Sun 15 Oct 2023
A 1001 Midnights Review: R. B. DOMINIC – There Is No Justice.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Reviews[6] Comments
by Ellen Nehr
R. B. DOMINIC – There Is No Justice. Ben Safford #3. Doubleday Crime Club. hardcover, 1971. Paperjacks, paperback, 1985/6?.
A well-kept secret for a time, but now common knowledge, is that authors of this series are Mary Jane Latsis and Martha Henissart, the collaborative team that also writes as Emma Lathen. Quite different in tone from the world of Wall Street depicted in their John Putnam Thatcher series, the Dominic books concern the inner workings of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., and related activities in Newburg. Ohio. the place from which Benton Safford (D-Ohio) is biennially elected. Safford’s legislative cohorts, Eugene Valingham Oakes (R-S.D.), Anthony Martinelli (D-R.I.), and Elsie Hollenbach (R-Calif.), serve their districts and the rest of the United States (in that order).
Coleman Ives (who was born and raised in Stafford’s district) has been nominated by a Republican president to serve as a member of the Supreme Court. The hearings are being conducted by the Senate’s Judiciary Committee. A member of the Senate who has opposed Ives’s nomination is murdered while jogging, but Ives has a perfect alibi, since he was in New York City at the time.
Safford’s involvement in the investigation deepens when another, evidently related murder takes place at a college graduation at which he is present. Intermittent conversations with his friends, usually over a couple of drinks in his office at the end of the day, make Ben and the reader aware of some gossip. rumor, and home truths about Ives, his personal activities, and the ongoing investigations, both political and police.
Each book in this series features some aspect of a congressman’s job, such as hearings on educational television or applications of the Pure Food and Drug Act. The constant and varying demands on these elected officials, the way members of Congress really behave and react on a day-to-day basis, and the behind-the-scenes activities of working Washington are well depicted by Dominic. Readers who enjoy identifying a character’s real life prototype will have fun with a number of the characters.
Other novels featuring this legislative quartet are Murder in High Place (1970), in which they were introduced, and Epitaph for a Lobbyist(1974).
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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 Ben(ton) Safford series —
Murder Sunny Side Up. Abelard-Schuman 1968
Murder in High Place. Doubleday 1970
There Is No Justice. Doubleday, 1971.
Epitaph for a Lobbyist. Doubleday, 1974.
Murder Out of Commission. Doubleday, 1976.
The Attending Physician. Harper, 1980.
Unexpected Developments. St. Martin’s, 1984.
October 16th, 2023 at 1:10 am
A very timely reprint, Steve! The mind reels with inappropriate comments that would elicit pages of equally inappropriate replies.
So I’ll just say It seems rather quaint to think of something as tame as murder in today’s Congress.
October 16th, 2023 at 1:38 pm
This blog, Dan, is usually as untimely as it gets, and I apologize for slipping up like this. I think it appropriate to say that I will be a lot more careful again from now on.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:47 am
Memory Time:
In 1971, I was twenty years old, and still pretty much a neophyte in my mystery buffhood.
I’d scour the spinner racks at Walgreen’s and Kresge’s, looking for names I’d seen in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine; when I learned that Kroch’s & Brentano’s had a branch at a nearby mall, I started checking out the hardcovers (which back then topped out at around four or five dollars) – and once I started working for a living, my fate was sealed.
It was in 1971 that I picked up There Is No Justice, basically sight unseen: I’d never heard of “R.B. Dominic”, but the jacket blurb sounded interesting, so I plunked down the four bucks, took it home – and I loved it!
Funny thing: through paperbacks, I was already a fan of “Emma Lathen” – I wasn’t even aware that it was two women, let alone that they had another series going.
Once I did know – well, I tried to sell people I knew on Lathen/Dominic … but unfortunately, mysteries weren’t selling well to my “demographic” (and the less I say about that the better).
Anyhow, we skip ahead to 2023 – and after all these years, I still have all the Emma Lathen/ R.B. Dominic books, in a safe place in my home, where I can revisit them any time I want to (and one of these days, I just might …).
Of course,they’re all period pieces of a sort, but fortunately, I can recall the periods involved (more or less first-hand), so there’s that.
I guess that reading mysteries from all time frames has given me a reinforced sense of history: all I need to do is check the copyright date, and I can make the adjustment to enjoy the story (this may be the only way that I can consider getting older a benefit).
I seem to be out of gas here; anybody want to pick this up, feel free …
October 16th, 2023 at 1:47 pm
Back in 1971, I was buying books almost exclusively in paperback. I couldn’t afford to buy more than one or two hardcovers a year. Keep in mind that $4 then is the same as $30 now. That’s a big chunk of change.
I did obtain this one in hardcover, though, as well as all of the Crime Club books. I was reviewing books for the HARTFORD COURANT back then (the column was called the “Courant Coroner”), and I asked the PR dept at Doubleday to send all of the Crime Club’s to me, and surprisingly enough, they did. Like you, I still have most of them.
I think it was Jon Breen who came up with the fact that Emma Lathen and R. C. Dominic were one and the same.
October 16th, 2023 at 3:13 pm
You mean two and the same – Latsis and Hennissart = Lathen + Dominic, right?
Or is that four and the same … ?
Or something like that?
That boxful of books is looking better all the time …
October 16th, 2023 at 8:00 pm
I read Lathen regularly, but never got into these, something I regret because the Lathen books were outstanding.