Subsequent Wickedness
I swear,Fletch, all during my walk, nobody even touched me. No one bumped into me. How did they get my necklace? The diamond pin off my dress? There wasn’t even a tear in my dress? I felt nothing!”
Carioca Fletch (1984) #7
Fletch’s trip to Brazil wasn’t exactly planned. But it’s Carnival time in Rio and he has plenty of money, thanks to a little arrangement made stateside. And it took him no time to hook up with the luscious Laura Soares. Fletch is beginning to relax, just a little.
Carioca Fletch
But between the American widow who seems to be following Fletch and the Brazilian widow who’s fingered Fletch as her long-dead husband, he suddenly doesn’t have much time to enjoy the present or even get a wink of sleep.
Carioca Fletch
A thirty-year-old unsolved murder, a more recent suicide, an inconvenient heart attack–somehow Fletch is connected to all of them and one of those connections might just shorten his own life. From Rio to Bahia and back again, at the height of Carnival, Fletch has to keep moving or get stopped cold.
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Exerpts
Page 30
Down the sidewalk to the right , stepping warily around the samba band sweating in canary yellow shorts, through the dancers, came a North American woman, clearly from the United States, clearly newly arrived. In a light green silk dress moving on her body as she moved, green high-heeled shoes, wearing sunglasses and stupidly carrying her purse like a symbol of rank dangling from her forearm: the California empress.
Page 32
“Fletcher ! what is the matter with you? Why are you suddenly under the table?”
“That woman in green passing by. Don’t look now.”
The heads of the pixies looked back and forth from Fletch to Laura intelligently, as if they understood.
“So? What about her?”
“She probably thinks I murdered her husband.”
Page 117
“I think I have.”
“robbed twice?”
“not a record.”
“baptized,” he said
Page 118
“So I went out myself. I went for a walk. Right along here.” She indicated the avenida beyond the hedge. “Sat in a café, had a drink, watched the people, listened to the drums. Walked further , to another café, had a drink. Couldn’t pay the bill. My purse was gone.”
“Yes.” In his saying just”yes,” Fletch heard an echo of Otavio Cavalcanti. Yes. Of course. What is there to understand?
“My wallet was gone. All my cash. My credit cards. “ Tears now were in both her eyes. “My passport.”
“It happened to everyone I have heard of,” he said
Page 119
”My necklace was gone!” She seemed astounded. “A diamond pin I was wearing on my dress!”
“Yes.”
“What bothers me most is that pictures of Alan in my wallet are gone.” Of Alan and Julia.” Julia was her young daughter. “No matter what you may think, I wanted those pictures of Alan, They’re irreplaceable.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Fletch said: “Yes.”
She reached for a purse that wasn’t there. “Damn! I don’t even have a hankerchief.”
Fletch shrugged his bare shoulders. “I don’t even have a sleeve.”
Page 121
She sniffed.
“I explained to the waiter as best I could that I couldn’t pay him. I’d been robbed. That I would come back and pay him today.” Joan Collins Stanwyck sniffed again” I swear,Fletch, all during my walk, nobody even touched me. No one bumped into me. How did they get my necklace< The pin off my dress? There wasn’t even a tear in my dress? I felt nothing!”
“The future of Brazil ,” said Fletch, “is in surgery.”
“I went back to my hotel.”
“And your room had been burglarized.”
Page 122
“How did you know?”
“You said you had been robbed twice.”
“Everything!” she said. “Everything except my clothes. My jewel case, my traveler’s checks.”
“Everything.”
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Goodreads reviews
Reviews average reviews 373 reviews 3.46 stars
Alex Teixeira's review 4 stars
Oct 03, 09
I was still in high school when I read the first Fletch book. It was 1982. The first Fletch novel was released in 1974.
I used to read a lot of mysteries back then and one day stumbled upon Fletch, I was hooked, that's all the mystery I wanted to read during that time (peppered in with some fantasy, science fiction and literary books, too).
I read all the Fletch books up to the last one, "Fletch Too", in 1986. This one was particularly fun for me, because I was born in Rio and have been back many times since on vacation.
I have fond memories of reading these mysteries, I thought the books were funny and fun.
Worth checking out if you like light mysteries, humor, and fun.
Jon Burekuri rated it 4 stars
As a fan of the wisecracking journalist, Irwin Fletcher, portrayed by Chevy Chase in two films from the 1980s, I really went into this book expecting a goofy story. What I found was a much more serious, yet entertaining, mystery novel. Set in Rio during Carnival, the story follows Fletch as he is unwittingly enmeshed in a forty-seven year old (as in, it happened that long ago) murder mystery. Taking him from the wealthy hotels of the elite to the slums of Rio, Fletch's adventure is highly entertaining and worth the read.
Andy rated it • 4 star
Another great Fletch mystery. Many people complain that there is too much Brazil and not enough Fletch, and compared to other Fletch books, that is true. However, the book is so well written that I really don't mind Fletch taking a back seat to Brazil. If you like Mcdonald's writing style, you'll like Carioca Fletch. Don't believe all of the negative reviews on amazon.
