Body Scissors: A Tom Bethany Mystery [Hardcover]

Jerome Doolittle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1990

"Fast, tricky, raunchy to the core funniest thing since Spencer"Carl Hiaasen."Lands Doolittle in the front rank of political thriller novelists"Ross Thomas."Four-star, Class-A thriller:"Cleveland Plain Dealer."Ranks with Robert Parker, Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain and Ross Thomas as a high-voltage storyteller:"Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this realistic, sharply penned mystery, freelance "researcher" Tom Bethany, hired to ferret out potential embarrassments in the life of a Boston Brahmin, turns up the perpetrator of an unspeakable murder. A Vietnam veteran who has made the U.S. Olympic wrestling team, Bethany is asked to perform a routine background check on scholarly Alden Kellicott, who is the likely choice of a presidential hopeful for Secretary of State. Bethany learns the blueblood married into his current station and, early in life, displayed a certain cunning. More intriguing are hints that Kellicott frequented adult bookstores in Boston's "Combat Zone," although the powerful nominee says he had simply been searching for his runaway daughter, Emily, who had turned to drugs and prostitution in her teens and was eventually murdered by her pimp, according to Kellicott and the Boston Public Defender. But Bethany's investigation reveals Emily, neither whore nor drug fiend, was an aspiring artist, and the alleged pimp, whose initials were found sliced into her breasts, turns out to be not at all as expected. Shortly before Kellicott's nomination is to be announced, Bethany turns to extralegal methods in his search for the truth, leading to a riveting, unpredictable resolution. Doolittle's ( The Bombing Officer ) stylized dialogue can wear thin but does not diminish his vividly drawn players.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Tom Bethany, security consultant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, narrates this commendable first mystery about a wealthy professor hoping to become the next Secretary of State. Hired to research the man's background for any hint of scandal, Bethany can find nothing wrong until he looks into the unsolved murder of the professor's wayward daughter. The more involved he becomes with the case, the more he realizes that the police fumbled their investigation. Bethany, a Vietnam veteran who distrusts government, is a sturdy and methodical--if somewhat unorthodox--protagonist made human by his love for a married woman. Solid procedure, realistic environment, interesting-if-unspectacular plot recommend this to most collections.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 229 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books; 1ST edition (October 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671707523
• ISBN-13: 978-0671707521
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,138,638 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

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why is this Book not a Best seller !, May 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Body Scissors: A Tom Bethany Mystery (Paperback)

BODY SCISSORS BY JEROME DOOLITTLE

The first novel to introduce Tom Bethany, a quirky, enigmantic PI, with a mysterious past, ex-Air America, Ex-CIA, ex-Harvard, and a Semi-Pro Wrestler, now acting as Left Wing Muscle. The character is very much like the Writer in background, and if you missed Doolittle?s books you are in for a suprise. They really predate the Lehane, Burke Hiasson, Harlan Coben and Crais books, Very funny, ironic, Trageic but ultimately uplifting.

The story centres on Bethany being hired to check up on the past of a US Senator, due to be enrolled as Secretary of State. The Repubulicans hire Tough Guy Tom Bethany to check out any skeleton?s in the Professors Closet, and the adventure gets vary hairy, and sureall. The climax is very disturbing, and not for the faint of heart.

One of the best books I?ve read in a long time, cozy, but very shocking, as it lulls you into a false sense of security. Catches you on Page one, and then the squeeze is on. Thankfully back in print.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than Spenser!, February 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Body Scissors (Paperback)

Doolittle raps out hit after hit in the hard-boiled mystery category. The true mystery is why he is not a best-selling star. If you like caustic wit, a progressive social consciousness, and a vicarious chance to hit back at the corrupt rich and powerful, check this book out.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great political thriller with a very appealing protagonist., April 11, 2008

By 

Michael G. "mikefromrochester" (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Body Scissors: A Tom Bethany Mystery (Paperback)

Body Scissors by Jerome Doolittle is a sensational Boston based murder mystery made all the more interesting by a tie-in to politics at the highest level.
Tom Bethany, investigator extrordinaire, is hired by the campaign of a Presidential candidate to find out everything there is to know about Professor Alden Kellicott, a potential nominee for the lofty position of Secretary of State.
Kellicott is eminently qualified for the job, though some who know him rather well question his ethical standards. The professor's personal life is quite unremarkable except for the fact his wife is independently wealthy and his daughter was tragically murdered two years before. Emily Kellicott, age 26 and estranged from her family, was found strangled to death in a snowbank outside the low rent massage parlor in which she worked.
Bethany proves to be a very appealing protagonist. A former Olympic class wrestler, Bethany is tough to be sure. A cynic's cynic, he chooses to live his life under the radar. But when it comes to investigating, he is as relentlessly thorough as can be. When his preliminary undercover work almost gets him murdered, Mr. Bethany realizes he has stumbled onto something big.
This is a fantastic page turner of a book. The mystery of Emily's murder is a compelling one and Tom Bethany is one of the most interesting fictional crimesolvers to come down the literary pike in quite some time.
Read Body Scissors. You will find it to be well written and very satisfying. An enthusiastic 5 stars.