Stakeout Squad: Line Of Fire (Stakeout Squad #1)

Stakeout Squad: Line Of Fire, by D.A. Hodgman

February, 1995  Gold Eagle Books

This short-lived Gold Eagle series from the mid-1990s only amounted to three volumes, and about ten years ago I picked up the last one in a used bookstore. I kept meaning to read it, but eventually decided I should check out the other two installments first. And, judging from Line Of Fire, Stakeout Squad might be a series that has a bit of continuity. 

First of all, a big thanks to Paul Bishop for the outing of “D.A. Hogdman:” when I got that last volume years ago there was zero info available on who Hodgman really was. But thanks to Paul, who credits “reader Phil Wong,” we now know it was an author named Dorothy Ayoob. So yes, a rare instance of a woman writing a men’s adventure series. However Ayoob is in no way comparable to the only other female men’s adventure writer I’ve yet read, Marilyn Granbeck, of Blood and The Peacemaker. In fact there was absolutely no giveaway I could detect in Line Of Fire that the author was female; there’s only one major female character in the book, and she isn’t focused on as much as the male characters. What I mean to say is, there’s none of the wussification of Granbeck’s “action novels.” 

But then, there’s hardly any personality at all in Line of Fire. There’s absolutely no spark, and the novel could almost have been written by a robot. A robot programmed to love guns. Like, really love guns. I mean we all know how Gold Eagle books go for overbearing gun-p0rn. Line Of Fire takes the excessive gun-detailing of the average Gold Eagle publication and uses that as a starting point. I swear to Zod, folks, this book is flat-out obsessed with guns and firearms and ammunition and holsters and Kevlar, to the extent that I was almost in a daze. 

Paul’s blog post notes that Dorothy Ayoob was the wife of Massad Ayoob, who had “a regular column in American Handgunner magazine.” Phil Wong apparently noticed the similarity between this column and the work of “D.A. Hodgman” (who also wrote another three-volume series for Gold Eagle, Code Zero), and he asked Massad Ayoob himself if he was Hodgman. Wong certainly was barking up the right tree, as it turned out Massad acted as the technical supervisor for Dorothy’s writing. This then explains the nitty-gritty obsessive detail about guns throughout Line Of Fire. I mean even simple stuff that would be rendered as “he holstered his gun” in an average book is detailed pedantically here, noting how the gun is “on-saftied” before being stored in a specific holster – there’s even more brand-naming than in the average installment of The Survivalist. 

Well anyway, I’ve been on a cop novel kick lately so figured I’d finally check out this series. I was a bit put aback by the length, though: each volume comes in at 330 or so pages. And also note how the volume numbers have been dropped from the covers. My assumption is Gold Eagle was trying to branch away from the men’s adventure series that had been their stock in trade for the past decade-plus and wanted to market this series as “real books.” Whatever the behind-the-scenes reason, Line Of Fire was the first volume, Miami Heat the second, and The Color Of Blood the third. 

I think continuity might be more pronounced than the average Gold Eagle series because only one author worked on Stakeout Squad, and also this first volume introduces the characters and the setup. Now one thing I can say about Dorothy Ayoob is that she’s one of the most “on-theme” authors I’ve ever read. The book details the formation of a Stakeout Squad in Miami, its first big assignment to take down a violent gang of bank robbers, and Ayoob sticks to this theme throughout the book; there are hardly any attempts at bringing any added dimensions to any of the characters or the settings…and even the frequent flashback material sticks to how these characters became cops (or criminals). This is what I meant about the narrative not having any spark. The dialog is for the most part wholly expository, with characters even talking about guns, or why they became cops…I mean the theme is central throughout, with no one coming off remotely like a real person with varied interests. 

And there are a lot of flashbacks. Indeed, the novel would be a lot shorter if you took out the obsessive gun detail and the frequent flashbacks. It’s a bit hard-going because forward momentum is nil. And given that the novel is populated with several characters, this means that we get flashbacks for each of them – not to mention the various criminals. It’s a weird way to tell a story and very much at odds with the average men’s adventure novel. However Ayoob’s writing isn’t bad, and one can certainly tell that she met with several cops who gave her a lot of insight. I mean the novel definitely succeeds in showing how tough it is to be a cop, with little in the way of gratitude from the public or politicians. 

