The Poet & the Private Eye

At the start of this inventive tale set in the fall of 1953 from British author Gittins (Gimme Shelter), New York City lawyer Con, who represents an American scandal magazine, hires private eye Jimmy for a "simple tail job." Dylan Thomas is suing the magazine for defamation, and Con wants Jimmy to follow "Subject Thomas," as he's called throughout, who's due to fly into Idlewild airport the next day. This assignment turns into a life-changer for Jimmy, who tries to square the adulation showered on Thomas with the writer's boorish behavior. The detective even tries to understand Thomas's poetry, with little success. As Thomas spirals into self-destruction, Jimmy becomes obsessed with figuring out why the poet acts so outrageously. For background information, Jimmy travels to Laugharne, Wales, the poet's home since 1949. There Jimmy finds more adulation but also evidence of the bizarre behavior of "Subject Thomas, female." Gittins paints a moving portrait of a talented man feted by the same public complicit in his death. (Nov.)