If you are looking for a mystery forget it. The mystery is secondary to the rest of the story and is only really approached in the remaining 30 pages of the book. I found "Skylar" to be a better book, because the story was more original. As mentioned by one of the previous reviews that story centers around Jonathan Whitfield a "yankee" being the fish out of water around his cousin Skylar's southern surroundings. It seems this book was written just for the heck of it to see what it would be like to have Skylar up north. In "Skylar" we learn that the dumb hick image that Skylar puts on is all a facade and that he is truly a clever person. This story while showing glimpses of his intelligence disappointingly reverts to this original perception and it feels like you are reading the same story again. If you are interested in reading a Gregory MacDonald book then read one of the earlier Fletch novels. They don't actually read like the Chevy Chase movies but they are witty and worth the time (with the occasional weak book in the mix). If you have already read all the Fletch stories then you can give "Skylar" a try, but don't expect it to be on par with them. I would recommend the Flynn stories: "The Buck Passes Flynn","Flynn", & "Flynn's In" (about a boston detective/government agent). You may not be able to order them but you can be sure to find them in a used book store, and they are definitely more worth while than the Skylar books
I found "Skylar" to be a better book, because the story was more original