Fletch dialed "0".

 

"Get me the police, please."

 

"Is this an emergency?"

 

"Not at the moment."

 

The painting over the desk was a Ford Maddox Brown - a country couple wrapped against the wind.

 

"Then please dial 555-7523."

 

"Thank you."

 

He did so.

 

"Sergeant McAuliffe speaking."

 

"Sergeant, this is Mister Fletcher, 152 Beacon Street, apartment 6B."

 

"Yes, sir."

 

 

"There's a murdered girl in my living room."

 

"A what girl?"

 

"Murdered."

 

Francis. Xavier. Flynn.

 

Those three words are really all I have to say. This is a clever book, with a few good mysteries and Fletch doing his thing. There are antics galore, witty dialogue, yada, yada, yada. As much as I love I. M. Fletcher, Gregory Mcdonald's greatest creation was Flynn -- Blackstone Audio will be releasing those soon and I'll talk more about him then -- but for now, let's just say that I loved meeting him again and Dan John Miller nailed the character. I was worried about Flynn, really, but I was so relieved that the character came to life as he should.

 

But let's put Reluctant Flynn aside for a minute. Fletch is visiting Boston -- taking part in a home-share kind of program, staying in a nice apartment while the owner is staying in Fletch's Italian villa (you know there's a story behind that, but we don't really get it at this point). He comes home from dinner the first night to find body lying on his rug. She's very naked and very dead.

 

Naturally, Fletch is the prime suspect.

 

Meanwhile, Fletch is trying to track down some stolen art work on behalf of his fiancé, the daughter of a recently kidnapped and (apparently) murdered near-destitute Count. His recently stolen art collection is the only real inheritance she'll get. Assuming her current step-mother isn't named in the will. Fletch is working with the owner of a private gallery to track down what he can of this collection while his fiance and her step-mother wrangle. Fletch's interest in, affinity for and expertise in art is established here and will show up again a few times in the series.

 

Of course, Fletch is also busy investigating the murder and reconnects with a former editor of his, from before he worked for Frank Jaffe. He uses this connection to dig u information on the man whose apartment he's in, the gallery owner, and just about everyone else he comes across in Boston. Inspector Flynn of the Boston PD makes plenty of investigative headway, too -- but he and the rest of the police are too focused on Fletch as suspect to do much beyond that. So Fletch uncovers the other viable suspects, if for no other reason than to give Flynn someone else to look at.

 

This is the first mention of I.M. being from Seattle, incidentally. I never remember that.

 

It's a great plot, with all the twists that you can want. There's so much to enjoy in this book -- Fletch's observations, odd way of approaching his investigation, and banter with Flynn, his editor-friend and anyone else he cares to befuddle is the kind of thing that led me to read this book a few dozen times before now.

 

As I said, Miller does a great job -- he's good with every character, with the narration and everything. I do think he's a bit slow, but at 1.25 speed his rhythms match what I expect from Mcdonald. This guy is rapidly becoming one of my favorite audiobook narrators -- I expect by the end of this series, he'll be near the top.

 

I always worry, when reading another book by a favorite author, if it's going to be as good as the last. If the author is getting tired of his/her characters. If he/she is running out of storyline.

Harris takes the adventure of Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, and his wife, Hero, and continues it beautifully one more time. She weaves into Why Kings Confess a clever story about the French Royal family in the late 1700s, and layers period details about London during roughly that period.

I love her characterizations. The fact that Hero Devlin is a strong, intelligent, and independent woman makes reading about the adventures of Viscount Devlin more interesting. I appreciate the fact that Harris doesn't always describe Hero's clothes extensively (notice that wardrobe overkill in other historical fiction?), but rather gives just enough to depict Hero as fashionable. And in this book, Harris is giving a secondary character, surgeon Paul Gibson, an interesting sub-lot — something I think he's long deserved.

Harris' research and knowledge of British (and European) history enhances her work, so her settings are as believable as her characters.

I don't read a lot of historical fiction, but Harris is my favorite in this genre.

Highly recommended.

I love Colleen Hoover but she's not an author that you should read a lot of in a short space of time. Fun, but essentially much of the same.

I'm going away on Thursday to a music festival and I'm a little bit anxious about it (to say the least!), so I'm reading light books in the hope of keeping myself relaxed. Anyway, I think I'm done with Ms Hoover. Her books are fun, but theres too many niggly little problems with them to read another. Pity, because they are lovely. I have a couple of short story collections. I think I'll try one of them, either Pastoralia by George Saunders or My Man Jeeves by P.G Wodehouse. Which one do you guys recommend I try first? I want some humour.