Bear Hug: A Tom Bethany Mystery [Paperback]

Jerome Doolittle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 6, 2000 | Series: Tom Bethany

"Tom Bethany is some guy Mr. Doolittle is a slick stylist. His characters have heft they talk like the people they're supposed to be."New York times."Riveting. As full of tension as Christmas Eve shopping at Toys'R'Us"Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post."Ranks with Robert Parker, Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain and Ross Thomas as a high-voltage storyteller:"Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Doolittle ( Strangle Hold ) drops Boston PI Tom Bethany into a shark tank of S & L looters who gathered under deregulation and slipped through the federal (read Republican) net with the cash clenched in very sharp teeth. Bethany champions four Boston retirees who invested in Sunbanc, a failed Texas savings and loan run by Dr. Denton Somerville, who escaped retribution by dying. Brought up to speed on how the S & L rats operated by Washington contracts from his Carter campaign days, Bethany also learns that without a few hundred lawyers and investigators for as many trials, he has no chance of getting the duffers' money back--legally. Deciding to track the leftover loot anyway, the PI heads for Houston. Posing as a reporter, he interviews memorable locals, happy to spill their guts about the Doc and his widow, Billene, now grieving on her yacht off the coast of Maine with a muscular companion. When his cover is blown, Bethany barely escapes to the rough seas awaiting him in New England. Tension mounts as he closes in and Doolittle deals out some tricky, though not totally unexpected final surprises. A welcome sequel--Bethany is a Travis McGee for the '90s.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Scientific American

Doolittle, who has been a Carter speech writer and once ran a cafe in Vientiane, Laos, ranks with Robert Parker, Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain and Ross Thomas as a high-voltage storyteller, and that is exalted company. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (November 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595146007
• ISBN-13: 978-0595146000
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,527,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

What a man was passionate about at the age of 12 is probably what he should make his life's work. I was chasing frogs and snakes and other small animals in the outdoors, but at the same time I was addicted to reading and wound up making the wrong choice.

I became a reporter, columnist and editor for the old Washington Daily News and for the Washington Post. Following that I free-lanced for the Saturday Evening Post, Sports Illustrated, Holiday, the Nation, Penthouse, Oui, Esquire, and the Readers Digest.

In 1966 I joined the U.S. Information Agency, serving in Casablanca before becoming press attache in our Laos embassy during the war. I resigned over there and went back to free-lance reporting, in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

On returning to the United States in 1972, I wrote two volumes of the Time-Life Books wilderness series. In 1976 I joined the Carter campaign, ending up as a White House speechwriter and later chief of public affairs for the Federal Aviation Administration.

When Reagan fired us all, I wrote my first novel, "The Bombing Officer," and spent five years teaching writing at Harvard. There I began the Tom Bethany mystery series, which I may yet revive.

I recent years I've been blogging at http://badattitudes.com/MT/ on politics, culture, and whatever else catches my interest. And lately, having at last become old enough to figure out what actually matters, I have been running around in the woods again. This is in pursuit of a book on the community of herpetology -- humans and reptiles both -- in the United States.

Ideas, leads, anecdotes, suggestions, and pictures are all welcome and may be sent to my gmail account. To the left of the ampersand, type: jerome.doolittle

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tom Bethany bares the bears, June 4, 2001

By 

Bridget Hockney (Jacksonville, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bear Hug: A Tom Bethany Mystery (Paperback)

Enjoyable read from fun author Jerome Doolittle. Tom takes on the S & L corporates in the most unusual of ways. You _think_ you've read the routine via Crais' Elvis or Parker's Spenser, but you ain't seen nothing til you've met Jerome and a few of his friends. Go ahead, get the book. You won't be sorry.