Wed 11 Apr 2012
Allen J. Hubin
JEREMIAH HEALY – Swan Dive. Harper & Row, hardcover, 1988. Pocket, paperback, 1989.
Your name is John Francis Cuddy, Boston private eye. You’ve lost your beloved wife to cancer, and you go frequently to commune at her gravesite, to leave a flower, to talk with her about what’s happening in your life.
What’s happening Is Nancy Meagher, an assistant D.A., whom you may come to love when your affections recover from wifely loss. What’s also happening is that a friend, a fearfully incompetent lawyer named Chris, with a wife in the latter stages of M.S., asks you to help in a divorce action he’s handling.
Wants you as a bodyguard, actually, since he’s afraid of the husband. With good reason, it develops, for soon you’re fighting for your life in the underbelly of the city, and the cops have your name on a double murder.
This is Swan Dive by Jeremiah Healy, a very satisfying read as Cuddy tries to find the way out of a no-win situation.
Vol. 11, No. 1, Winter 1989.
Editorial Comment: Swan Dive was the fourth of 13 novel adventures of PI John Francis Cuddy; there have also been two short story collections. Since the most recent novel was Spiral in 1999, it is safe to assume that after nearly automatic yearly appearances over a period of fifteen years, there will be no more.
April 11th, 2012 at 1:35 pm
I’ve always liked the Jeremiah Healy detective novels. Even though sometimes Cuddy worried me a little talking to his dead wife. I miss this series.
April 11th, 2012 at 1:48 pm
The Cuddy series was one of the better ones during the 80s and 90s, no doubt about it.
I’m not positive, but I think as time went on, Cuddy no longer needed those graveyard talks, or at least not as often. The concept did make his cases stand out from those of his contemporaries at the time.
April 11th, 2012 at 2:38 pm
Aha, sounds like reading list .
The Doc
April 11th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
I haven’t read all of the Cuddy books, but way back when, I know I read this one. If I remembered it — the details, that is — I’d recommend it as much as Al Hubin did.
Well, why not. I’ll recommend it anyway.
April 12th, 2012 at 10:16 am
I have news (late-breaking, at that)! Jerry is about to announce he’s writing a new Cuddy. He won’t say anything more about it (even to me), including whether it’s a sequel or prequel, but anyone who wants to be kept up-to-date should email him at jeremiah_healy@yahoo.com. Mysterious Press is re-issuing the first nine Cuddies–including Swan Dive–as ebooks, which is what got him thinking about a new one.
April 12th, 2012 at 10:34 am
Thanks, Sandy. This is great news!
June 18th, 2012 at 4:38 pm
More than great news. And, wouldn’t it be nice if somehow the events of Spiral could be altered. Just wishful thinking. He’s too tough for that, but it always makes me sad that Cuddy is alone having lost another love-of-his-life.