Dead to Rights by Bailey Herrington
What's It About?
When his revered professor commits suicide, amateur sleuth Elliott is determined to decipher his last coded message and bring his killers into the light.If you read enough mysteries, usually you’ll find a piece of philosophy, a profound statement, a reflection on people or society, that the author delivers as a hint to the book’s bigger purpose.
“Naivete,” says university American Literature professor Dr. Steven Jeffrey. “Naviete is the weak link in the chain against corrupt societies, leaders and individuals. Even though one may possess a strong conscience, unimpeachable moral character, a desire to be a good person and fight against corruption and evil, if that individual is naïve, he or she will not succeed. And that, my dears, defines Billy Budd the sailor.”
While Jeffrey makes the point referring to one of Herman Melville’s more naïve literary creations, he too could have been setting the tone for the events about to unfold in author Bailey Herrington’s very tight and smart thriller Dead to Rights.
Page-Turning Mystery
Herrington could have stuck to the craft of being a mystery writer, which he does so well in Dead to Rights, his latest David Elliott Mystery. And anyone intrigued with a crisp, fast-moving, twist-and-turn narrative will go home happy.
But the author is frying bigger fish in this one, raising the stakes on issues like questionable overt CIA operations, homosexuality (when it was still pretty much in the closet back in the fifties) and sexual love between blood cousins.
“The various threads of the story … are emblematic of the political, social, economic and cultural atmosphere prevalent during the Fifties in the U.S., a veritable warehouse of material for murder mysteries,” writes Herrington.
Decoding CIA Agent’s “Suicide”
Lawrence Clark, a biochemist working for the CIA, is charged with finding antidotes to poisons used against enemies of the state. When Clark witnesses what seems to him needless brutal interrogations, tortures and deaths, he decides to leave the agency.
Not so fast. The process of leaving the CIA does not go smoothly. Clark turns up dead; it’s called a suicide. But before his demise, did he tip off Jeffrey, his gay lover?
Jeffrey sees himself as a target. He tries to inform one of his prize students, sophomore David Elliott, but he is too late. Jeffrey too doesn’t make it out alive, his death also being recorded as a suicide. But he leaves Elliott with cryptic notes and messages that need to be decoded at the most sophisticated of levels.
Amateur sleuth Elliott is up to the challenge — rather insistent at getting to the bottom of all the chaos. Were the deaths in fact suicides? Elliott, with the help of some classmates and his strong, intelligent cousin Judy, dives in headfirst (to more than just the mystery, that is).
More Than Just a Thriller
Herrington’s Billy Budd reference is a nice segue into the telling of his own tale. Was David Elliott, experienced and inexperienced in the ways of the world as only a college sophomore could be, going to let adolescent naivete prevent him from challenging some political and societal assumptions? He is hitting the sexuality card in full force, taken by the revelation of his beloved professor’s forbidden preferences at the time, to say nothing of what’s accepted of being in love with a close relative, in this case Judy.
While those are footnotes to the main story, they are exclamation points that make Dead to Rights much more than just a thriller. It raises important questions by setting the story 75 years ago and letting readers consider their own beliefs in a society today that is unrecognizable to Herrington’s cast of characters.
Dead to Rights is a wonderful work in which Baily Herrington is true to the fine art of storytelling and is able to take his messages to much headier places. It is well written, easy to navigate, and essential to consider when one judges books on their value to entertain and their ability to make us think. This book accomplishes both.
About Bailey Herrington:
Bailey Herrington hails from western PA. Born in Pittsburgh, he lived in Erie during his school years. As an ordained Lutheran pastor, Herrington served churches in PA and WV for 24 years. A Writers’ Digest Short Story course taught him to revise and hone plots, characters and scenes. Bailey says, “Had I taken the course at the start of my ministry, my sermons would have been better — and shorter!”
He has written and published four mysteries based on actual crimes: What the Barber Knew, Dead to Rights, Pack of Scoundrels and The Girl in the Orange Maillot. Bailey lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico with his wife Karen Dumont. He loves baseball, likes to cook, play golf, read, write and visit museums, national parks and archaeological sites.
