitfield, twenty-year-old southern hunk, can't help it if he oozes charm and testosterone. He's been doing it all his life in Greendowns County, Tennessee, natural-like. But when he goes to Boston to study the trumpet, those Yankees don't know how to take him. They all start dreaming and fantasizing and giving Skylar more attention than they're inclined to give anyone.

Skylar takes all the fuss in stride -- until some pretty valuable jewels disappear, and folks point the finger at him. Then, when an upper-crust thirteen-year-old girl turns up dead on a riverbank, a crime with heinous undertones, it's Skylar's turn to get serious. He acts quickly, apprehends the tony killer, and proves that beneath the laid back southern cool he's got smarts and mettle to boot.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There's mystery in this second Skylar adventure, but readers must dig through a huge helping of cornpone to find it. Skylar Whitfield, a strapping Tennessee farmboy, is said to radiate sexy charm. Beneath the bumpkin exterior, of course, he is supposedly one smart feller. We are often told of these attributes, but Skylar shows little evidence of them. When he ventures north to study trumpet at a Boston music school, he visits wealthy kinfolk nearby. Upscale and uptight, they wince at his uninhibited folksiness. Told that a cobblestone driveway dates from the 18th century, Skylar says: "Time it got tore up, wouldn't you say?" When the family jewelry disappears from a safe, Skylar is suspected. His one big fan in the family, 12-year-old Ginny, vanishes when she becomes a suspect in the shooting death of a playmate. Because Skylar's role in solving the late-blooming mysteries is almost nil, he seems to have no purpose in the story other than to gush country-cousin cliches and provide sexual diversion for a couple of unnecessary characters. Mcdonald is a two-time Edgar winner and author of several bestsellers, including the Fletch and Flynn series. His admirers deserve better than this Southern fried mistake.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

From the fellow who tickled our funnybones with the "Fletch" series comes this follow-up to Skylar (Morrow, 1995), in which a comely Southern hunk uses his wits and good looks to solve crimes.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 275 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688141641
• ISBN-13: 978-0688141646
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,357,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More of the Same, September 13, 2000

By 

Patrick Burnett "penngos" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Skylar in Yankeeland: A Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

I just finished "Skylar in Yankeeland" and wasn't overly impressed. Certainly, it was better than "Skylar", but that's like saying Cheez in a Can is better than those Cracker Barrel fake cheddar sticks. Neither one really takes the blue ribbon, but at least you can squeeze Cheez in a Can directly into your mouth, without having to waste time cutting it.

In "Skylar", yankee cousin Jonathan Whitfield is a fish out of water when he comes south for a visit. In this installment, MacDonald turns the tables and has good ol' boy Skylar venture north to visit the very rich Whitfields, where he is, yes, a fish out of water. The family jewels are heisted, a young lady is murdered and general hilarity ensues. Or doesn't.

As a reader, I never like easy jokes. I figure the reason I'm paying to read an author's book is because he or she is much cleverer than I and will say things that I haven't already thought or write things that aren't cliches and because of this, I am increasingly saddened by Gregory MacDonald's descent into mediocrity. None of the characters here are much better than stereotypes and the situations they encounter are downright unlikely. Add to that the fact that one of the characters, a Boston blue blood since before the revolution, makes a personality change likely to cause a whiplash in anyone paying even the most casual attention and you have a book that is unlikely to win MacDonald any new fans.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful. The is the best McDonald has done in a decade., September 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Skylar in Yankeeland (Hardcover)

This was an extremely fun read. As a longtime fan of McDonalds work, I must confess that his Son of Fletch work of the last few years hasn't grabbed me. Skylar, on the other hand, is a breath of fresh air (sorry for the cliche). McDonald has found new energy in Skylar. I hope we see more of him.

1.0 out of 5 stars McDonald was once so good..., April 2, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Skylar in Yankeeland (Hardcover)

Gregory McDonald once wrote funny, interesting books. The Flynn series was unique, and the early Fletch books were great. His skills seem to have deteriorated, and his last three or four books have been eminently forgettable. Sad.