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Flynn #2
The Buck Passes Flynn
On medical leave from the Boston Police Department, the eccentric Police Inspector and offbeat operative, Francis Xavier Flynn might have his most perplexing assignment yet. Someone is giving away hundreds of millions of dollars, and Flynn has to find out who in a hurry. As he races from Texas to Las Vegas, from Massachusetts to Russia, Flynn quickly discovers that this is not the pastime of an eccentric billionaire, nor is it a nefarious counterfeiting scheme. Someone is looking to wreck the nation’s economy and bizarrely enough, spending a lot of money to do it. With every lead going nowhere, Flynn’s most dizzying logic is put to the test, but the clue he needs could be somewhere in his own murky past.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
January 5, 2019
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★ ★ 1/2
In the introduction to one those books of essays by established authors on “How to” Gregory McDonald once casually mentioned that Flynn stepped onto pages of Confess, Fletch so fully formed that McDonald needed to produce another three books to explore the character to his satisfaction. That exactly describes this book. The exploration of Francis Xavier Flynn. The mystery and everything that comes with it is just an excuse.
Ostensibly Flynn is an Inspector with the Boston Police Department but in reality he’s an operative of an organization associated with the US Government, an organization that is not necessarily a secret but is also not publicly known. He is asked by his boss to investigate a couple of odd occurrences. A small town in Texas has been vacated by everyone but a preacher and his wife. The exact opposite has happened in Massachusetts, where a small tourist town has essentially closed up its borders. In the world of 1981, long before social media and instant communication, it takes the inundation of mass resignations from an entire subsection of the Intelligence Department before there is official awareness that in all of the above situations, every single person involved had received $100,000 in cash through the mail. Flynn is tasked with tracing this act to its source.
To this point I’ve used two words, while accurate, could easily misrepresent this novel: mystery and operative. This is not your classic mystery. Nor, despite ties to government, is it a novel of espionage or secret agents. It is an investigation. Flynn travels to many places to meet many people as he attempts to complete his assignment. But, as also previously stated, this is all pretext. McDonald is here to study Flynn.
We get to watch Flynn interact with the preacher and his wife. And with a woman representing a different agency. And a billionaire who has the resources to fund such actions. And a member of the Treasury Department. We even follow Flynn as he sneaks into Russia and interacts with its residents and an embedded agent. Among many others. If this sounds a bit monotonous I assure that it is not. With almost insatiable interest, Flynn brings to each encounter a charming Irish brogue and an unflappable manner. This is needed because it is his personality that allows the reader to accept the more ridiculous parts of his status quo like, for example, the stuff straight out of the James Bond movies: Flynn’s organization is simply called N.N. (Flynn is N.N. 13 and his boss is N.N. Zero) and the Russian equivalent is known only as K. There are other such examples of stretching credibility, but they occur too deep in the novel to fairly discuss here.
Gregory McDonald was not a frivolous writer. Most of his books were quick and light, entertainment with a healthy dash of irreverence, but there was always a point underneath there somewhere. With The Buck Passes Flynn, the point was left behind in 1981. Maybe what McDonald wanted to say about world economics carried more weight before economical irresponsibility became front page news. I’ll never know. No matter how much I enjoy travelling in Flynn’s company, there needs to be more when I reach journey’s end. There needs to be some kind of personal stake, even if it’s on the most superficial of levels. If the core of your novel is linked solely to the world it inhabits, if it is a fully exterior experience without any interior heartbeat, it can last no longer than the world that surrounds it. Only universal themes transcend time and the world has changed a lot in 35 years. The Buck Passes Flynn is best left to the 80s.
★ ★ 1/2
In the introduction to one those books of essays by established authors on “How to” Gregory McDonald once casually mentioned that Flynn stepped onto pages of Confess, Fletch so fully formed that McDonald needed to produce another three books to explore the character to his satisfaction. That exactly describes this book. The exploration of Francis Xavier Flynn. The mystery and everything that comes with it is just an excuse.
