Fri 12 Mar 2021
An Archived PI Review by Barry Gardner: JEROME DOOLITTLE – Kill Story.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[5] Comments
JEROME DOOLITTLE – Kill Story. Tom Bethany #6. Pocket Books, hardcover, 1995; paperback, 1996.
Doolittle had told me in a letter that this was going to be called Spread Eagle. but said at EyeCon that Pocket Books had decided the original title might be offensive. He didn’t really understand why, and neither do I. Oh, well.
Tom Bethany lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and makes his living doing … well, sort of whatever comes to hand. He’s managed to extract himself from all the databases most of us are in, and officially he doesn’t really exist But he’s real, and an old friend asks for his help when one of her old friends is found dead, an apparent suicide.
She’s not sure it is, but if it was feels the woman was driven to it by the newspaper publishing baron who bought her newspaper, and then fired many of her old friends. The man is known as “the Cobra” in the business, and not because of his looks. Bethany doesn’t know if there’s anything there, but a friend’s a friend and he agrees to poke around in the rubble.
I think Doolittle is one of consistently best storytellers in the business. Sometimes his plots requite a little suspension of disbelief, but never more than I’ve been able to handle. Bethany, the ex-college wrestler and ex-government pilot in Southeast Asia, is simply a tremendously appealing (and irreverent) character. The first person narration is smooth and witty, but not burdened with a wisecrack every other sentence.
Doolittle’s books are not “heavy,†and are notably free of angst. What they are is entertaining, and readable, and very much worth your time and mine.
The Tom Bethany series —
1. Body Scissors (1990)
2. Strangle Hold (1991)
3. Bear Hug (1992)
4. Head Lock (1993)
5. Half Nelson (1994)
6. Kill Story (1995)
March 12th, 2021 at 9:10 pm
There is an overview of Doolittle’s life and career on the MYSTERY SCENE site. Written by Brian Skupin, here’s a paragraph that answers the first question that came to me while formatting this old review to post:
“There were six novels in the series, starting with Body Scissors, and each put Bethany into a troubleshooting role, usually against a political or newspaper background. Bethany is a wisecracker, and Doolittle turns his experience to good advantage by dropping him into the utterly ludicrous yet completely believable situations that can occur only in those milieus. The books received outstanding reviews but the publisher, Pocket Books, was acquired just before the sixth book came out, and in the ensuing turmoil Doolittle’s contract was not renewed.”
https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/blog-article/2338-whats-happening-withjerome-doolittle
March 13th, 2021 at 7:08 am
I know I read at least the first three of these, and enjoyed them. As a matter of fact, Doolittle has been at some recent Bouchercons and I did get to briefly tell him that I liked his books. It’s been a long time, but as I vaguely recall, the wrestling did come into the books.
March 13th, 2021 at 1:34 pm
I have been wondering about that, too. I’ve read maybe three myself, but I just don’t what the wrestling connection was either, if any.
March 13th, 2021 at 8:33 pm
It’s striking how much this setup sounds like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher in the synopsis. It practical terms it was much better written and more believable in Doolittle’s hands.
March 13th, 2021 at 9:58 pm
I confess I didn’t see that in Barry’s review, but now that you mention it…