Review: "Top Secret Kill" by James P. Cody (The D.C. Man)
Top Secret Kill
by James P. Cody
Brash Books, 2024
Top Secret Kill—originally
published as a paperback original by Berkley-Medallion in 1974—is the first of
four titles in the short-lived series, The D.C. Man, by the pseudonymous
James P. Cody. Brian Petersen is a Washington, D.C. lobbyist-turned-troubleshooter
that describes himself as a “former college football bum, former Army
intelligence type” that found contentment with a “domesticated” life. Petersen’s
happiness is shattered when his young daughter and wife are killed in an
automobile accident that sent him to the Florida Keys on a six-month bender. At
the coaxing of his father-in-law, a former senator, Petersen sobered-up, returned
to the District, and reopened his lobbying office.
But,
as Petersen explains, his work “started to drift into other, nastier and less
public, services for clients, services you wouldn’t want anybody to know
about.” Which is where Top Secret Kill begins. First with Petersen warning
off a blackmailer for a congressman and then—the real meat of the narrative—his
full-throttle investigation into the identity of the person leaking classified
intel from a Senate committee developing cost estimates for specific types of military
conflicts. It is a big job for a solo act like Brian Petersen, but a job
befitting his unrestrained, sometimes violent, and always secretive style.
Top
Secret Kill is
a cool thriller. It reads like a hybrid of men’s adventure and a private eye
yarn; perhaps 75-percent of the former and 25-percent of the latter. There is a
little mystery, including a calculated murder that sets Petersen on a vengeance
trail, a bunch of Cold War paranoia, a touch of commentary about the D.C. of
the 1970s, and a solid stream of action. With that said, the opening third of
the book is slowed by Petersen’s backstory, but stick with it because it picks
up in a hurry and by the midway mark the narrative sparks and slams home with a
satisfying bang. Top Secret Kill will appeal more to readers of men’s
adventure—think Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan—than general mystery readers, but it
is a cut (or two or three) above the standard in that too often (and usually unfairly)
maligned genre.
|
All four of The
D.C. Man books are back in print from Brash Books. These new
editions include an Introduction, written by Tom Simon, detailing his excellent
work uncovering the identity of James P. Cody—a former Roman Catholic priest
named, Peter Rohrbach. |
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