Ostensibly Flynn is an Inspector with the Boston Police Department but in reality he’s an operative of an organization associated with the US Government, an organization that is not necessarily a secret but is also not publicly known. He is asked by his boss to investigate a couple of odd occurrences. A small town in Texas has been vacated by everyone but a preacher and his wife. The exact opposite has happened in Massachusetts, where a small tourist town has essentially closed up its borders. In the world of 1981, long before social media and instant communication, it takes the inundation of mass resignations from an entire subsection of the Intelligence Department before there is official awareness that in all of the above situations, every single person involved had received $100,000 in cash through the mail. Flynn is tasked with tracing this act to its source.
To this point I’ve used two words, while accurate, could easily misrepresent this novel: mystery and operative. This is not your classic mystery. Nor, despite ties to government, is it a novel of espionage or secret agents. It is an investigation. Flynn travels to many places to meet many people as he attempts to complete his assignment. But, as also previously stated, this is all pretext. McDonald is here to study Flynn.
We get to watch Flynn interact with the preacher and his wife. And with a woman representing a different agency. And a billionaire who has the resources to fund such actions. And a member of the Treasury Department. We even follow Flynn as he sneaks into Russia and interacts with its residents and an embedded agent. Among many others. If this sounds a bit monotonous I assure that it is not. With almost insatiable interest, Flynn brings to each encounter a charming Irish brogue and an unflappable manner. This is needed because it is his personality that allows the reader to accept the more ridiculous parts of his status quo like, for example, the stuff straight out of the James Bond movies: Flynn’s organization is simply called N.N. (Flynn is N.N. 13 and his boss is N.N. Zero) and the Russian equivalent is known only as K. There are other such examples of stretching credibility, but they occur too deep in the novel to fairly discuss here.
Gregory McDonald was not a frivolous writer. Most of his books were quick and light, entertainment with a healthy dash of irreverence, but there was always a point underneath there somewhere. With The Buck Passes Flynn, the point was left behind in 1981. Maybe what McDonald wanted to say about world economics carried more weight before economical irresponsibility became front page news. I’ll never know. No matter how much I enjoy travelling in Flynn’s company, there needs to be more when I reach journey’s end. There needs to be some kind of personal stake, even if it’s on the most superficial of levels. If the core of your novel is linked solely to the world it inhabits, if it is a fully exterior experience without any interior heartbeat, it can last no longer than the world that surrounds it. Only universal themes transcend time and the world has changed a lot in 35 years. The Buck Passes Flynn is best left to the 80s.
August 17, 2016
An odd little tale published at the start of the greedy 80s which later produced the crisis of the new millenium (what around here we like to call the "uh-oh" years.) Small towns in the US are being flooded with cash money that appears on people's porches or in their cars, a hundred grand at a crack, in plain brown envelopes. So of course people go nuts and lose it: lose their marriages, their lives, and the money. Easy come, easy go, I guess--but where is it coming from? And why is more and more of it coming, and going to weirder and weirder places? Enter Flynn, of course, that non-spy operative extraordinaire.
Pro: this book fills in a lot of background for Flynn himself, which was odd but interesting. Con: I didn't think Flynn could get more Irish in his speech, but sure and this time around he's almost a music hall Irishman. He never says "bedad" or "begorrah," but it needed only that. Which cost the book half a star. Another half for the extremely unbelievable ending; too, too convenient. Several interesting plotlines are just left hanging in a most unsatisfactory manner. Okay for a sleepless night but disappointing. I smell Second-Novel Syndrome; though this is not the author's second-only novel, it is second in the Flynn series. Just--weird.
Two and a half stars.
