Flynn's World

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When Boston Police Inspector Francis Xavier Flynn’s barely adolescent daughter asks him to rescue her friend Billy from the cemetery, where he’s been fastened to a tree by a nail through his earlobe, the good inspector is pretty sure there’s something more behind what at first seems like a bully’s prank. And he’s convinced there is more than mischief involved in the hateful threats against distinguished Harvard professor Louis Loveson. If that weren’t enough to keep Flynn busy, there’s Lieutenant John Kurt, whose very impressive arrest record follows some very disturbing patterns. In Flynn’s World, two-time Edgar Award-winner Gregory Mcdonald’s dogged detective confronts intolerance in all its guises, and sheds light on more than one dark secret. F.X. Flynn made his first appearance in Confess, Fletch, where he matched wits with the inimitable Irwin Fletcher. Since then he has befuddled, bemused, amazed, and infuriated his colleagues on the Boston Police force as he has pursued international terrorists, blackmailers, murderers, embezzlers, politicians, and, occasionally, his fellow policemen—all while doing his regular job.From Publishers WeeklyEdgar winner Mcdonald (Fletch, etc.) resurrects minor series character Francis Xavier Flynn, after almost two decades, in a lightweight comic quasi-mystery. "Inspector" Flynn is just the cover identify for a mysterious spy believed dead by most players in the espionage game. Comfortably ensconced in Boston with his poet wife and their five children, Flynn makes almost no effort to sustain his pretense, so that even his slow-witted partner can pick up the anomalies of a man who takes off from work five times to attend his mother's funeral and twice for appendix removal. Flynn pursues three puzzles simultaneously: the nailing to a tree of the ear of his daughter's wrestler boyfriend, a bizarre pattern of harassment directed at an aging but once well-respected Harvard humanities professor, and the odd arrest record of a rising police star who somehow manages to place the bracelets only on minorities and people of color. None of these cases requires Flynn to display any particular brilliance, insight or skills derived from his true career in intelligence work. The insular Flynn moves at his own speed in a way that's hard to take seriously in a post-September 11 world, where the notion of a trained and valuable asset being pampered rather than utilized is jarring. While his commitment to his family makes him sympathetic, Flynn is not well served here by a plot that flirts with serious intellectual issues without developing them.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistBoston police inspector Francis Xavier Flynn is in the hot seat over his extended absences from work, his three appendectomies, and the five funerals he's attended for his dear departed mother. What the bureaucrats in the Boston Police Department don't know is that Flynn isn't really a cop; he's a spy using the BPD as a cover, and sometimes spies need extended leaves from their day jobs. While he fights office politics, Flynn also investigates the blackmail of a senior Harvard professor with a background in Middle Eastern studies. And then there's that little matter of his daughter's boyfriend and why he turned up in a cemetery with his ear nailed to a tree. Flynn, ever the student of life's whimsical, often painful turns, solves both cases through equal applications of wit, deduction, and empathy. Flynn has aged well in the 20 years since his last appearance in print. Two-time Edgar winner Mcdonald's humor, pacing, and erudite dialogue are as fresh as ever. Welcome back, Flynn. Wes LukowskyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved