Fletch
Gregory Mcdonald
 The first Fletch novel (1974) introduces I. M. Fletcher, a journalist and ex-marine staying on a beach watching the drug culture for a story, waiting to find the dealer's source before publishing an exposé. A millionaire businessman named Alan Stanwyk approaches Fletch to hire Fletch to murder him; the man tells Fletch that he is dying of bone cancer and wants to avoid a slow, painful death. Fletch accepts $1000 in cash to listen to the man's proposition; the man offers him $20,000 for the murder, and Fletch talks him up to $50,000 in an effort to see if the man is serious. He appears to be serious, and Fletch begins investigating the man's story in between investigating the drug story on the beach and avoiding the two attorneys after him for alimony for each of his ex-wives.