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Nick & Carter Holiday #16
Labor Day, 1960
Monday, September 5, 1960
It's Labor Day morning and Nick and Carter are flying into Detroit for a one-night stay at the Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel downtown.
Senator John F. Kennedy is in town to kick off the final leg of his presidential campaign by giving the traditional Labor Day speech right there in the Motor City.
Back home, Nick has been working hard raising money and campaigning for his favorite candidate. He wants California to vote for the Democrat in 1960 and is doing what he can to speed the plough.
But when they get to their hotel in Detroit, nothing quite works out for Nick or Carter.
They can't get into their room.
Senator Kennedy won't meet with them.
At least not together.
To top things off, a woman with a connection to their past suddenly shows up in the lobby and is demanding to be seen by Nick.
Mob bosses, angry wives, and nymphomaniacs are just some of what crawl right out of the Danish modern woodwork in Detroit's newly renovated and up-to-date downtown hotel with the most uncomfortable furniture and ugliest color scheme Nick has ever seen.
Join Nick and Carter, won't you, for another thrilling holiday escapade!
It's Labor Day morning and Nick and Carter are flying into Detroit for a one-night stay at the Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel downtown.
Senator John F. Kennedy is in town to kick off the final leg of his presidential campaign by giving the traditional Labor Day speech right there in the Motor City.
Back home, Nick has been working hard raising money and campaigning for his favorite candidate. He wants California to vote for the Democrat in 1960 and is doing what he can to speed the plough.
But when they get to their hotel in Detroit, nothing quite works out for Nick or Carter.
They can't get into their room.
Senator Kennedy won't meet with them.
At least not together.
To top things off, a woman with a connection to their past suddenly shows up in the lobby and is demanding to be seen by Nick.
Mob bosses, angry wives, and nymphomaniacs are just some of what crawl right out of the Danish modern woodwork in Detroit's newly renovated and up-to-date downtown hotel with the most uncomfortable furniture and ugliest color scheme Nick has ever seen.
Join Nick and Carter, won't you, for another thrilling holiday escapade!
52 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 8, 2020
5 people are currently reading
3 people want to read
About the author
Frank W. Butterfield
123 books106 followersFrank W. Butterfield, not an assumed name, loves old movies, wise-cracking smart guys with hearts of gold, and writing for fun.
Although he worships San Francisco, he lives at the beach on another coast.
Born on a windy day in November of 1966, he was elected President of his high school Spanish Club in the spring of 1983.
After moving across these United States like a rapid-fire pinball, he currently makes his home in a hurricane-proof apartment with superior water pressure that was built in 1926.
While he hasn't met any dolphins personally, that invitation is always open.
Although he worships San Francisco, he lives at the beach on another coast.
Born on a windy day in November of 1966, he was elected President of his high school Spanish Club in the spring of 1983.
After moving across these United States like a rapid-fire pinball, he currently makes his home in a hurricane-proof apartment with superior water pressure that was built in 1926.
While he hasn't met any dolphins personally, that invitation is always open.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 9, 2020
Mobsters, teamsters, and Kennedys - what could be better than that?
September 11, 2020
epub, from author; 43 pages
Another story in which Our Heroes fly cross-country - and fail to actually meet a Kennedy... The set-up leads to a complex set of events that references another guest featured in a couple of books and a problem or two that Nick solves in his inimitable manner.
Another story in which Our Heroes fly cross-country - and fail to actually meet a Kennedy... The set-up leads to a complex set of events that references another guest featured in a couple of books and a problem or two that Nick solves in his inimitable manner.
September 4, 2023
Once again Frank W Butterfield has brought fiction and history together with Nick & Carter as only they can find themselves facing on a holiday weekend. As always the fiction portion of the story may seem a little unlikely and yet completely plausible and always entertaining.
I'm huge historical lover when it comes to both reality and fiction but I'll honestly admit I tend to not seek out stories from the 1960s & 1970s, there is plenty of great stories set in those decades it's just that I gravitate towards older decades, post-WW2 and older. And of course as I was born in 1973, despite having absolutely no problems with my upcoming 50th birthday in October, I find it a bit disconcerting to think of the 70s and historical in the same sentence😉. Labor Day, 1960 has just enough mayhem, drama, humor, snark, and heart to draw me in and of course there's the right balance of cuddle between our MCs to leave you with no doubts of their unending love for each other. Butterfield's Labor Day reminds me of the amazing stories I'm probably missing out on by shying away from the 60s and 70s. Nick and Carter's full length stories just keep getting higher and higher on my TBR list.
