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Max Roper #2
The Pushbutton Butterfly
Max Roper is one of the new-fangled breed who includes murder in his arsenal of security activities. In The Pushbutton Butterfly, he has to track a missing girl through a myriad of fascinating, violent, and potentially evil people, including an idealistic student rebel at Berkeley; the most fashionable of gurus; young coeds who augment their income by pushing heroin; a motorcycle gang leader who is flying high all the time; and a staid, liberal pillar of the Establishment who secretly collects pornographic pictures.
Roper is a compelling man who carries his own standards of behavior into every society he encounters. He fits best with the local police who are his friends, with an aspiring Mr. America, whom he can throw with karate, indeed with all types of evildoers and guardians against evildoers. He’s an adaptable fellow, though, and manages to get on well—when he has to—with millionaires and murderers of all classes.
The Pushbutton Butterfly begins when Max Roper’s boss, head of an organization called EPT, sends him out to investigate the report of a missing girl, a security project. EPT, an offshoot of a wartime operation, occasionally does top, top secret jobs for the CIA and other legal espionage groups. In this case, the girl’s father is manufacturing some highly important electronic gadgets, and there’s some danger that pressure could be exerted o him through his daughter to release secret formulas. The father, who is understandably inimical to Roper’s presence in the case, gives grudging cooperation. The girl is a student at Berkeley, and there Max goes to learn what he can from her friends. He finds one of them almost immediately, an attractive girl whose charms are not improved the condition in which Max finds her, which is very dead.
From this opening, there is no letdown to the pace and excitement of The Pushbutton Butterfly, Max Roper’s first case, a provocative introduction.
Roper is a compelling man who carries his own standards of behavior into every society he encounters. He fits best with the local police who are his friends, with an aspiring Mr. America, whom he can throw with karate, indeed with all types of evildoers and guardians against evildoers. He’s an adaptable fellow, though, and manages to get on well—when he has to—with millionaires and murderers of all classes.
The Pushbutton Butterfly begins when Max Roper’s boss, head of an organization called EPT, sends him out to investigate the report of a missing girl, a security project. EPT, an offshoot of a wartime operation, occasionally does top, top secret jobs for the CIA and other legal espionage groups. In this case, the girl’s father is manufacturing some highly important electronic gadgets, and there’s some danger that pressure could be exerted o him through his daughter to release secret formulas. The father, who is understandably inimical to Roper’s presence in the case, gives grudging cooperation. The girl is a student at Berkeley, and there Max goes to learn what he can from her friends. He finds one of them almost immediately, an attractive girl whose charms are not improved the condition in which Max finds her, which is very dead.
From this opening, there is no letdown to the pace and excitement of The Pushbutton Butterfly, Max Roper’s first case, a provocative introduction.
216 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1970
1 person is currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Kin Platt
66 books10 followersPseudonyms: Kirby Carr, Guy West, Alan West, Guy York & Wesley Simon York
Kin Platt (1911–2003) was the author of the perennially popular I Can Read Book Big Max, as well as several outstanding young-adult novels and the Max Roper mystery series for adults. Mr. Platt was also a noted cartoonist.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin_Platt
Kin Platt (1911–2003) was the author of the perennially popular I Can Read Book Big Max, as well as several outstanding young-adult novels and the Max Roper mystery series for adults. Mr. Platt was also a noted cartoonist.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin_Platt
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 6, 2017
Publication date: 1970- pretty late entry in the PI genre.
Kin Platt was a cartoonist before he turned to detective work, and it shows in his totally deadpan approach. The straight man run-in with hippies reminded me of Robert Altman's Long Goodbye, on the way to Big Lebowski (the hippie as straight man).
“How did you do with the problem I left you in Berkeley?” I asked him.
“What problem was that?” he said.
“The body, dope. The body in the tub. Tina Ramos. Remember?”
“Oh, yeah — that,” he said. “That is kind of a problem. Mostly because there wasn’t any body found in that apartment by the police.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No body in tub. No body in apartment. Honorable friend Kono now big horse’s ass with Chief of Police, Alameda County.”
I looked at the drink in my glass and knew it wasn’t going to be enough.
“No body in tub? No body? Nobody?“ I said dully.
“Nothing, man! You better find your pigeon before she disappears too, Max. I mean, really disappears!”
My one complaint is that it was, maybe, too long. But I would read another Kin Platt in a heartbeat.
Kin Platt was a cartoonist before he turned to detective work, and it shows in his totally deadpan approach. The straight man run-in with hippies reminded me of Robert Altman's Long Goodbye, on the way to Big Lebowski (the hippie as straight man).
“How did you do with the problem I left you in Berkeley?” I asked him.
“What problem was that?” he said.
“The body, dope. The body in the tub. Tina Ramos. Remember?”
“Oh, yeah — that,” he said. “That is kind of a problem. Mostly because there wasn’t any body found in that apartment by the police.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No body in tub. No body in apartment. Honorable friend Kono now big horse’s ass with Chief of Police, Alameda County.”
I looked at the drink in my glass and knew it wasn’t going to be enough.
“No body in tub? No body? Nobody?“ I said dully.
“Nothing, man! You better find your pigeon before she disappears too, Max. I mean, really disappears!”
My one complaint is that it was, maybe, too long. But I would read another Kin Platt in a heartbeat.
September 29, 2012
I was reading an interview with an author and they mentioned Kin Platt several times as an author of young adult books they read when they were young that they really liked. So I decided to see if we had any in my library system. And mostly we had his mystery books for adults. I put this one on hold because I liked the title.
Little did I know that I was going to be introduced to Max Roper, professional girl-ogler (even when they are dead girls) and private detective. His detecting methods consist of following his gut instinct and stealing cars. He's able to rattle off many facts about different forms of martial arts, but pathetically unable to notice when someone is about to hit him over the head, much less stop it from happening. He can kill with impunity for some reason -- because he is friends with a policeman?
Woof.
Little did I know that I was going to be introduced to Max Roper, professional girl-ogler (even when they are dead girls) and private detective. His detecting methods consist of following his gut instinct and stealing cars. He's able to rattle off many facts about different forms of martial arts, but pathetically unable to notice when someone is about to hit him over the head, much less stop it from happening. He can kill with impunity for some reason -- because he is friends with a policeman?
Woof.
January 8, 2020
Pushbutton Butterfly differs from most of the other Max Roper novels in a couple of respects. First, unlike most of the Max Roper books, this one doesn't focus on a professional sport such as bidybuilding, tennis, horseracing or golf. Although it touches on football, it has very little of
its energy expended on that sport.
Second, most of the Max Roper books are firmly entrenched in the seventies. This book is sixties all the way. It centers around San Francisco in the hippie dippie sixties and LSD and gurus and protests and communes and self -help frauds.
At its base, the Roper novels are a rehashing of the themes of the old time hardboiled novels but they reimagine the private eye in the seventies in a different world. This one has the cynical detective, the femme fatale, the countless bodies, and the endless confusion.
its energy expended on that sport.
Second, most of the Max Roper books are firmly entrenched in the seventies. This book is sixties all the way. It centers around San Francisco in the hippie dippie sixties and LSD and gurus and protests and communes and self -help frauds.
At its base, the Roper novels are a rehashing of the themes of the old time hardboiled novels but they reimagine the private eye in the seventies in a different world. This one has the cynical detective, the femme fatale, the countless bodies, and the endless confusion.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews