THE ARMCHAIR REVIEWER
Allen J. Hubin


MILTON BASS – The Belfast Connection. New American Library, hardcover, 1988. Signet, paperback, 1989.

    Benny Freedman is not your average American cop, and The Belfast Connection is not your average American cop’s adventure. Milton Bass introduced his lieutenant in the San Diego homicide department three novels back, and by now Benny is worth $49 million through some convenient if unplanned inheriting.

    The money came with mob fingerprints all over it, but Benny sorted that out earlier. The millions don’t interest Freedman greatly, though sometimes they come in handy; he’d just as soon be investigating murder. But here a minor injury has sidelined him for the statutory twelve-week sick leave, so he decides to explore his roots.

    His Irish roots. On his mother’s side, obviously. When his Jewish father (now dead) married his mother (now also dead), her intensely Catholic family denounced her. Thirty years later, Benny figures he’d like to find out what sort of people would do that, and maybe punch a few of them in the nose.

    He comes to Belfast to find cousin Sean is freshly dead, of what is confidently assumed to be a Protestant bullet. So this Irish-Jew cop of ours is plunged into the sectarian wars of that ravaged city, a place where human answers are as unknown as dying is familiar. A fascinating tale.

— From The MYSTERY FANcier, Vol. 11, No. 4, Fall 1989.


Bio-Bibliographic Notes:

       The Benny Freedman series —

MILTON BASS

   Dirty Money. Signet, pbo, 1986.
   The Moving Finger. Signet, pbo, 1986.
   The Bandini Affair. Signet, pbo, 1987.
   The Belfast Connection. NAL, hc, 1988.

  Bass also wrote two mystery novels in his Vinnie Altobelli series: The Half-Hearted Detective (1993) and The Broken-Hearted Detective (1994), plus one stand-alone thriller in hardcover: Force Red (1970).

  From one online website: “Milton Ralph Bass was born [1923] and raised in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1947 and a Master’s in English from Smith College in 1948. During World War II, he served in the army as a medic. In 1986, he retired from The Berkshire Eagle after 35 years as entertainment editor, theater and movie critic.”

 
Milton Bass was the author of at least four western novels, all in his “Jory” series: Jory (1969), Mistr Jory (1976), Gunfighter Jory (1987), and Sherff Jory (1987). I’ve never seen any of them, but Bill Crider reviewed the first one a couple of years ago on his blog.

[UPDATE] 01-20-11.   As I’ve just discovered, Mr. Bass is not yet fully retired. He’s still doing a weekly online column for The Berkshire Eagle. Here’s a link to a piece he did last Sunday on the occasion of his 88th birthday.