Pro: this book fills in a lot of background for Flynn himself, which was odd but interesting. Con: I didn't think Flynn could get more Irish in his speech, but sure and this time around he's almost a music hall Irishman. He never says "bedad" or "begorrah," but it needed only that. Which cost the book half a star. Another half for the extremely unbelievable ending; too, too convenient. Several interesting plotlines are just left hanging in a most unsatisfactory manner. Okay for a sleepless night but disappointing. I smell Second-Novel Syndrome; though this is not the author's second-only novel, it is second in the Flynn series. Just--weird.
Two and a half stars.
March 16, 2016
Definitely takes a (not unearned) jaundiced eye's view of our country's fiat money system. It is as much economic treatise, as mystery novel, but written in a fun black humor. As fun as the character of Flynn is, pulling him out of the original idea of the character: a secret agent put into deep cover as a Boston police inspector, seems to have been dropped rather quickly by McDonald.
May 10, 2025
Mcdonald LOVES writing about money, lots of it, the idea of it, what it does to people, and this has to be his mission statement if not his magnum opus. Fun and easy to read, the mystery plays fair, and even though Flynn is a smug Irish windbag, he’s WAY less obnoxious than Fletch. It ain’t all roses though, folks! HOOOO BOY is this unfunny. Nothing grimmer than a fundamentally unfunny person writing page after page of one-liners. You’ll never laugh less.
August 28, 2024
What a disappointing book. Don't get me wrong, it's not actively bad...but it's also not really that good. It's just so disappointing. Francis Xavier Flynn stole the show when he first showed up in in Confess, Fletch. And his first novel, Flynn, was a lot of fun. And this one was just...not that great. We did learn a bit more about Flynn and the organization he works for, but not really anything about his family, who are pretty fun. We watched him work. but it really didn't amount to a lot. And the plot just wasn't really that interesting and, in hindsight, really was incredibly tied to the time and the passage of time has shown that it is just kind of garbage.
Flynn is called in to investigate a pair of incidents where every person in a Texas town is anonymously given $100,000. That's about $382,000 in 2024 money. So, a lot. But not nearly enough to generate the responses that we see in the book. Shortly thereafter the same thing happens in a Massachusetts island town, with slightly different (and still silly) results. The issue comes to a head when an entire section of a Pentagon group receives the same payment and almost all of them immediately retire. So Flynn is sent in to investigate.
I guess there's a germ of an idea here. But the responses are so over-top for the amount of money that the idea is rendered moot. And the entire thing is so intimately tied to 1981, the economic situation at the time and ideas of Supply-Side Economics and the work of Arthur Laffer, not to mention ideas of commodity vs. fiat currency, that it's irritating. I'll cop to the fact that I don't have the strongest background in economics, but it's better than average. And a ton of what we saw here were the same failed economic theories that have been messing with our lives for the past 50 years. And add in a (sort of) Soviet agent that is both incredibly obvious and pretty unnecessary and it's just a rough read.
There are some marginally interesting character moments for Flynn and some okay interactions with other characters, but, by and large, you can skip this
Flynn is called in to investigate a pair of incidents where every person in a Texas town is anonymously given $100,000. That's about $382,000 in 2024 money. So, a lot. But not nearly enough to generate the responses that we see in the book. Shortly thereafter the same thing happens in a Massachusetts island town, with slightly different (and still silly) results. The issue comes to a head when an entire section of a Pentagon group receives the same payment and almost all of them immediately retire. So Flynn is sent in to investigate.
I guess there's a germ of an idea here. But the responses are so over-top for the amount of money that the idea is rendered moot. And the entire thing is so intimately tied to 1981, the economic situation at the time and ideas of Supply-Side Economics and the work of Arthur Laffer, not to mention ideas of commodity vs. fiat currency, that it's irritating. I'll cop to the fact that I don't have the strongest background in economics, but it's better than average. And a ton of what we saw here were the same failed economic theories that have been messing with our lives for the past 50 years. And add in a (sort of) Soviet agent that is both incredibly obvious and pretty unnecessary and it's just a rough read.
There are some marginally interesting character moments for Flynn and some okay interactions with other characters, but, by and large, you can skip this
February 20, 2024
Written in 1981 this is somewhat dated. More importantly, it is a bit silly. There is a lot of foolishness concerning the economy (which doesn't work anything like in the book) and currency. Also it seemed full of filler that just slowed it down.
December 10, 2022
Ridiculous plot but loads of fun. McDonald reminds us that he's (or was) a master with a keen sense of humor.
July 2, 2013
I like the Flynn books, probably a little better than I like the Fletch books. This is because for Flynn, McDonald ratchets up the weird quotient to Carl Hiaasen-like levels.
So what happens? Well, Flynn belongs to a super-secret intelligence organization (N.N.) that may or may not actually be a part of the US government (I think it isn't), and was formed to oppose another super-secret organization (K.) that's dedicated to spreading chaos in the world. When something really strange is going on, apparently, there's a high probability that K. is involved somehow, and the N.N. organization gets involved.
The strange thing here is someone giving very large amounts of money away. There is some fairly depressing meditation on human nature here, and quite a bit of rumination on what money really is, and the solution to what's going on arrives juuuuust a little too late. And it's weird.
Flynn has a really strange and interesting background, a great family, and a peculiar way of seeing the world that generally gets him to the right conclusion, eventually. I dunno, I just like him.
So what happens? Well, Flynn belongs to a super-secret intelligence organization (N.N.) that may or may not actually be a part of the US government (I think it isn't), and was formed to oppose another super-secret organization (K.) that's dedicated to spreading chaos in the world. When something really strange is going on, apparently, there's a high probability that K. is involved somehow, and the N.N. organization gets involved.
The strange thing here is someone giving very large amounts of money away. There is some fairly depressing meditation on human nature here, and quite a bit of rumination on what money really is, and the solution to what's going on arrives juuuuust a little too late. And it's weird.
Flynn has a really strange and interesting background, a great family, and a peculiar way of seeing the world that generally gets him to the right conclusion, eventually. I dunno, I just like him.
April 29, 2014
PERHAPS IT WAS READING THIS IN 18-PT LARGE PRINT EDITION--THE ONLY VERSION AVAILABLE AT THE LIBRARY. Perhaps it was fact that the recent economic messes have eclipsed the messes of the early 1980s, when McDonald wrote this book. Perhaps it was the focus on N.N. spy games rather than Flynn's family and his flat-footing around Boston. Perhaps it is simply impossible to recreate two lightening strikes in a row (Fletch and Confess, Fletch).
Whatever it is, this had some very enjoyable scenes and writing, but did not blow me away. Good quick read (pages fly by with 18 pt. type), but I'm ready to check in on Fletch again.
Whatever it is, this had some very enjoyable scenes and writing, but did not blow me away. Good quick read (pages fly by with 18 pt. type), but I'm ready to check in on Fletch again.
July 2, 2012
A little disappointed with this one after enjoying the first of the series so much. Felt a little weak in the storyline, and it may be a little more dated based on when it was written than the first one was. Still a decent quick read, but a lot less compelling. We'll see what book #3 has to offer...
October 11, 2020
The premise of the book (a mysterious man or organization dropping enveloppes filled with 100,000$ cash to every citizen of a small town, just to wreak havoc and see them go nuts), and the fact that the book was about economics and money, draw me to it. That, and the fact that I'm a big fan of the original Fletch book and I usually McDonald's stuff.
But... As much as I liked the witty dialogue and humor that can be found in every McDonald's books, I found the "investigation" by the character Flynn to be a bit superficial, going nowhere until the very end of the story, with almost every interview and secondary characters adding nothing to the plot. This all made for a poor buildup and a lack of tension throughout the book. My other disapointment was with the economics of the story. I did appreciate the way McDonald vulgarized and managed to simplify complex topics such as currency devaluation, inflation, etc. But as a trained economist myself, I thought the reasoning behind the devaluation of the US dollar, to take only one example, was flawed at best. It seems like the author got pretty much everything backwards, but to his defense this was written in the early '80s and the author didn't benefit from the insights from history we benefit from today.
All in all, a good entertainment as always with McDonald, but not to be taken too seriously (duh!).
But... As much as I liked the witty dialogue and humor that can be found in every McDonald's books, I found the "investigation" by the character Flynn to be a bit superficial, going nowhere until the very end of the story, with almost every interview and secondary characters adding nothing to the plot. This all made for a poor buildup and a lack of tension throughout the book. My other disapointment was with the economics of the story. I did appreciate the way McDonald vulgarized and managed to simplify complex topics such as currency devaluation, inflation, etc. But as a trained economist myself, I thought the reasoning behind the devaluation of the US dollar, to take only one example, was flawed at best. It seems like the author got pretty much everything backwards, but to his defense this was written in the early '80s and the author didn't benefit from the insights from history we benefit from today.
All in all, a good entertainment as always with McDonald, but not to be taken too seriously (duh!).
June 19, 2020
Francis Xavier Flynn is a character I first encountered in McDonald’s Confess, Fletch, in which he was (I thought) a Boston cop with a mind keen enough to rival Fletch’s. Here, he’s apparently an undercover international government agent crossing the globe (Texas to Massachusetts to Russia), pursuing leads in a bizarre case. Three towns in America have had residents receiving packets of one hundred thousand dollars apiece, and Flynn has to find out who’s doing it, and why.
The plot is James Bond meets Columbo; the writing is vintage Gregory McDonald. The economics behind the story seem sketchy to me—anyone who cites the Laffer Curve as a serious theory instead of the rubbish it really is deserves scorn—but I’m willing to overlook it in order to enjoy the ride. And the book is quite a ride.
The plot is James Bond meets Columbo; the writing is vintage Gregory McDonald. The economics behind the story seem sketchy to me—anyone who cites the Laffer Curve as a serious theory instead of the rubbish it really is deserves scorn—but I’m willing to overlook it in order to enjoy the ride. And the book is quite a ride.
May 30, 2018
I’m enjoying re-reading all the Flynn books by McDonald. It is so long since the first read that I don’t remember a great deal. This one has him travelling across the US and into a small Russian town in search of the source of unexpected rush of money, mysteriously left for individuals in brown envelopes in two US towns and for one team at the Pentagon. The money causes all sorts of problems, for people and potentially the economy, but it’s the people who matter to Flynn. In this book he is at his most philophical. His two meetings with the President are a treat.
May 12, 2020
I like Gregory McDonald and his Fletch series so I thought that I would give the Flynn series a try and so far they have not been disappointing at all. This one was about world wide currency and would it be possible to destabilize the American dollar. I found it very interesting and a quick read. It probably isn't all that accessible to first time readers but it is the 2nd book in the series. I am waiting for the 3rd to arrive this week.
August 2, 2021
I'm so glad I reread this after 35 years. A reminder of why I am a reader.
Is it a political thriller? A spy novel? Humor?
All of the above, and much much more than the sum.
The mystery at the center of this book: why would anyone dump millions of dollars, $100k per person, onto unsuspecting groups of people? Flynn goes about answering the question in his unique way, exploring how the recipients react, while also searching for who might be capable, let alone would want to do such a thing.
Is it a political thriller? A spy novel? Humor?
All of the above, and much much more than the sum.
The mystery at the center of this book: why would anyone dump millions of dollars, $100k per person, onto unsuspecting groups of people? Flynn goes about answering the question in his unique way, exploring how the recipients react, while also searching for who might be capable, let alone would want to do such a thing.
December 23, 2022
I do like the Flynn character a lot, but Mcdonald doesn't seem particularly inspired with this volume. Flynn isn't as eccentric as he was in the first book and CONFESS, FLETCH, although I really loved the rowboat scene, which was a nice confession. The mystery plot, however, doesn't cohere very well this time, despite a promising setup. This novel seems to have come out of the Alan J. Pakula conspiracy theory feel of the 1970s, but I don't think it works as well as it should.
November 19, 2024
Inspector Flynn is on the trail of a mysterious benefactor sending large amounts of cash to whole towns and institutions in order to destabilize the economy.
A really unique mystery that makes your consider how fragile our financial systems are as well as how easily people's lives can be upended over an little influx of cash. If you are tired of yet another murder mystery and want one that has some broader impact, follow Inspector Flynn and his witty ways of investigation.
A really unique mystery that makes your consider how fragile our financial systems are as well as how easily people's lives can be upended over an little influx of cash. If you are tired of yet another murder mystery and want one that has some broader impact, follow Inspector Flynn and his witty ways of investigation.
June 20, 2023
While McDonald did a reasonable job of explaining inflation and currency, we should remember that he published this in 1981, during a period of high inflation. I'm writing this in 2023, when we are experiencing another period of relatively high inflation. Reasons are fundamentally similar. As a Flynn novel, I wasn't that excited about the story, but at least McDonald got his economics right.
October 31, 2023
I really like the character of Francis Xavier Flynn. There are only 4 books in the series...I read them out of order...this being my final Flynn read.
This one did not have the same feel as the others. Cocky and Grover are missing.
It's a decent story, but this was my least favorite in the series.
This one did not have the same feel as the others. Cocky and Grover are missing.
It's a decent story, but this was my least favorite in the series.
August 30, 2025
It was... interesting? I haven't read much of McDonald other than the Fletch novels, but the non-Fletch books have left me flat. Flynn, who is a spin off from Fletch is engaging, as was the plot. That said, it's very intrinsically tied to the early 80s US economy and the climax just sort of happens.
May 12, 2020
A Masterpiece!
Francis Xavier Flynn, Boston Police Detective, is up against a brilliant criminal mastermind in this wild and raucous tale. It’s funny, fabulous, fanciful, and full of the absolute genius of Gregory McDonald. You will LOVE this book!!!
Francis Xavier Flynn, Boston Police Detective, is up against a brilliant criminal mastermind in this wild and raucous tale. It’s funny, fabulous, fanciful, and full of the absolute genius of Gregory McDonald. You will LOVE this book!!!
May 19, 2020
That was a surprise.
The clues were all there. It was interesting how the plot actually transpired. The end was a rather nothing ever really changes kind of fate. Enjoyable read.
The clues were all there. It was interesting how the plot actually transpired. The end was a rather nothing ever really changes kind of fate. Enjoyable read.
September 8, 2022
Humor, murder, and good plotting it’s a fun and interesting storyline and on paper it works. Love this series and the narrator.
— If politicians used the author’s methods to fix things well, things would be funnier if not better.
— If politicians used the author’s methods to fix things well, things would be funnier if not better.
June 13, 2023
Greg McDonald is one of my all-time faves. BUT... The story of this particular Flynn investigation is just too far-fetched. By the time I reached the last couple chapters, I found it impossible to stay fully immersed, as opposed to continually contemplating the plausibility of the whole thing.
May 11, 2020
Contrived but fun.
Far fetched story with unbelievable characters, plot and ending. Humorous in places. Fast and amusing read if you suspend all disbelief.
Far fetched story with unbelievable characters, plot and ending. Humorous in places. Fast and amusing read if you suspend all disbelief.
August 28, 2020
Read in 1983. Continuation of new darkly comic series.
September 8, 2020
I got bored once or twice but completed it and now I’ll listen to another one. Just fun enough.
October 21, 2020
Really enjoyed this story of bank sabotage laced with the trademark Flynn wit.
March 17, 2022
Flynn investigates a series of envelopes stuffed with money that randomly appear in different areas. It eventually leads up to an attempt to devalue U.S. currency.
March 20, 2022
As good as always but this was, in some respects, more of an allegory than your typical novel. Still was entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews