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Fletch, an Italian Art Critic? God knows what he would look like as a Art Critic, but this is a funny disguise that I imagined he might have used.

Fletch and Confess, Fletch
was the first, and last time a book and it's sequal won the Edgar Allan Poe Award

BOYSNAMES
An interesting note. Fletch’s fiance’s name is Angela "Andy" de Grassi. This is one of three women Fletch is involved with who prefer to go by men’s names. There is Roberta "Bobbi" in Fletch (1974) and Fredericka "Freddy" Arbuthnot in Fletch’s Fortune (1978). Also Fletch’s assistant in the movie is named Larry as played by Geena Davis. Curious.

This book introduces the very funny and very witty character of Inspector Francis Xavier Flynn. Gregory McDonald later wrote three Flynn stories and a rumored fourth which has yet to be published. They are Flynn (1977), The Buck Passes Flynn (1981), and Flynn’s In (1984)

Confess, Fletch (1976) by Gregory McDonald

Synopsis

This is the second book written about Irwin Maurice "Fletch" Fletcher. The events take place after Fletch (1974) but not directly. Fletch’s adventures in Brazil wouldn’t be written until Carioca Fletch (1984). Fletch is now an art critic living in Cagna, Italy and engaged to be married (again). His fiancé is the daughter of an Italian Count who has been kidnapped and murdered recently. Fletch is dispatched to by her to Boston to recover painting which were stolen from the family a number of years ago. Upon arriving in Boston he discovers a naked female dead in the apartment he is borrowing. With police on his back hounding him to confess, Fletch must discover the real murderer while trying to locate his fiancé’s family’s painting. Compounding matters is the fact that the inspector assigned to the murder, Francis Xavier Flynn, is Fletch’s intellectual equal. The ending is a doozy.

Review

Easily the second best Fletch novel. The story runs fast and furiously and the exchanges between Fletch and Flynn are great. Flynn is one of the only characters in the Fletch novels that is as witty as Fletch is and the resulting dialogue is hilarious. The twist ending will throw you for a loop no matter how prepared you are. You may find yourself reading the last couple chapters over again just to make what you read is really on paper. A perfect sequel to perfect beginning.

Fletch tells the Countess that he is in Boston to do research for a biography he is doing on the great western artist Edgar Arthur Tharp, Jr. but is really there to find the family's paintings possibly linked to the murder.

FLETCH'S LADIES

Fletch sleeps with two women in the second book of the series.

STANWYK'S MILLIONS

If Gregory McDonald had planned to write "Confess, Fletch" he says he never would have put him in Rio with $3 million bucks. "I had a terrible puzzle as how to continue the story, eith thisd major thing that happened to Fletch...I came to the realization...if Fletch didn't care about money when he didn't have it, then he shouldn't care about money when he does have some".

This is the last Fletch book in which Fletch uses more than one alias. As in the first book, the aliases are used but disguises are not. In fact, Fletch aliases are often used over the phone.