Fletch, Too (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) - Softcover

Mcdonald, Gregory

 
9780375713538: Fletch, Too (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0375713530 ISBN 13: 9780375713538
Verlag: BLACK LIZARD, 2002

Inhaltsangabe

When the famous journalist and private investigator witnesses a murder at the Nairobi airport, Fletch and his new wife begin a routine search for clues and find themselves assisting an expedition for a lost Roman city. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Gregory Mcdonald is the author of twenty-six books, including eleven Fletch novels and four Flynn mysteries. He has twice won the Mystery Writers of America’s prestigious Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Mystery Novel, and was the first author to win for both a novel and its sequel. He died in 2008.

Aus dem Klappentext

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After a few delays and without the benefit of a rehearsal, it looks like Fletch is finally getting hitched. It s a small affair, just a few friends, the bride s parents, the groom s mother, and, just maybe, his father. Except Fletch s father is supposed to be dead.

Fletch, Too

But somebody delivered the letter, signed Fletch (senior) and containing an invitation (and a pair of plane tickets) to visit the old man in Nairobi for the honeymoon. Never mind Fletch and his bride were planning a ski trip to Colorado.

Fletch, Too

No sooner does the couple land in Africa (togged out for skiing!), then the search for Fletch s father begins. There s a murder at the airport, reports of the old man s incarceration, and the hospitality (and evasiveness) offered by pop s best friend, who flies them across the continent, just a step or two behind (or maybe ahead of) the old rascal.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

1

What astounded Fletch was that the letter written to him was signed Fletch.

2

"Do you, Irwin Maurice Fletcher, promise to love, honor, serve, and support in all the ways a man can support a woman . . ." the Preacher shouted. Down the bluff the wind was whipping up whitecaps on the Pacific Ocean. A curtain of hard rain was visible a couple of miles offshore. ". . . cherish, respect, encourage, relinquish all interests and endeavors which do not serve the marriage, until death do you part?"

"Who wrote this?" Fletch asked.

At his side, wind whipping her skirt, Barbara said, "I did. You never gave me a chance to discuss it with you."

"Let's discuss it now."

Behind them on the bluff overlooking the sea stood their wedding guests, coat collars up, holding on to their hats.

"Be a good sport," Barbara said. "Say you do. We'll have plenty of time to discuss it."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

Barbara said to the Preacher, "He says, 'I do.' "

The Preacher looked at Fletch. "Do you do?"

"I guess I do."

"And do you, Barbara Ralston, promise to be a wife to this man, to the best of your abilities?"

"I do."

The Preacher then began to read interminably from some word-processor printout. Some rabbits built their hutch in a dell. Spring rains came, and the hutch got flooded out. They built a new hutch in a high place. The winds knocked it over . . .

Watching the storm approaching from the sea, Fletch suspected the wedding party was going to get flooded out and blown over, too.

The wedding had been planned for two o'clock Saturday afternoon. Fletch had gotten all his copy in by two o'clock, shaved in the men's room at the newspaper, and had reached his wedding at two-forty.

"Surprised to see you here," Fletch said to Frank Jaffe, the editor of the News-Tribune. "Thought you pretend employees don't exist Saturdays."

"I've been standing in for you at various police stations and courts the last three days," Frank said. "Thought I might have to stand in for you today at your wedding, too."

"You almost did." Two pickup trucks with their tailgates down were parked across the field. In the bed of one truck, delicatessen food was laid out; in the bed of the other, plastic glasses, liquor, and ice. "Are all the various charges against me dropped? Can I get through an airport without being arrested?"

Frank tasted his drink. "Good follow-up on that lawyer's murder in this morning's edition. Got the big Sunday wrap-up in for tomorrow?"

"Yes, Frank."

"How about the big expose of Ben Franklyn for tomorrow?"

"Ben Franklyn will be exposed in Sunday's newspaper, Frank. Pages and pages of it. With pictures."

