The Cassidy Legacy

Zine
Title:	The Cassidy Legacy
Publisher:	The Nut Hatch
Editor:
Author(s):	Kathy Keegan
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	1991
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Professionals/Cassidy
Language:	English
External Links:
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The Cassidy Legacy is a slash crossover 168-page novel by Kathy Keegan. The cover art is by JJ.

Excerpt

"He felt the fist unbuckling him but he could not move, and his own gun dug into the curve of his cheek. He felt the cool caress of the air on his belly, and sucked in a breath as his slacks were shoved down, baring his arse. Stamos's fingers clenched into his hip, turning him about. And then the rasping sound of an automatic sidearm cocking, and Bodie's voice from the door, smooth as silk. 'Stand back, give him his gun and take your fucking paws off him, Alexis. Or by God, l'll shoot you dead'."

Summary

Summary: "This single novel is a Pros crossover with Cassidy, an Australian TV mini-series which starred Martin Shaw as wealthy and unscrupulous James Griffin. In this novel the character takes the take of James Melville. The pairing is Bodie/Doyle."

From the Nut Hatch Flyer

Charlotte Cassidy is back in London, on business and alone. Her unpredictable and fiery temper has been the cause of many an argument with her husband. Both of them feel they need time to cool off and calm down, and distance between them is safest.

But is Charlie, daughter of the late Charles Parnell Cassidy, ex-premier of New South Wales, safe in London? She thinks not. When gunshots are heard at the opera and it’s a very near miss, Charlie is quick to point the finger at the man she well knows is one of the most powerful in the world: James Melville.

Heir to the underworld empire of Marius Melville, James is by no means an innocent, and “George Cowley, investigating the shooting under the articles of his CI5 brief, is ready to believe that James is as guilty as Charlie claims.

But when is life, and CI5 business, so simple? And Charlie further complicates affairs when she takes matters into her own hands -- disastrously, and lands herself and everyone else in a great deal of trouble.

The resemblance between Ray Doyle and James Melville is immediately obvious to Bodie and Cowley alike. With James’ life placed in the balance, Doyle becomes the key to plot and counter-plot, an intrigue that could end violently not merely for him but for Bodie and James Melville also.

Nothing is as it seems. The world of glamour, wealth and power is infinitely dangerous; and in the midst of it all are Doyle and Bodie, trapped in a web of George Cowley’s making, spun from London to the strife-torn Persian Gulf.

The Cassidy legacy is a legacy of danger and death.

Approx. 170pp. A4, illustrated with photographs off the screen, from the ABC miniseries, *Cassidy* and *Professionals*

The Writer Responds to an Allegation

From the editorial of Encore! #1:

Also on the subject of clarification, I want to say that I did not 'steal' the plot of Courtney Grey's GRIFFIN when I wrote THE CASSIDY LEGACY, and I was rather hurt when it was said that I did. Especially since that piece of poison-pen mail arrived anonymously unsigned. *sigh* For the record, I did not have the opportunity to read GRIFFIN for about six months after my own story was completed, and in fact, I had not even heard of GRIFFIN until I was fifty pages through my story. If there are similarities between the two pieces—ideas are not unique, and since there are now so many thousands of stories available in B/D, we have to admit to the fact that there are very few subjects left unexplored, few stories that could be told which would have a quality of complete uniqueness. Almost everything which can be conceived of has been done in some form or another; all we can do now is rearrange the dressing and details and present a good story which hopes to entertain.

Reactions and Reviews

1997

I enjoyed "The Cassidy Legacy". It's a crossover with the Australian mini-series whose exact title escapes me but in which Martin Shaw played James Griffin. Griffin is in England under sentence of death from Tong connections and Bodie and Doyle are assigned to guard him. Bodie is despairing of ever getting what he wants from Doyle and allows himself to be seduced by Griffin. Doyle is jolted by this into realising what it would mean to lose Bodie and there are... developments. Then the plot heats up, with a scheme to get Griffin out from under the death threat which involves B&D and half of CI5 flying off to foreign parts to bring off a kind of sting. Don't start reading the second half without a clear few hours ahead of you - I was up till four.

At the time I read the story, I hadn't seen "Cassidy", so I didn't know any better. I have to say, though, there have certainly been some vastly differing views of James! There's this one, then the one in "Griffin", and the bit more ruthless one that makes an appearance in "Who Dares Wins" (fan novel, not movie). They span the continuum from he hated his father violently, to that they were very close, and everything from he's still handling drug distributions, to that he hated the whole business and pulled out as soon as he could.

Actually, my few problems with TCL were mostly centred on Doyle. A bit too much of the clueless innocent. (And I'm sorry, but I found the repeated use of "cherry-boy" to describe him, both in dialogue and in narration, extremely demeaning.) For the most part, he was actually the competent and capable CI5 agent we know he is. Then they get to the undercover bit, and he meets this mad merc, and all of a sudden he's a naive little thing that can't figure out for himself what's going on, and needs Bodie to save him?

My other problem, is that I strongly object to the idea that their careers are over for good, Cowley's going to fire them simply for being gay. At least it's not as egregious here as it is in... oh, that series with "Little White Lies" in the middle of it, but in a story that is apparently meant to have an unqualified happy ending -- that ain't it! "They get fired from a job they love because of their sexual orientation" rather puts a damper on the whole "love is everywhere" feel of it all!

I also thought the end sequence, once the chopper crashed, was a bit choppy. First the oilman asks who the hell they are, then he's briefed by Cowley, talks to Doyle, and notes "yeah, you really look like my friend James", then in the plane, he's staring at him, going "wow! it's spooky, if I didn't know better I'd think you were James"... shouldn't these be in reverse order? I thought it read like she couldn't figure out how to handle the revelation, and wrote it several ways, without reconciling them.

This may make it sound like I hated the story. Not at all! Many good bits, a good story overall, some very nice sex, and accurate to the series or not, a very sweet James Melville (Griffin). Nice angst when Bodie realises he loves Doyle, but thinks Doyle is completely straight, and is ready to go off with Melville, because he can't live with it anymore. Sweet "aw, I just wanna cuddle him!" angst when Bodie goes off with Doyle, and James is left in the cold (so to speak).

Despite the gratuitous "gayspeech" and profanity, I found it rather neat and amusing that Doyle would ask his gay snitch what it was like to be with another man, when he thinks he may have fallen for Bodie.

I'm not one of those that figures you always have to mention safe sex; generally it detracts from the story for me. But I thought it was handled rather well here. Didn't get too much in the way, was explained just enough to make it realistic, and added a few humorous moments to the story.

Anyhoo, several annoying points, several good points; overall, I might recommend it, but you should know what you're getting into, in case any of the annoying bits hit your anti-kinks.

1998

This one you don't need to have seen the movie. Someone can give you a real quick synopsis and that's all you'll need since it's still a Bodie/Doyle story in the main. I liked it very much and consider it a Keeper.

I don't re-read it as much as, say, Gentle on My Mind, or some others, but it's good.