Two unconnected stories printed as one title. In the first "Stanched" th son of the ambassador from a Middle Eastern nation is kidnapped for political purposes that actually turn out to be personal. The kidnapping is not well planned and the ensuing adventures for Toby are frightening but reveal great resourcefulness in the eight-year old boy. "Safekeeping" has a similar theme, but the young heir of an English dukedom ends up in America bouncing from one incapable guardian to another, learning to value meals and shelter when they turn up. ( )

I didn't finish this book. I only had to read a few pages to realize it's more true crime than mystery. I probably should have looked at it a little more closely in the library before checking it out.

Hard Case Crime’s latest selection is a two-for-one double bill that harkens back to the old Ace Double paperbacks. Snatch offers us not one, but two, novels from Gregory McDonald, both reprints. The first is “Snatched,” a 1978 book, also released as “Who Took Toby Rinaldi?.” The second is “Safekeeping,” a 1985 book. The two novels, whose pages add up to a whopping 448 pages (two complete novels for the price of one) are wholly distinct, separate, and unrelated, but sharing the fact that both involve kidnapping of somewhat precocious eight-year-olds, diplomatic intrigue, and satire. Neither of the two novels, moreover, is the usual hardboiled fare that one expects from Hard Case Crime.

I have never read McDonald before, who is best known for his Fletch series of eleven novels issued between 1974 and 1994, a comedic detective endeavor, involving a journalist and a murder-for-hire, widely known because it was turned into a movie vehicle for Chevy Chase. Having never been a Chevy Chase fan (I’m more of a Belushi fan), I unfairly and unjustly have avoided the Fletch novels as well as the movie.

“Who Took Toby Rinaldi,” the first of the two Snatch novels is a comedic crime caper that reminds me quite a bit of some of Donald Westlake’s comedic crime novels. It is a bit tongue-in-cheek and involves a diplomatic mission to the United Nations, a plot to kidnap the diplomat’s young son, and the oddest of kidnappers. The novel has a made-to-be-a-movie feel to it and, with the right cast, it could be quite humorous and successful. The best parts of the book involve young Toby who hasn’t quite got the idea that he is a kidnapping victim being held against his will and the ex-con who holds him hostage. The pair play Marco Polo at a motel pool with other children and end up at Fantasyland, an eratz-Disneyland type place where all kinds of action takes place, often in comedic fashion. For my tastes, this was the better of the two Snatch novels.

The second Snatch novel is “Safekeeping,” and begins in a prim and proper British boarding school during the Second World War. There are some odd scenes involving the head of the school and it is really tongue-in-cheek stuff. Somewhat Oliver Twist-like, young Robby becomes an orphan when his parents’ home is bombed by the Germans and he is shuttled off as an orphan to America for safekeeping. There, his adventures begin in earnest as a drunken reporter takes him in and sends him off to school in the morning, with the advice that he should walk in concentric circles growing ever wider around the apartment until he found the local school. Robby is spotted as the heir to a noble British peerage and kidnapped by an odd collection of kidnappers. Again, as in the Toby Rinaldi novel, at first, Robby doesn’t always seem to get the idea that he is indeed a kidnapping victim, although later on he gets it. As with the first novel in this two-novel collection, the second novel also appears written with a possible eye to a movie tie-in. One can just picture some of these oddball characters on the big screen.

Both novels in this collection are enjoyable and easy to read. Remember when reading them that they are meant to be funny, odd, and humorous. ( )