A little side note: Senator Kennedy had spoken at the UW-River Falls in Western Wisconsin in November 1959 and was back for a campaign stop a few months later in March 1960. River Falls is my hometown, my dad recalls "the fuss of him being here" but not much else as he would have only been 8, we may be a college town but even now we're only a city of less than 20,000 people so it's always been a "big deal" of his stop here. Now Detroit is obviously a bigger city than River Falls(especially in terms of 1960) but in fiction when authors use historical facts and they have location options, it's so often not the upper Midwest so I applaud Mr. Butterfield for that element.
I'm huge historical lover when it comes to both reality and fiction but I'll honestly admit I tend to not seek out stories from the 1960s & 1970s, there is plenty of great stories set in those decades it's just that I gravitate towards older decades, post-WW2 and older. And of course as I was born in 1973, despite having absolutely no problems with my upcoming 50th birthday in October, I find it a bit disconcerting to think of the 70s and historical in the same sentence😉. Labor Day, 1960 has just enough mayhem, drama, humor, snark, and heart to draw me in and of course there's the right balance of cuddle between our MCs to leave you with no doubts of their unending love for each other. Butterfield's Labor Day reminds me of the amazing stories I'm probably missing out on by shying away from the 60s and 70s. Nick and Carter's full length stories just keep getting higher and higher on my TBR list.
A little side note: Senator Kennedy had spoken at the UW-River Falls in Western Wisconsin in November 1959 and was back for a campaign stop a few months later in March 1960. River Falls is my hometown, my dad recalls "the fuss of him being here" but not much else as he would have only been 8, we may be a college town but even now we're only a city of less than 20,000 people so it's always been a "big deal" of his stop here. Now Detroit is obviously a bigger city than River Falls(especially in terms of 1960) but in fiction when authors use historical facts and they have location options, it's so often not the upper Midwest so I applaud Mr. Butterfield for that element.
October 15, 2020
Labor Day 1960 (Nick & Carter Holiday #16)
By Frank W. Butterfield
Published by the author 2020
Four stars
These juicy little tidbits from Frank Butterfield’s pen seem to come in two types—historical moments that place Nick & Carter in a broader socio-political context; and personal moments, that shed more light onto the lives of the characters in Butterfield’s mind.
Labor Day 1960 is the former—a bright, sharp point in history, in a pre-riot Detroit, where the vibrant young Senator John F. Kennedy is in town to seek support from Detroit’s powerful automotive unions. Nick and Carter are in town because they are major financial supporters of the Democratic Party, determined to see Richard Nixon lose—because they think he’s dangerous. There’s a strange, history-based confrontation with the secretary and wife of a deceased Detroit industrialist, but for all its entertainment value, that’s not the real point of this story.
Aside from the chilling echo of our bizarre life in 2020 as the election draws near, there is also the subplot in Butterfield’s Labor Day narrative: Nick and Carter are more or less shunned by everyone with power (remember they know both Bobby and Jack Kennedy from earlier adventures), because they are gay and an open couple. In spite of their mistreatment, Nick and Carter support the Democrats, because the alternative is unacceptable. Rings a bell, don’t it?
I was five years old in 1960, and my industrialist family supported Nixon, and would continue to support him right up to the day he resigned in disgrace in 1974. My family now is not my family then, and Butterfield lets us ponder history and its vagaries.
By Frank W. Butterfield
Published by the author 2020
Four stars
These juicy little tidbits from Frank Butterfield’s pen seem to come in two types—historical moments that place Nick & Carter in a broader socio-political context; and personal moments, that shed more light onto the lives of the characters in Butterfield’s mind.
Labor Day 1960 is the former—a bright, sharp point in history, in a pre-riot Detroit, where the vibrant young Senator John F. Kennedy is in town to seek support from Detroit’s powerful automotive unions. Nick and Carter are in town because they are major financial supporters of the Democratic Party, determined to see Richard Nixon lose—because they think he’s dangerous. There’s a strange, history-based confrontation with the secretary and wife of a deceased Detroit industrialist, but for all its entertainment value, that’s not the real point of this story.
Aside from the chilling echo of our bizarre life in 2020 as the election draws near, there is also the subplot in Butterfield’s Labor Day narrative: Nick and Carter are more or less shunned by everyone with power (remember they know both Bobby and Jack Kennedy from earlier adventures), because they are gay and an open couple. In spite of their mistreatment, Nick and Carter support the Democrats, because the alternative is unacceptable. Rings a bell, don’t it?
I was five years old in 1960, and my industrialist family supported Nixon, and would continue to support him right up to the day he resigned in disgrace in 1974. My family now is not my family then, and Butterfield lets us ponder history and its vagaries.
October 18, 2025
Entertaining
This does support the old adage “politics makes strange bedfellows.“ That 1960 presidential election definitely brought change to the political landscape of the time.
This does support the old adage “politics makes strange bedfellows.“ That 1960 presidential election definitely brought change to the political landscape of the time.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews