PRIVATE EYE

by John D. Fitzgerald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1974

Private Eye Wally is really a suburban, less cheeky version of The Great Brain, but in present day Ohio the workings of the Brain mentality aren't quite so funny. Especially questionable is Wally's way of dealing with a gang of black kids who are extorting protection money from newly bused white students. Wally simply helps organize a rival black gang and leads an integrated raid on the blackmailers' clubhouse -- baseball bats against their switchblades -- that ends in several broken arms and an enforced truce. Well, that's one solution, but we doubt whether everyone, police and parents included, would praise Wally as a clever peacemaker (he even gets a cash reward), The rest of Wally's cases -- a lost beagle, a stolen toy panda, a suspicious ghost, even a motorcycle thief -- require a different order of detective work altogether. But Wally's character, half-con-man half-hero, is ill defined and the boys-will-be-boys philosophy wears thin.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Nelson

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1974

Categories: FICTION