Sun 7 Apr 2019
Archived Review: GREGORY MCDONALD – Fletch and the Widow Bradley.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[9] Comments
GREGORY MCDONALD – Fletch and the Widow Bradley. Fletch #4. Warner, paperback original, 1981.
Taking a rather unusual marketing approach for a mystery paperback original, Warner has apparent;y tried to promote the book as a potential bestseller. When it first came out, B. Dalton had copies set up in a huge floor display at the front of the store, for example, and the title is embossed on the front cover with big gold lettering.
There is a price tag to match. For your money [$2.95 rather than the usual going rate of $2.25 or $2.50], you get nearly 300 pages of big print on cheap paper, and yards and yards of crackling good dialogue, in Mcdonald’s customary laid-back style.
For those of you who have come in late, Fletch is a reporter by profession, and with his usual casual approach to living come the inevitable jams he keeps finding himself getting into. This time around he ends up getting fired — in working on his latest story he somehow manages to quote a man who’s been dead for quite some time. He also finds a wallet with $25,000 in it. For some reason the owner does not want to be found.
Fletch is also an idealist of sorts, a world-saver with bare feet. He is also a surprisingly bit naive. Even after he has almost worked out the truth behind the dead man’s strange demise, he still has to have it explained to him. Personally, I knew what was going on (although not necessarily why) from about 200 pages earlier on.
Incidentally, and this probably doesn’t mean anything, but either Mcdonald or Warner Books seem to have a weird way of spelling certain words. Not once, but consistently.
April 7th, 2019 at 4:33 pm
Mcdonald remains one of my favorite authors and one of the few I reread. I prefer the FLYNN series but the FLETCH series remains among the best light comedy mystery ever written.
The strangest part about the FLETCH series was they were published out of chronological order. FLETCH was the first published but was fifth in the time line. WIDOW BRADLEY was third in the time line but fourth published. The first two books in the time line were FLETCH WON followed by FLETCH TOO.
April 7th, 2019 at 5:26 pm
The odd timeline of the Fletch books made for some difficult reading at times since he starts out far slicker and smarter than in later books taking place at earlier points in the timeline. I’ve always meant to read them in chronological order but never got around to it.
Regardless of that Mcdonald is still a pleasure to read, and yet another spelling of his last name to confuse genre fans.
April 7th, 2019 at 7:37 pm
I remember at one time being told that the books were published out of order, but I’d forgotten all about it. The reason it didn’t register, I’m sorry to admit, is that this one may have been the last Fletch I’ve read. I don’t know why. I suppose that life and other distractions just somehow got in the way.
April 7th, 2019 at 9:42 pm
I remember Gregory Mcdonald saying that his “weird” spelling of his last name was the real official spelling. It is of Scottish origin.
April 7th, 2019 at 10:24 pm
When I referred to weird spellings of certain words in the last paragraph of my review, I don’t know what words they might have been, but I’m sure his last name wasn’t one of them. Totally above and beyond!
April 7th, 2019 at 9:49 pm
Besides the Fletch books, Mcdonald wrote other series as well. There were four FLYNN books as a family man and rule ignoring Detective with a secret past and present. Two SON OF FLETCH that owe themselves to the Celtic traditional “Jack Stories.” Two SKYLAR mysteries and non-series titles RUNNING SCARED, WHO TOOK TOBY RINALDI, SAFEKEEPING and several others.
THRILLING DETECTIVES discuss why the books were published out of order — he didn’t have the money to spend on the research on Brazil to do the second book.
https://www.thrillingdetective.com/eyes/fletch.html
April 7th, 2019 at 10:10 pm
Thanks for the link, Michael. I’ve never thought of Fletch as a PI, so I’ve never thought to look there.
April 12th, 2019 at 10:56 am
WIDOW BRADLEY struck me as about the most middling of the series, as I recall it…CARIOCA FLETCH, the one in Brazil, reads like an excuse to write off a vacation as research, and it and THE MAN WHO struck me as the worst in the series. CONFESS, FLETCH and FLETCH WON were among the better ones, as I recall them. The much later SON OF FLETCH not too shabby.
Remembering B. Dalton stores, and the malls they were in. And Warner Books. And.
November 19th, 2023 at 10:58 pm
I used to think that the novels being written out of chronological order was weird, but now I think it’s brilliant. For instance, Fletch Too wouldn’t have meant much if you didn’t already read about the man he became.