Tue 14 Aug 2012
Archived Review: JEROME DOOLITTLE – Body Scissors.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[3] Comments
JEROME DOOLITTLE – Body Scissors. Pocket, hardcover, 1990; reprint paperback, November 1991.
On the cover is a quote from the Washington Post, calling this a “riveting political thriller.” Well, I had some doubts, but I read it anyway. What does the Washington Post know? They may think this book is a political thriller, since that’s what they’re looking for, but just between you and me, what this really is is a top-notch PI story instead.
I admit that it’s a little hard to argue the point, since on page 14, even Tom Bethany says he’s not a PI: “…I’m sort of a researcher, sort of a political consultant.” He works primarily for politicians and campaign committees, apparently, looking for leaks, trying to stop leaks before they start, that sort of thing. His home base is Cambridge, near Harvard Yard, and as you may know, Boston politics do get a little nasty at times.
He’s hired to check out a prospective Secretary of State in this case, however, to avoid another Eagleton affair, and if the work he does isn’t PI work, I’ll turn in my trenchcoat at once. What strikes his eye first is the unsolved death of J. Alden Kellicott’s daughter, a victim of Boston’s once-notorious Combat Zone.
That, plus some some niggling doubts about Kellicott’s character, found by industrious research and a knack on Bethany’s part to get people to start talking. Doolittle, whose first novel this is, certainly doesn’t show it. He’s a whiz at dialogue, and he has a tremendous amount of insight into his characters and the relationships existing between them.
I quibbled a little about this being a political thriller — but as you can see, the statement’s not that far off base — and the adjective “riveting” is well taken. Myself, I’d use the phrase “prose that tingles with anticipation” — it’s that good.
Unfortunately, Bethany also makes four major errors as the detective in this case. Since Doolittle is ultimately responsible for those as well, maybe I should point them out to you, but of course with the usual [WARNING: Plot Alert!! ]. Here they are, my advice to any new PI’s on the block:
(1) Don’t leave would-be assassins hanging around at loose ends.
(2) When you work with guns, don’t forget to check the bottom of the barrel.
(3) When you bait a trap, don’t let the cheese stand alone.
(4) When the rat takes the bait, don’t leave the cat on guard.
There you go. No charge for these. Don’t leave home without them. But now I’m being serious: if you’re a PI fan, don’t miss this book.
The Tom Bethany series —
Body Scissors. Pocket, 1990.
Strangle Hold. Pocket, 1991.
Bear Hug. Pocket, 1992.
Head Lock. Pocket, 1993.
Half Nelson. Pocket, 1994.
Kill Story, Pocket, 1995.
August 14th, 2012 at 9:55 pm
As I recall, and I may be wrong about this, I enjoyed this first book in the series enough to buy it in hardcover, after first obtaining it in paperback. I also think I own the entire series in hardcover, which puts it into a very elite class.
Have I read them all? At least the next two or three. After that, all bets are off.
One other note. While looking for some other files, I found a complete set of my reviews for Mystery*File issues #36 through 38. They were on those old small hard floppies, which I’d stored away and forgotten I still had them.
The zines themselves are stored elsewhere. The advantage of finding the reviews on disk is that I don’t have to scan them in. Uploading time, including adding images, around 30 minutes.
August 15th, 2012 at 6:12 am
Just checked my database and find I did indeed read them all as they came out. I remember meeting Doolittle at a couple of conventions and getting to tell him how much I liked the series.
August 15th, 2012 at 10:41 am
Doolittle was born in 1933 and while no longer writing, the Tom Bethany books and some others are available as ebooks and online downloads.
From http://www.badattitudes.com/Doolittle.html :
“Jerome Doolittle is a former reporter, columnist, and editor for the Washington Daily News and the Washington Post. He left journalism to join the United States Information Agency in Casablanca and in Laos, where he was the embassy spokesman during the secret war waged in that country by the CIA and the U.S. Air Force.
“Upon resigning, Doolittle covered the war in Vietnam and Cambodia for various magazines and newspapers. He returned to the United States before the communist takeover of Indochina, going to work in Jimmy Carter’s press office during the 1976 Presidential campaign. For the first two years of the Carter administration he was a White House speech writer; for the last two he was chief of public affairs for the Federal Aviation Administration.
“He has taught at Harvard, and has published two books in Time-Life’s American wilderness series, as well as The Bombing Officer, a novel about the secret air war in Laos. Body Scissors was his first Tom Bethany mystery. The others are Strangle Hold, Bear Hug, Head Lock, Half Nelson, and Kill Story. Bethany is a onetime political operative, Air America pilot, and college wrestler who lives in Cambridge.”