He became involved in local life, not least in taking steps to prevent a resurgence of the Klan. With a mid-Eighties move to a Tennessee cattle farm, Mcdonald sought retreat and, amid divorce, also wound down the series. As long as the instinct for power beats in the breasts of men and women, there will be a restricted clawing called Society.' It changes its shape, its structure, its leaders and its entertainments. Plots overlap, sustaining such dialogue as 'politics is advantageous loyalty, son' and their worldview is encapsulated in: 'Society changes, Fletcher, but not much. These lack the zest of the Fletch titles, which move between such milieux as film-making, the law, politics and Rio de Janeiro. These followed at a clip, some volumes going back in time, while another, Confess, Fletch (1976), found him using his wealth in fine-art circles and on the point of another marriage when accused of murder by a detective, the cello-playing Francis Xavier Flynn, who was then given three novels to himself. If Mcdonald's earlier portrayal of immorality had been too disturbing for many, this comic variant upon it brought a clamour for more.

All of which leads to Fletch filing a great beach story before reversing a double-cross – and leaving for Rio with $3m in untraceable notes.

What's more, the police chief is running a racket. Having accepted the offer after upping it, Fletch finds that Stanwyck had married into Collins Aviation (the wife is called Joan). This is an insurance scam, Stanwyck suffering virulent cancer, and his wife unable to benefit should he commit suicide. Where that character, Tom Betancourt, was a control freak, Fletch was an easy-going reporter, investigating seaside drug-dealing while disguised as a beach-bum, who is offered $20,000 by one Alan Stanwyck to murder him. His diverse interests were apparent at Harvard, where he paid his way with sailing lessons while writing a novel told from the point of view of a WASP student who – very Camus – coolly watched his jazz-loving room-mate commit suicide and then took up with the sister. The son of a writer and broadcaster, Irving, and a painter, Mae, Mcdonald was born in 1937 in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. After a 1974 debut, these took their Boston author from near-destitution to worldwide sales and films with Chevy Chase – all of which made him seek sanctuary on a Tennessee farm.

One of the most entertaining novels about a Presidential campaign, it found Fletch caught up in as much louche behaviour – including murder – as any of those in which Gregory Mcdonald featured him. Just ask your editors to label such fanciful essays as 'Analysis'.' So announces the former newsman turned adviser, Irwin Maurice Fletcher when the press corps is gathered in Fletch and the Man Who (1983). 'Any questions you have for me, write backwards and offer to your editors as think-pieces.

Fletch by Gregory McDonald