THOMAS MAHON – The Fandango Involvement. Fawcett Gold Medal, paperback original; 1st printing, September 1981.

    Here’s a curious little book, one so far off the beaten path — especially as a mystery, although the evidence indicates that the author may have intended it to be something more than that — that without actually having it in hand, it’s hard to consider its ever being thought publishable.

    Billy Fandango is a dwarf with a lot of curiosity. A fellow employee at the company for which he’s a computer expert seems to live in agonized total isolation and to have aged years beyond his time. Why? Just as this man seems to be coming out of his shell, he commits suicide.

    Or is it? Naturally, Billy and his six-foot girlfriend decide that further investigation is in order.

    As I say, this is an unusual book, and so’s the ending, involving both Vietnam and the arms industry — and isn’t it strange to realize that Vietnam is now very nearly ancient history?

    But the whole affair is still strangely out of kilter. The story line reels and staggers like the proverbial drunken sailor, this way and that, and back again.

    It’s also overwritten by at least half a notch, with some of the worst of the flowery dialogue sounding as if it came straight from the pages of the latest Marvel comic book. It’s the best of its field, I grant you, but by no stretch of the imagination could anyone ever be considered as actually talking that way.

[UPDATE] 11-14-09. A curious little book indeed. What I remember about this book, other than what you’ve just read, is nothing. Zilch. I have no record of having owning this book, much less knowing where my copy would be. There are only six copies offered for sale on ABE. The good news is that if you wanted to buy a copy, you needn’t pay more than three or four dollars, plus shipping.

    It is the only work of fiction Mr. Mahon wrote. His other book is Charged Bodies: People, Power, and Paradox in Silicon Valley (New American Library, 1985). According to Contemporary Authors, he was born in 1944, was an independent film-maker for two or three years before turning to public relations in 1976, eventually starting his own PR agency in 1984.

    And at the moment, no cover image. If I had one, it might jar some memories loose, but so far I haven’t been able to come up with one.