God Save the Mark: A Novel of Crime and Confusion

WINNER OF THE EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL* mark n. An easy victim; a ready subject for the practices of a confidence man thief beggar etc.; a sucker. - Dictionary of American Slang Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 1960. Thats the long definition of a mark. But theres a shorter one. It goes: . * mark n. Fred Fitch. What you ask is a Fred Fitch? . Fred Fitch is the man with the most extensive collection of fake receipts phony bills of sale and counterfeit sweepstakes tickets in the Western Hemisphere and possibly in the entire world. When Barnum said Theres one born every minute and two to take him he didnt know about Fred Fitch; when Fred Fitch was born there were two million to take him.. Every itinerant grifter hypester bunk artist short-conner amuser shearer short-changer green-goods worker pennyweighter ring dropper and yentzer to hit New York City considers his trip incomplete until hes also hit Fred Fitch. Hes sort of the con-mans version of Go: Pass Fred Fitch collect two hundred dollars and move on.. What happens to Fred Fitch when his long-lost Uncle Matt dies and leaves Fred three hundred thousand dollars shouldnt happen to the ball in a pinball machine. Fred Fitch with three hundred thousand dollars is like a mouse with a sack of catnip: Hes likely to attract the wrong kind of attention.. Add to this the fact that Uncle Matt was murdered by person or persons unknown and that someone now seems determined to murder Fred as well mix in two daffily charming beauties of totally different types and you have a perfect setup for the busiest fictional hero since the well-known one-armed paperhanger. . As Fred Fitch careers across the New York City landscape-and sometimes skyline-in his meetings with cops con men beautiful girls and (maybe) murderers he takes on some of the loonier aspects of a Dante without a Virgil. Take one part comedy and one part suspense and shake well--mostly with laughter.