Teddy Roosevelt Against a Nefarious Conspiracy

Bully! by Mark Schorr (St. Martin’s: $12.95)

First came Margaret Truman’s Washington mysteries, then Elliott Roosevelt’s fictional tales of mother Eleanor’s Potomac sleuthing. Now, Mark Schorr enters the crime parade up Pennsylvania Avenue with this charming adventure that pits Theodore Roosevelt against a nefarious conspiracy to subvert the Republic in 1903.

Schorr, a Los Angeles writer best known for his “Red Diamond, Private Eye” series, has concocted an entertainment worthy of its flamboyant hero. The T.R. in “Bully!” is a President of many parts: amateur scientist, big-game hunter, patrician, intellectual, family man, savvy politician, people’s champion--a straight-talking, square-dealing boon companion who’s both larger than life and believably human.

Drawn unwittingly into a blackmail and murder scheme, the newly elected T.R. turns for help to the book’s narrator, a former Rough Rider and ex-Pinkerton named Jim White. Together Jim and Teddy set out to foil a plot whose outlines are at first only barely discernible. Might its mastermind be “the king of the robber barons, John Pierpont Morgan?” Or perhaps Colombian nationals are behind it all, upset over this proposed new canal through Panama. . . .

“Let the hunt begin,” T.R. commands from his residence at Sagamore Hill. Soon he and White--suitably disguised--are roaming the seamy streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan, sniffing out clues in vaudeville theaters and old Tammany haunts, scuffling with hooligans by the East River. They enlist the help of a reporter from the New York World, and the legendary Bat Masterson even makes a cameo appearance on Teddy’s behalf.

As affairs of state demand the President’s presence in the Capitol, the book’s action shifts to the White House, where Schorr provides a delightful guest’s-eye view of T.R.’s public and domestic regimen. The nosy and flirtatious 17-year-old Alice, little Ethel with her “teddy bear” and sundry sons in war paint are among the assorted Roosevelts popping in and out of frame. What with Teddy’s jujitsu, tennis and hiking sessions, there’s nary an idle moment around the Executive Mansion--yet T.R. and White find time enough to squelch the villains and neatly preserve the integrity of the 45-state Union.

Fact and fiction are nicely blended here, and--except for buffing his glasses once or twice too often--Schorr’s T.R. does a good impression of the old Rough Rider we think we know. The book’s last page leaves the door open to sequels, and further visits from these bully sleuths would be welcome indeed.