Gregory Mcdonald: Safekeeping (USA 1987)

From the Publisher:
"A RADICALLY DIFFERENT KIND OF HERO." -- Publishers Weekly
He's eight-year-old Robby Burnes, aka Robert James Saint James Burnes Walter Farhall-Pladroman, S. Nob. Robby's been raised on English marmalade and Churchill's rhetoric, so he's ready to keep a stiff upper lip even when the headmaster breaks the news that his parents have been killed in the London blitz... and he's to be shipped off to America before teatime -- for safekeeping.

A wonderful satiric romp through our national character, Robby's adventures in New York are peopled with characters straight out of Dickens and Damon Runyon. Witnessing a fight between a cabbie and a sidewalk Santa, becoming a media celebrity as "The Orphaned Duke," and even falling victim to a pair of inept kidnappers are all great fun... until someone commits murder. Then Mcdonald's delightful social criticism pierces to the bone, honed by the sharp edge of a little boy's fears.

"A WITTY WODEHOUSIAN GAVOTTE," writes Time, that moves "from the confines of an English boys' school to the streets of Harlem, with a beguiling stops in between." Kirkus Reviews calls Safekeeping "a blend of parody, farce, and sentiment... rich yet spare," and Publishers Weekly predicts that appealing Robby is "sure to be loved and remembered even by stony-hearted readers."

Gregory Mcdonald, two-time Edgar Allan Poe Award winner, is the author of the popular Fletch series, and of Flynn's In.

Gregory Mcdonald: Safekeeping. Laurel Trade Paperback / Dell Publ., ISBN: 0440575990 (November, 1987), 202 p., $7.95.

Gregory Mcdonald: Safekeeping (USA 1985)

From the Publisher:
"A RADICALLY DIFFERENT KIND OF HERO." -- Publishers Weekly
He's eight-year-old Robby Burnes, aka Robert James Saint James Burnes Walter Farhall-Pladroman, S. Nob. Robby's been raised on English marmalade and Churchill's rhetoric, so he's ready to keep a stiff upper lip even when the headmaster breaks the news that his parents have been killed in the London blitz... and he's to be shipped off to America before teatime -- for safekeeping.

A wonderful satiric romp through our national character, Robby's adventures in New York are peopled with characters straight out of Dickens and Damon Runyon. Witnessing a fight between a cabbie and a sidewalk Santa, becoming a media celebrity as "The Orphaned Duke," and even falling victim to a pair of inept kidnappers are all great fun... until someone commits murder. Then Mcdonald's delightful social criticism pierces to the bone, honed by the sharp edge of a little boy's fears.

"A WITTY WODEHOUSIAN GAVOTTE," writes Time, that moves "from the confines of an English boys' school to the streets of Harlem, with a beguiling stops in between." Kirkus Reviews calls Safekeeping "a blend of parody, farce, and sentiment... rich yet spare," and Publishers Weekly predicts that appealing Robby is "sure to be loved and remembered even by stony-hearted readers."

Gregory Mcdonald, two-time Edgar Allan Poe Award winner, is the author of the popular Fletch series, and of Flynn's In.

Gregory Mcdonald: Safekeeping. Mysterious Press, ISBN: 0892961392 (October, 1985), 202 p., $15.95.