The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 13 May 2015
by Thomas B. Dewey
Not to be confused with Thomas E. Dewey, who ran for and almost won the presidency from Harry Truman in 1948, Thomas B. Dewey was a prolific author of hard-boiled mystery novels from the mid 1940s to the early 70s. This is one of his later efforts, a gritty look at the dissolution and crime within the hippie culture of Los Angeles in the foggy afterglow at the end of the sixties. Mac is a Chicago private detective, hired at the outset by a man who wants his runaway daughter found and brought home. But she has already been gone for months, and that alerts Mac that something isn't quite right about this otherwise basic missing person investigation. Still, Mac heads to Los Angeles and checks in to the Ambassador Hotel. He quickly picks up some leads and finds the runaway Dawn living in a hippie community along Fairfax Avenue. There's nothing particulary up with her. She just doesn't want to be found by her parents, like so many other runaway hippie kids. But Mac discovers that Dawn's boyfriend, Bill, is tangled up in something bigger and deadlier than any peace-loving hippie really wants to be involved with. After all, it is after the Summer of Love, and the hippie dream is fading. The drug of choice isn't so much pot or any number of hallucinogens, but methadrine, speed to keep you going. It's a dark aspect of the late hippie era, and Mac, and by extension the author, is somewhat sympathetic to the sad facts. Anyway, like any good crime story, there is a brutal murder, some chases across the Los Angeles landscape, a brawl or two with the Hell's Angels, and a gritty but accomodating police lieutenant letting Mac help with the investigations. Not all is as it seems, of course. But this is a quick moving and short novel. It doesn't get too complicated. Today, it seems a picture of a long-ago time. In its day, it was a window to the counterculture. Still, Dewey avoids the big events of the day. There isn't any mention of hippie politics, the Vietnam war, or the fact of the famous assassination that took place at the very hotel where Mac stays. It stays a pretty basic if picturesque crime story.
[Other Mystery and Suspense Books]