The Strenuous Life: A Theodore Roosevelt Mystery

This burlesque starts in 1895 when Theodore Roosevelt was police commissioner of New York City. Our impetuous, ebullient hero plunges in and out of a dizzying number of dime-novel adventures that contain less reality than your average kid's cops 'n' robbers game. Supporting players in this third of a series include John D. Rockefeller, J. C. Penney (as a street peddler selling celluloid ``Teddy Teeth''), reporter Jacob Riis, Richard Mansfield, David Belasco, Frederick Remington--and Geronimo. The action includes the explosion of a bomb sent to T.R.'s office, a raid on the 71st Armory to steal weapons, the murder of a would-be tipster at the Polo Ground, a shootout in the funhouse at Coney Island, the trapping of Apache insurrectionists in an abandoned Oklahoma mine, the holdup of a train carrying munitions from a Du Pont factory, and a crashing denouement in a dinosaur gallery of the Museum of National History. Some readers may find the book bully; most will think it silly. (Jan.)