A Jade in Aries

Mitch Tobin #4

by Tucker Coe (Pseudonym), Donald E. Westlake

To find a gay man’s killer, Mitch Tobin looks to the stars

Disgraced ex-cop Mitch Tobin is digging in his basement when he meets Ronald Cornell. A gay man from downtown Brooklyn whose partner was recently murdered, Cornell wants Tobin’s assistance in an investigation that the NYPD has declared hopeless. Tobin sympathizes—he once lost a partner of his own, a fellow cop whose death he was partially responsible for—and asks how he can help. Cornell has a list of six suspects, and all he needs to know about them is where they were born and at what time, so he can make their star charts. Tobin has just met the world’s first astrological detective.

He tries to keep out of Cornell’s harebrained investigation, but the cosmos has other plans. Whoever murdered Cornell’s lover is not through with killing, and Tobin must delve deep into the lives a group of friends even more marginalized than he is in order to keep this hapless astrologer from coming to harm.

Genres: Mystery, Ebooks

231 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

A pseudonym used by Donald E. Westlake.

Series:
* Mitch Tobin

Reviews

[Robert Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting crime thriller released in 1970, just one year after the Stonewall gay rights riot. Damaged and guilt ridden Mitch Tobin, disgraced ex cop, is reluctantly drawn in to investigate the murder of a gay successful men's boutique store owner by the victim's partner in life and business. The homophobic cop assigned to investigate has written the murder off as a pick-up gone bad. Mitch Tobin is quite astounded the victim's partner faultless methodical approach to find who the possible murderer could be, narrowing it down to seven suspects without firm alibis. But then he is stumped to go any further and turns to astrology for inspiration, but fails, thus bringing in Mitch Tobin to help. Although not a licensed PU, Mitch investigates the seven homosexuals who could possibly have committed the crime. It's the only novel I know to give detailed birth facts for all characters: place, time, date of birth. Although several of the characters are very interested in astrology, the author states he is neutral on the topic. For a novel of 1970, it's quite sympathetic to all the characters, causing Mitch to examine his own attitudes, to look for who the killer is, while being disgusted by the lack of concern and effort of the cop on the case, who is riddled with disgust for the victim and all his gay friends. Mitch's work on the case and his interaction with the homosexuals, changes his attitudes and his life. Although we may now disagree with some of the depictions of the homosexual characters, think less of our views now, and more of the original Boys in the Band. Westlake gives us his usual very fine writing, observation and style. It's also very touching and poignant. Read the previous three novels in the series first if possible.

[Nicholas George · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a typically hard-boiled story of the ex-policeman-becomes-private eye genre (actually penned by Donald E. Westlake under a pseudonym), but the portrayal of its (mostly) gay characters was a huge turnoff. Granted, this was written in 1970, which was the Dark Ages in terms of acceptance and understanding of gay people, but still...most of the gay characters here are stereotypes: flamboyant, bitchy, campy objects of scorn. Protagonist Mitch Tobin is grudgingly tolerant, but even he believes that homosexuality is a mental disorder, caused by bad parenting (a common belief that was thankfully dismissed the following year by the American Psychiatric Association). As a gay man, I frequently cringed while reading this.

[Stargazer]

review of sample: this opens with what i want in astrological fiction - the birth data of 9 characters and the author's words that he is neither a believer or disbeliever in astrology. i'm intrigued! He says the charts are dates and birthplaces were chosen at random - and they must also be progressed as this is mentioned. How did he do this i wonder, was he advised on this info or did he do it himself?Interesting... Is this the only book in the series using astrology?I think the detective uses astrology but can't suss out much from goodreads/amazon reviews as no one mentions astrology.
There's not much to read to tell much more, but i definitely want to read.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little better than the last two in that the end was slightly more exciting. With today's audience, a lot of people would probably complain about the depiction of the homosexuals and Tobin's view of them and a lot of people would complain there are homosexuals at all.

[Dan Seitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Docked a star not because of quality, if anything Westlake's depiction of internal life is aces here. However, the mystery is set among the gay community in the 1970s and while there are some characters who break from type, there are a few who don't, and it ages this book more than the other three.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 3 out of 5]

"all men can kill" p 91
Victim nicknamed "Jamie the Jade .. [was] jaded and bored .. Bruce Maundy killer is a nasty brute, and Jamie loved being mistreated" p 100
Narrator "didn't have one item of proof" p 125 so he tried to trick multiple murderer into confessing. Althogh set decades ago in New York City, the small circle of homosexual men seems real, all 'out' and in couples, except for angry Bruce. The ex-cop's projects, concrete backyard wall and basement digging make a complicated series setup for a disturbed ex-cop to hide from his mistakes, but also plausible. Read before but didn't remember whodunit.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is hard to read a book about gay men written by someone straight in a very homophobic time.

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two-and-a-half. It was very difficult for me to find a copy of this book, and there were certain aspects of this book that made me wish I never had succeeded in tracking it down. The book's attitudes toward homosexuality are troubling at best, and I was left feeling conflicted as to whether Tobin's outdated theories of sexual deviance (the book's word, not mine) were the same as my beloved author Donald E Westlake. I'm willing to chalk it up to a case of "different time, different place" but that doesn't mean I have to like it. And, for the record, I didn't.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read all of the mainstream Donald Westlake books, I'm at the point where I need to find out-of-print books in various places. I found this at Powell's in Portland, and was pleased to have another Westlake experience, under his Tucker Coe pseudonym. His characters are so incredibly well thought out, I picture his having 3x5 notecards of every aspect of every character's background. This isn't even in my top 20 Westlake books, I suppose (the Dortmunder and Parker books are all better, as far as I'm concerned), but I still really enjoyed it.

[Bill Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmm. I know this was written in 1970 but it’s still tough to deal with the gay slurs and old-school stereotypes. Ultimately , there’s an understanding there, I think, and Westlake is such a good writer that you can’t really be sure it isn’t just the way the characters would talk and think, but it still leaves kind if a bad taste.

So why four stars? Well, it’s Westlake. And, despite the ‘politics’ of it, it’s a captivating story, even if you do figure out the murderer early on. I may have made a tchutchy face through most if it, but I stayed up late to finish.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good enough read

An unusual protagonist and cast of characters, but a bit slow; the protagonist's backstory isn't explained so understanding why he gets involved and why he has so much angst isn't clear. That's often the case when there's a series of novels with many of the same characters, especially the protagonist. I'm not encouraged to read any of the other novels in the series.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book. It wasn't a grab you by the throat and not let go until you finished, but an interesting mystery nonetheless. Very much a book of it's time(1970), the notions of the cause of homosexuality was a bit antiquated by today's standards.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great funny crime series. Highly recommend for light reading. I just don't remember anything about the book a month later so its not a 5.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this series.