Jay J. Armes, Investigator: The World's Most Successful Private Eye

Recently I rediscoverd Jay J. Armes. I remember him from the 1970's when his toy action figure and mobile investigation unit were released by the Ideal Company. I purchased his book "Jay J. Armes Investigator (by Jay J. Armes as told to Frederick Nolan)" from a used vendor and read it in one sitting. It was great. The stories are related to the reader in a very comfortable manner and flow from one to the other as if from the lips of a master storyteller. I was hooked and loved it! I must admit that I was disappointed the book ended after only 234 pages. I wanted more. Being a natural skeptic I had to do some research on Mr. Armes and came across an article published in January 1976 by Texas Monthly Magazine entitled "Is Jay J. Armes For Real?" by reporter Gary Cartwright. Cartwright solidly debunked Jay Armes's claim as "the world's most successful private eye," but in terms of self-promotion and aggrandizement I give Mr. Armes credit where credit is due. Well done. I rate this book at five stars as a very good read and recommend it for anyone interested in the field of private investigation. JP

Jay J. Armes is supossed to be the world's greatest detective. He also has no hands. He lost them playing with explosives as a boy, and now has hooks conrolled by his arm muscles which work better than most people's hands. He can rip through steel, grip things like a vice, and hold a gun more steady than a man with real hands. He also has a gun built into his prosthesis which he fires by flexing a different muscle. He had to build his arm strength up to three times that of an ordinary man to be able to operate his "hooks" correctly, so he is insanely strong as well. He is EXTREMELY self-motivated and managed to build a massive detectice agency numbering over 2000 agents from scratch. This book details a number of his cases (he calls them "capers") including his famous rescue of Marlon Brando's kidnapped son. They are all exciting and fun to read, and there's a good bit of humor thrown in as well, lots of it rather corny (i.e. "I gave him a right hook. And I really mean a right hook!"). In all, it's a rather inspiring story of a handicapped man who not only recovered from having no hands, but went on to become world famous as a detective. He constantly tells us throughout the book that you can do whatever you put your mind to, which, while not necessarily being true, is a much better attitude than "I'd probably fail anyways." He also openly acknowledges that he is a Christian and throughout the stories in the book he is constantly offered illegal or immoral benefits and turns them down. I just did a little research on what Jay J. Armes is up to these days (the book is from the 70's) and he is still in business. Apparently Stan Lee (of Marvel Comics) met Armes last year (2005) and was so impressed that he is planning on releasing a comic book series with a hero based on Armes, which would make Armes the first "real" superhero. He's definitely fun to read about. Overall grade: A-