Ted Griffin is a mercenary pilot in dire need of a job ... the mysterious "Fourth of July" organization are in dire need of a hotshot pilot ... and America is in dire need of a wake up call in BLACK WORK!
Frederics' first person writing as Griffin is engaging, but unfortunately the most interesting part of the story is the roman à clef over who we come to realize are Ronald and Nancy Reagan, throwing their all into a white supremacist terror plot to assassinate the first black vice president! There's some more details which point to a mixing of some other classic Hollywood stars, especially in the Nancy character of "Lynette Hall," who's a patriotic country music star on top of being a nympho. True to Ronnie's life, his "Craig Norse" character is just a cat's paw himself, an intermediary between the Fourth of July org and whoever's pulling the strings at the top. There's also a little John Wayne in Norse, but mostly it's Reagan the simpering chickenhawk has-been who fills in the character.
Hero merc Ted Griffin's unraveling of the plot takes too long, and the whole reason the bad guys supposedly need his unique pilot expertise seems overblown. There's only so many times Griffin can stalk around the underground lair looking for clues or get chewed out as expendable by the baddies before it becomes repetitive. Developments around the CIA are intriguing but similarly padded out. The novel comes in at under 250 pages, but could have been even slimmer. Frederics ends on a realistic, downer note that does feel earned, but there's just too much dross getting there.
This contemporary review by the NYT says that Frederics was a pseudonym for some "serious writer." Maybe they didn't want their name on a book where (spoilers here) Ronald Reagan gets blown away after shouting the n-word ... Black Work earns 2/4 stars for some interesting plays amid pedestrian plotting. Great title, too.
This title is available to read and download at archive dot org.
Signet Books, 1977 (original pub. 1976)
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