"You've been working day and night since Monday."

"Very nearly."

"You look half asleep."

"Frank . . ."

"Have a nice honeymoon." Frank smiled. "You need the rest."

Alston Chambers said, "Fletch, thanks for coming. Being best man at a wedding without a groom was becoming a real strain."

"If you come across any hot stories on your honeymoon," Frank said, "be sure and phone them in. We may have found your talent in investigative reporting."

Alston looked down at Fletch's jeans and sneakers. "Didn't have time to change, uh?"

"Alston, I'm here, I shaved, I'm employed, I get to go on a honeymoon."

"I mean avalanches. Mud slides." Frank finished his drink. "Major earthquakes. Airplane crashes. Train wrecks."

Alston said, "I left some clothes for you at the City Desk. Didn't they tell you?"

"No."

Frank continued, "Mass murders. Acts of terrorism, like, you know, airport bombings."

Alston took Fletch by the elbow. "Your bride, having noticed you're here, would like you to go over and stand next to her in front of the Preacher. That's integral to the wedding."

"Be sure and phone in," Frank said. "If you get any good stuff."

Fletch said to his mother, "I'm surprised to see you here."

A long-stemmed flower bobbing from her hat hit Fletch in the eye as Josephine Fletcher leaned forward to kiss her son. "I wouldn't miss your first wedding for anything."

"This is the only wedding I have planned," Fletch said.

She waved airily. "After this, you're on your own."

" 'After this'?"

Josie scanned his clothes. "I guess you're dressed appropriately for a picnic next to the sea."

She was dressed in watered silk.

"I've been working."

"Barbara's mother was quite certain you wouldn't show up at all. She says you never do."

"Where is she? I've never met the lady."

"So she says. She's the one over there, in jodhpurs."

''Of course."

Josie scanned the bush. "I don't see where she parked her elephant."

"Elephant?"

Cindy took Fletch's other elbow. "The Preacher says, if you don't get over there, all hell will break loose."

Fletch turned and shook her hand. "Can't thank you enough, Cindy, for everything. You've helped Barbara get ready for our skiing honeymoon. You've helped me keep my job."

Cindy took the hand of a young woman standing next to her. "I feel this is as much our wedding as yours."

"It is." Fletch shook the hand of the other woman. "Have a nice life."

"Fletch," Alston said, looking harried, "this person says she has to meet you right now. Her name is Linda."

"I don't suppose this is a very good time to tell you this." Linda pulled his shirt out of his jeans. She cupped the palms of her hands against the skin of his waist. "I'm in love with you."

"You've never seen me before."

"I see you now. This is it, for me. Wildly, passionately in love." Her eyes said she was serious.

"Alston, how much are you paying this person?" Alston sighed.

Fletch said to Linda, "I'm just about to get married."

"Really?" Sticking her chin out, she slid her hands up his sides.

"That's why we're all here," Fletch said. The wind was beginning to come up. "Standing around in this horrible place."

Alston said, "I think weddings make some people romantic."

Linda asked, "When are you returning from your honeymoon?"

"Two weeks. We're going skiing in Colorado."

"Don't break anything," she said.

"I'll try not to."

"Because I'm going to be your next wife."

"You are?"

"I've decided that." Linda looked like what she was saying was entirely reasonable. "In fact, you might as well skip this wedding with Barbara altogether."

"Boy," Alston said. "Getting you married is something I'll never try again."

"Was she serious?"

"Call me when you get back," Linda said. "I work with Barbara."

"Oh, nice." Fletch was being guided strongly by the elbow across the field. "Actually, she is beautiful."

"Barbara?" Alston asked.

Fletch said, "Linda."

"Oh, boy."

The wind had come up enough so Fletch had to speak loudly to...

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Verlag
BLACK LIZARD
Erscheinungsdatum
2002
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0375713530
ISBN 13 
9780375713538
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
256
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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