I swear,Fletch, all during my walk, nobody even touched me. No one bumped into me. How did they get my necklace? The diamond pin off my dress? There wasn’t even a tear in my dress? I felt nothing!”
Carioca Fletch (1984) #7
Fletch’s trip to Brazil wasn’t exactly planned. But it’s Carnival time in Rio and he has plenty of money, thanks to a little arrangement made stateside. And it took him no time to hook up with the luscious Laura Soares. Fletch is beginning to relax, just a little.
Carioca Fletch
But between the American widow who seems to be following Fletch and the Brazilian widow who’s fingered Fletch as her long-dead husband, he suddenly doesn’t have much time to enjoy the present or even get a wink of sleep.
Carioca Fletch
A thirty-year-old unsolved murder, a more recent suicide, an inconvenient heart attack–somehow Fletch is connected to all of them and one of those connections might just shorten his own life. From Rio to Bahia and back again, at the height of Carnival, Fletch has to keep moving or get stopped cold.
******************************************************************************
Exerpts
Page 30
Down the sidewalk to the right , stepping warily around the samba band sweating in canary yellow shorts, through the dancers, came a North American woman, clearly from the United States, clearly newly arrived. In a light green silk dress moving on her body as she moved, green high-heeled shoes, wearing sunglasses and stupidly carrying her purse like a symbol of rank dangling from her forearm: the California empress.
Page 32
“Fletcher ! what is the matter with you? Why are you suddenly under the table?”
“That woman in green passing by. Don’t look now.”
The heads of the pixies looked back and forth from Fletch to Laura intelligently, as if they understood.
“So? What about her?”
“She probably thinks I murdered her husband.”
Page 117
“I think I have.”
“robbed twice?”
“not a record.”
“baptized,” he said
Page 118
“So I went out myself. I went for a walk. Right along here.” She indicated the avenida beyond the hedge. “Sat in a café, had a drink, watched the people, listened to the drums. Walked further , to another café, had a drink. Couldn’t pay the bill. My purse was gone.”
“Yes.” In his saying just”yes,” Fletch heard an echo of Otavio Cavalcanti. Yes. Of course. What is there to understand?
“My wallet was gone. All my cash. My credit cards. “ Tears now were in both her eyes. “My passport.”
“It happened to everyone I have heard of,” he said
Page 119
”My necklace was gone!” She seemed astounded. “A diamond pin I was wearing on my dress!”
“Yes.”
“What bothers me most is that pictures of Alan in my wallet are gone.” Of Alan and Julia.” Julia was her young daughter. “No matter what you may think, I wanted those pictures of Alan, They’re irreplaceable.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Fletch said: “Yes.”
She reached for a purse that wasn’t there. “Damn! I don’t even have a hankerchief.”
Fletch shrugged his bare shoulders. “I don’t even have a sleeve.”
Page 121
She sniffed.
“I explained to the waiter as best I could that I couldn’t pay him. I’d been robbed. That I would come back and pay him today.” Joan Collins Stanwyck sniffed again” I swear,Fletch, all during my walk, nobody even touched me. No one bumped into me. How did they get my necklace< The pin off my dress? There wasn’t even a tear in my dress? I felt nothing!”
“The future of Brazil ,” said Fletch, “is in surgery.”
“I went back to my hotel.”
“And your room had been burglarized.”
Page 122
“How did you know?”
“You said you had been robbed twice.”
“Everything!” she said. “Everything except my clothes. My jewel case, my traveler’s checks.”
“Everything.”
******************************************************************************
Goodreads reviews
Reviews average reviews 373 reviews 3.46 stars
Alex Teixeira's review 4 stars
Oct 03, 09
I was still in high school when I read the first Fletch book. It was 1982. The first Fletch novel was released in 1974.
I used to read a lot of mysteries back then and one day stumbled upon Fletch, I was hooked, that's all the mystery I wanted to read during that time (peppered in with some fantasy, science fiction and literary books, too).
I read all the Fletch books up to the last one, "Fletch Too", in 1986. This one was particularly fun for me, because I was born in Rio and have been back many times since on vacation.
I have fond memories of reading these mysteries, I thought the books were funny and fun.
Worth checking out if you like light mysteries, humor, and fun.
Jon Burekuri rated it 4 stars
As a fan of the wisecracking journalist, Irwin Fletcher, portrayed by Chevy Chase in two films from the 1980s, I really went into this book expecting a goofy story. What I found was a much more serious, yet entertaining, mystery novel. Set in Rio during Carnival, the story follows Fletch as he is unwittingly enmeshed in a forty-seven year old (as in, it happened that long ago) murder mystery. Taking him from the wealthy hotels of the elite to the slums of Rio, Fletch's adventure is highly entertaining and worth the read.
Andy rated it • 4 star
Another great Fletch mystery. Many people complain that there is too much Brazil and not enough Fletch, and compared to other Fletch books, that is true. However, the book is so well written that I really don't mind Fletch taking a back seat to Brazil. If you like Mcdonald's writing style, you'll like Carioca Fletch. Don't believe all of the negative reviews on amazon.