Given the 1995 publication date, the political correctness which ultimately led to our modern miserable age of identity politics is present. This is mostly in the form of the commander of Stakeout Squad, Lt. Ken Bartlett, a black man who, per his long flashback sequence, never liked being a cop, and indeed looks down on guns. We’re told how he used identity politics to climb his way up the ladder, not to mention the occasional publicity bit. But all the while he avoided real cop work, and looked down on the people he was supposedly protecting. There’s even a part where he introduces “sensitivity training” for the white cops. I mean the novel is very prescient in this. 

But this bit also demonstrates the lack of spark in Ayoob’s narrative. Now Bartlett hates being a cop, and he thinks the Stakeout Squad is a bad idea, and he’s against cops carrying guns and all that. All this we are told basically as soon as the character is introduced, via long-winded flashback. So the potential is there that this character will be a thorn in the side of the Stakeout Squad, maybe their nemesis who constantly tries to disband them. We even learn he’s a “liberal Democrat” whose wife – a black lady who also uses identity politics to climb the legal ladder – nags at him for “thinking” he’s a cop. But folks by the time the flashback sequence ends, Bartlett has decided “You know what, maybe I’ll start wearing a gun and be a real cop for once!” I mean the entire promise is just gutted before the flashback has even come to a close…and from then out Bartlett, who only minimally appears in the narrative, is just your basic commander. 

Another bit of prescience is the focus on “officers of color,” as the saying would go today. The Stakeout Squad itself is the brainchild of John Kearn, recently-appointed Police Commissioner, a black man who started off as a cop in New York decades ago. There’s a lot of material on the real-world Stakeout Squad that operated in New York in the ‘60s. In particular we learn how the original New York force was disbanded due to claims of racism, given that all their victims were black. (The fact that black criminals were committing all the crimes was irrelevant, of course.) The novel really takes on a dry, nonfiction-esque tone for these “history lesson” portions, not helped by the expository dialog. In fact “dry” really sums up Line Of Fire, despite which the novel has several action scenes. It’s just all relayed without the spark one gets from typical men’s adventure. In other words, it is as humorless and devoid of fun as the average Gold Eagle publication – it’s just too serious for its own good. 

But Ayoob seems to be committed to the project. She populates the novel with several characters, meaning that there isn’t one the reader can hold on to. The main character of the novel, and perhaps the series, seems to be a young blond-haired cop named Bob Carmody…who, wouldja believe, happens to be a firearms instructor. I mean folks I am not exaggerating when I say that the vast majority of the narrative is concerned with guns, guns, and more guns. Firing them, wearing them, reminiscing about guns used in the past, the types of ammo for them, just on and on. Well anyway, Carmody is a helluva shot and has become the instructor for the newly-formed Stakeout Squad, but he personally has never shot a suspect and secretly wonders if he’d be able to. Spoiler alert: as expected, Carmody gets his chance to do this very thing – but Ayoob doesn’t even follow through on the dramatic thrust of it. In fact Carmody features in the Hollywood-esque finale, using his sharpshooting skills in memorable fashion, but the entire scene is played without any drama. 

Another character who somewhat surfaces from the pack is the sole female on the Squad, Melinda Hoffritz, a hotstuff and stacked “blond” who joined up due to sexual harrassment from her former chief. And yes that’s “blond;” we’re in the ‘90s now, so oldschool “blonde” for females is considered sexist. I still use the term, though; in fact I think it’s kind of brilliant in differentiating between the sexes…not that I actually know the difference between the sexes, of course. I mean I’m not a biologist! Well anyway it seems like Carmody and Melinda might become an item someday…or at least they would be if this series had been written a decade before (and by a man, dammit!)…but that’s just my suspicion. They work together in Line Of Fire and even share the climactic showdown. 

There are other characters besides, like a cop who panicked on the job and caused his partner to get killed, but due to various misunderstandings was given a medal for “bravery;” another cop who has a wife and kid back home; a cop with a big chip on his shoulder; and others besides. Guess what: the members of the Stakeout Squad are introduced at target practice! I mean it’s very impressive how Ayoob sticks with the “guns” theme. But the thing is, the characters come and go, so it’s not like your typical men’s adventure series where you have the same group of characters to root for. In that matter the villain of the piece gets more narrative space: John Blaisdell, the head honcho of the Shotgun Gang. 

