Thu 15 Jun 2023
A 1001 Midnights Review: JANE DENTINGER – First Hit of the Season.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[7] Comments
by Julie Smith
JANE DENTINGER – First Hit of the Season. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1984. Dell, paperback, 1985. Penguin, paperback, 1993.
Critic Jason Saylin used his typewriter like a machete, hacking bits and pieces off the reputation of his least favorite actress almost daily. The lady in question, Irene Ingersoll, hated him so much she once dumped a plate of fettucini on him in a restaurant. Which was absolutely no reason to suspect her of doing him in — even though she had excellent opportunity and ample motive.
Or such is the theory of Ingersoll’s pal, actress and amateur sleuth Jocelyn O’ Roarke. O’ Roarke happens to be the girlfriend of Phillip Gerrard, the detective assigned to the case, who wants her of course, to mind her own business. And that, luckily for Dentinger’s readers, is about as likely as Sarah Bernhardt’s return to the stage.
Dentinger introduced the likable O’Roarke in her first book, the very well-reviewed Murder on Cue, published in 1983. She’s plucky, smart, and deliciously caustic: “The muscles in Maxine’s face twitched as much as two face jobs would let them.” Dentinger, an actress herself, writes with an insider’s knowledge of Manhattan’s theatrical subculture and with a literacy obviously achieved by voracious reading of books as well as plays. Fans of witty, witchy dialogue will find themselves laughing out loud.
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Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007. Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.
The Jocelyn O’Roarke series —
1. Murder on Cue (1983)
2. First Hit of the Season (1984)
3. Death Mask (1988)
4. Dead Pan (1992)
5. The Queen is Dead (1994)
6. Who Dropped Peter Pan? (1995)
June 16th, 2023 at 8:36 pm
I read one of the first two books in this series, or maybe even both of them, but I couldn’t tell you which one. What I can confirm is that Julie Smith was right. Deliciously funny. I don’t know why I read so few of them.
June 16th, 2023 at 9:27 pm
A funny series that I suppose today would involve quilting and or cats. Then they were just smart mystery novels with a clever likable female sleuth. Sparkling wit may not be absent these days, but it doesn’t sparkle with quite the same impact too often.
June 17th, 2023 at 10:16 am
An earlier Mystery*File review of this work: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=53340
June 17th, 2023 at 12:37 pm
I remembered reading it. What I didn’t remember was reviewing it. Glad to see that I did. Thanks, Bill!
June 21st, 2023 at 2:22 pm
Jane Dentinger used to work at Carol Brener’s Murder Ink on Manhattan’s upper West Side, and I remember dropping in one day and her telling me that she’d just sold this book to Crime Club. I congratulated her and wished her good luck but never read it or any of her other novels.
June 23rd, 2023 at 3:41 pm
A big hello to Ed, with whom I have a mutual friend in my main man Gilbert Colon. While working at Viking back in the early to mid-1990s, I had the honor and pleasure of being Jane’s publicist, and spending delightful time hanging out with her at, e.g., Bouchercon. She was (and I presume still is) an estimable combination of talent and personality.
June 23rd, 2023 at 4:13 pm
Jane Dentinger may have been a guest and/or panelist at a mystery convention in Philadelphia I was able to attend many years ago. If it was she, and I’m fairly sure it was, yes, Matthew, she was then and I’m sure still is now, a very personable woman. And Ed, if you still have one of her books, do give it a try.