Text by Michael Mullen, Professor of English, Vincennes (IN) University

The second book Jones set Whistle aside for was a mystery novel, A Touch of Danger. Throughout most of his career Jones periodically turned to screenwriting as an easy way to earn money, and Touch of Danger started as an idea Jones had for a screenplay. "Then I realized if I did the screenplay first I would have difficulty getting the novel published except as a paperback," Jones said. So he quit work on the screenplay and wrote the novel. He worked very fast, completing the novel in just six months. The manuscript was submitted to Delacorte but they turned it down, preferring to publish only Jones's more serious fiction and nonfiction, and the book was picked up by Doubleday.

Delacorte may have rejected the novel because they did not consider it a serious work, but there is ample evidence that Jones did not consider the book merely entertainment, a way to pick up some asy money. In a letter to his editor he expressed concern about a suggested cut because he felt the passage in question was linked to one of the book's major themes. He was also concerned about the writing itself, complaining to his editor about changes a copy editor had made: "These things irritate the hell out of me, but I take a lot of pains with my work, my spellings, my punctuation. What I do is always done for a reason. But I could write another whole book trying to explain it to idiosyncratic copy editors." Jones not only rewrote the dust jacket copy but also made suggestions to his editor concerning the design of the dust jacket. If this was a book written just to generate some cash, Jones did not act like it.

While Touch of Danger seems to be a departure from Jones's previous work, there are actually many correspondences between this and Jones's other novels. Steve R. Carter, in the conclusion of his study of Jones, stated: "The typical Jones plot hinges on the alteration in the main character (or characters) from morally blind selfishness to clearsighted compassion." Lobo Davies, the main character, undergoes such a development. And Jeffrey Helterman, in his Dictionary of Literary Biography article on Jones, pointed out a link between this book and Merry Month, saying Touch of Danger was "notable because it extends the cynical view of youthful revolutionaries in The Merry Month of May into a full-scale put-down of the hippies who inhabit the island [where the action of the novel takes place]."

Jones freely admitted his debt to Chandler and Hammett. What surprised him was how much of himself he put into the novel, one especially personal element being the experience of turning fifty.

Most reviews did little more than treat the novel superficially (which in all fairness is the way most mystery novels are treated). Anatole Broyard opened his New York Times review: "James Jones gives you a lot of groceries for your money. Not from the gourmet shop--just plain, hearty, belly-filling fare." He closed his review by saying that if you were going on a month's vacation, "you could do worse than take this book along," which of course also suggests you could do better, which was the way many reviewers felt. Touch of Danger was widely viewed as a competent, but not remarkable, detective novel.

In 1972, when the novel was published, a Publisher's Weekly interviewer noted that Touch of Danger marked the first appearance of Lobo Davies, and said, "If all goes as planned now, Lobo and Jones will be back in such settings as Deauville, London, and Nice, and Doubleday will remain their publisher." The dust jacket copy also mentioned that Jones had "created a new personage in detective fiction" and that this character "will be heard from again." Gloria Jones later said that although the idea may have occurred to her husband to write a series of novels with Davies as the central character, she knew of no specific plans for novels featuring the detective, and said Jones apparently made no notes for projected Davies novels.