Skylar in Yankeeland

Rating:
Summary: McDonald was once so good...
Review: Gregory McDonald once wrote funny, interesting books. The Flynn series was unique, and the early Fletch books were great. His skills seem to have deteriorated, and his last three or four books have been eminently forgettable. Sad.

Rating:
Summary: More of the Same
Review: I just finished "Skylar in Yankeeland" and wasn't overly impressed. Certainly, it was better than "Skylar", but that's like saying Cheez in a Can is better than those Cracker Barrel fake cheddar sticks. Neither one really takes the blue ribbon, but at least you can squeeze Cheez in a Can directly into your mouth, without having to waste time cutting it.

In "Skylar", yankee cousin Jonathan Whitfield is a fish out of water when he comes south for a visit. In this installment, MacDonald turns the tables and has good ol' boy Skylar venture north to visit the very rich Whitfields, where he is, yes, a fish out of water. The family jewels are heisted, a young lady is murdered and general hilarity ensues. Or doesn't.

As a reader, I never like easy jokes. I figure the reason I'm paying to read an author's book is because he or she is much cleverer than I and will say things that I haven't already thought or write things that aren't cliches and because of this, I am increasingly saddened by Gregory MacDonald's descent into mediocrity. None of the characters here are much better than stereotypes and the situations they encounter are downright unlikely. Add to that the fact that one of the characters, a Boston blue blood since before the revolution, makes a personality change likely to cause a whiplash in anyone paying even the most casual attention and you have a book that is unlikely to win MacDonald any new fans.

Rating:
Summary: Amusing, but hardly spectacular
Review: If you are looking for a mystery forget it. The mystery is secondary to the rest of the story and is only really approached in the remaining 30 pages of the book. I found "Skylar" to be a better book, because the story was more original. As mentioned by one of the previous reviews that story centers around Jonathan Whitfield a "yankee" being the fish out of water around his cousin Skylar's southern surroundings. It seems this book was written just for the heck of it to see what it would be like to have Skylar up north. In "Skylar" we learn that the dumb hick image that Skylar puts on is all a facade and that he is truly a clever person. This story while showing glimpses of his intelligence disappointingly reverts to this original perception and it feels like you are reading the same story again. If you are interested in reading a Gregory MacDonald book then read one of the earlier Fletch novels. They don't actually read like the Chevy Chase movies but they are witty and worth the time (with the occasional weak book in the mix). If you have already read all the Fletch stories then you can give "Skylar" a try, but don't expect it to be on par with them. I would recommend the Flynn stories: "The Buck Passes Flynn","Flynn", & "Flynn's In" (about a boston detective/government agent). You may not be able to order them but you can be sure to find them in a used book store, and they are definitely more worth while than the Skylar books.