In a plot reminiscent of the first episode of Police Woman, the Shotgun Gang is hitting banks in Miami. Oh I forgot to mention: Stakeout Squad is set in Miami, which I found interesting because one can’t help but think of Miami Vice, given that this series is also focused on cops. But Ayoob never acknowledges that show, nor even really brings the setting to life. Other than mentions of the heat or the Metro-Dade police force, the novel could just as easily take place anywhere else. Well anyway the Shotgun Gang is hitting banks, and there’s a cool Tarantino-esque gimmick where Blaisdell has given each member of his gang a codename that’s based on the shotgun he uses: ie Moss, Savage, etc. This I thought was the most clever way Ayoob worked the gun obsession into the narrative. 

So like that Police Woman episode, the Stakeout Squad ultimately goes undercover, posing as tellers in banks they think might be hit next, with backup forces prowling nearby in case a hit happens. The Shotgun Gang is especially brutal; we meet them in an opening where they hit an armored truck, killing everyone, and later on they gun down women and children in various hits. But the Stakeout Squad gets off on shaky footing when a pair of preteens, inspired by the Shotgun Gang, try to hit a bank with plastic guns (well, one of them sneaks in a real gun), and the undercover Squad members gun them down. The ensuing public and media backlash is enough to almost kill the Stakeout Squad before it has even gotten started. 

There are several action scenes, with the Squad going up against some of the Shotgun Gang, but these scenes too are written without much spark. I mean there’s nothing the reader feels vicariously as the two forces go against one another, as Ayoob is more focused on the shooting posture the cops assume as they engage in their firefights. Or how they obsess over their new Glock .45s, which are more powerful than the 9mm Glocks they used to use. I mean incidental stuff like this is the focus of Line Of Fire, not the drama or action stuff, so you can see how someone might have thought the novel was written by a columnist for a firearms magazine. 

Ayoob strives for realism throughout. There are no extended action scenes, and for the most part they are over and done with fairly quick. There’s also not much gore, other than a part where the cops view some of the victims of those shotguns. There isn’t much police work, either, but then that’s not the Stakeout Squad’s role. They aren’t detectives figuring out who is pulling the hits; they’re a tactical squad who stakes out banks, ready to shoot down any would-be robbers. The break in the case comes due to happenstance, when one of the robbers, thinking he’s about to die, starts giving the details on where the Gang hides out. This sequence has a memorable bit where the father of a severely-injured child slips past the cops and puts a gun to the bastard’s head. And speaking of which, true to Gold Eagle norm there are many chapters detailing the subplots of various one-off characters. 

Despite the bulky length of 320 pages, Line Of Fire was a pretty quick read. Of course it was even more quick given that I skimmed a lot of the gun details. Ayoob does a good job of bringing the reader into the formation of the Stakeout Squad, but as the novel progresses this setup is lost and it’s more concerned with one-off characters getting into various gunfights. In other words the center is somewhat lost. Even Blaisdell sufers; he starts the novel calm and collected, and there’s a cool idea that he had “the best education” in prison, where lifers gave him the in-and-outs of various schemes and heists. But as we near the climax Blaisdell becomes more of a nutjob with little control of himself. And yet for that matter the novel never goes fully batshit crazy, which would have greatly helped matters. “Tepid” is the best word I could use to describe it; competently written, but just missing something. 

So if the other two volumes are the same there’s little mystery why Stakeout Squad failed to connect with readers. Regardless I’m a slow learner, so even though I found this one tepid I’m still looking forward to the next volume, Miami Heat, which features the Squad up against…a Satanic cult! 

As for Dorothy Ayoob, judging from this obituary she “passed away peacefully in her sleep” in April of 2021. Given that Massad Ayoob (who is still alive) is not mentioned in the obituary, I’m assuming the two must have been divorced. And I also assume this is the same Dorothy Ayoob, given that she lived in New Hampshire, which is where Massad Ayoob apparently lives.