‘Cut Shot’ displays 1st book jitters

CUT SHOT, by John R. Corrigan, Sleeping Bear Press, 214 pages, hardback, $22.95.

Many a budding writer dreams of being the next Dick Francis, Walter Mosely, Janwillem van de Wetering or any of the detective fiction masters who stake out a specific milieu – the horse track, Los Angeles, Amsterdam – and produce a popular series that brings them acclaim, movie contracts and a huge readership.

Augusta-born writer John Corrigan, who teaches English at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone, has such an ambition. Even before his first book, “Cut Shot,” hit the bookstore shelves this past fall, he was completing a second novel, “Snap Hook.” And when he tells us that one of his characters sounds like Sean Connery, you have to believe he’s thinking Hollywood.

Perhaps Corrigan has the makings of a dream, or at least the premise: murder on the pro golf tour. His lead man, 35-year-old Jack Austin, is a tour player who has a detective’s instincts (he even uses the Internet for sleuthing). He also has something of an ego: “The knot in my tie was a perfect Windsor and, I had to admit, I looked dashing.” James Bond never put on such airs.

Clothes conscious, Austin is continually remarking on what people around him are wearing (a lot of name brands get rattled off, but then isn’t professional sports about endorsements?). A clean-cut guy, at one point he tells a thug that he “finds the term ‘spic’ offensive.” It doesn’t take long for his ideals to get him into trouble.

When Austin learns that a fellow tour player, Hutch Gainer, is throwing strokes, he decides to take on the Mob. After being worked over by some men in black, he decides to get serious, recruiting a private investigator friend to assist him in a kind of sting operation that involves a tape recorder concealed in a golf bag. But money, as is stated late in the book, “often leads to murder,” and by the end of the book there are quite a few bodies.

It is accepted wisdom that writers should stick to what they know, and Corrigan follows that advice. Like his creator, Austin is dyslexic and a Shakespeare fan, traits that add dimension to what could be a flat character.

Like many contemporary novelists, when Corrigan doesn’t know something, he does research. One of the acknowledgments in the back is to Chris Richards “of Caribou Ford in Caribou, Maine, for information regarding 4 x 4 transmissions.” While the author clearly knows the ins and outs of the pro tour, his rendering of the Mob seems at times far-fetched and cliched. Do mobsters slip threatening notes under doors? One of the gang members, a weight lifter, is named “Rocky.” And how’s this for a threat: “You don’t cooperate with us, you’re going to get buried.”

There’s quite a bit of dialogue, which one associates with murder mysteries of the Raymond Chandler kind -small talk leading to big revelations or a body in an alley. Sometimes the banter could use some clipping, as when it serves only to add a piece to the puzzle. And sometimes it is not entirely clear who is speaking.

The token sex scene shows up early in the book. As Austin makes love to his fianc?e, Lisa Trembley, lead golf analyst for CBS, he trips out: “In my mind’s eye, majestic, vivid colors appeared like a kaleidoscope: crisp hues of blue, cardinal and fire-truck reds, bright yellows, then pale and forest greens appeared and vanished behind my eyelids, rising and falling tenderly, like windswept flowers.” Is this a Viagra vision, or what?

The writing is best when Corrigan is describing the game of golf, as in this fine description of a shot: “The three-iron carried over 220 yards before floating down and bounding out of sight in a spray of morning dew. We called that ‘pure-ing’ it, the contact so rare that sometimes the sensation sent chills up and down my arms.” Duffers will enjoy these shot-by-shot accounts.

The title of the book, “Cut Shot,” is terrific, as is the cover – classic murder mystery all the way. Far be it from this reviewer to rain on Corrigan’s parade: for all the first-novel jitters this book displays, I look forward to the next installment of Austin adventures, from tee to green.