BOOK REVIEW by  Jayess 

by Tony Dodd

ISBN 0-7472-2285-1 (Hbk) and 0-7472-7534-3 (Pbk)

Headline Book Publishing Ltd, 338 Euston Rd, London NW1 3BH

I eagerly awaited my copy of this book after Malcolm Robinson sang it’s praises in his review of the book for Flying Saucer Review. Therefore when the parcel dropped through my letterbox, I made myself comfortable and settled down for what I expected to be a riveting read. 

The introduction reads as if from a spy novel complete with secret meeting in London between a foreign diplomat and a balding man in his forties being watched by four ‘agents’ in another car across the street. A package is handed over by the diplomat accompanied by a warning that they are being observed. The man with the receding hairline drives off quickly in his Ford Escort  with the package. The car with the four ‘agents’ tails the Escort and soon a classic car chase through the streets of Hampstead ensues. Losing the pursuing car in side streets he hurriedly scribbles the name and address of Tony on the package, halts at the nearest post box and deposits the package within before driving off at speed. The package never arrives at its destination…

This then sets the scene, in the following chapters Tony Dodds gives us a brief overview of his early life and how he became involved in the UFO field. It all began in the early hours of one morning on the Yorkshire moors, he and an accompanying policeman observed a large craft enveloped in a glowing sphere of light. From that time onwards Tony along with numerous others observed a multitude of anomalous objects at night on the country roads in that area of his police beat.

With his credentials now established, Tony then documents his involvement in some incredible investigations during his eventful career as a UFO Investigator. He describes in some detail the animal mutilation cases from around Britain and documents various cases of UFO activity off the coast of Iceland, involving at least three major naval powers and the loss of one advanced warship. He also relates the Military operation AENEID which was reportedly set up in the UK during the nineteen seventies to assess the UFO phenomenon. During this period a USAF Captain died when his aircraft crashed into the North Sea whilst on an exercise flight. Tony gives us another side to this incident and one which I found particularly interesting given my years of service in the Royal Air Force, some of them working on the very type of aircraft that Capt. Schaffner died in. I have also been privileged to have read two other reports on this aircraft accident, both written by the Royal Air Force. Needless to say, neither of these agree with Tony's record of events.

Tony relates the now famous ‘Kalahari UFO incident’ in which a UFO is shot down by the South African Air Force in May 1989. The tales of secret meetings, secret agents etc. are all included to whet the readers appetite for yet another conspiracy. One which Tony places on the same level as Roswell for importance in UFO legend.

It is, however, his recounting of his investigation into the so called ‘Fife Incident’ of 23rd September 1996 which had me intrigued as I have been able to investigate the incident myself since 1997 and I was eager to compare notes. Recounting briefly, several witnesses observed a number of ‘non human’ entities and a possible ‘triangular’ craft near the village of Newton of Falkland in Fife, over a period of some four hours. During my modest investigation I discovered that reports of the incident which had already appeared in major UFO related magazines appeared to differ, sometimes markedly so, from my own findings and indeed, from each other. The first publication to carry a report of this incident was Quest International’s UFO Magazine in the January/February 1997 edition. The investigator …  Tony Dodds.

Tony describes the series of three encounters by two mothers and their two children in much the same way as already told in the UFO Magazine article alluded to earlier and, in fact, adds no new information here. However he does make a number of errors in his recounting of the incident which are easily proved to be so. For instance, Tony claims in his book that the witnesses telephoned the UFO Hotline that eventful evening and spoke to himself but the witnesses said they phoned Larry Dean in Brighton. I checked this with Larry Dean and he confirmed that it was he who spoke to the witnesses that night. Tony Dodds was not informed until the next day and then by Larry himself as he (Larry) did not have the resources to investigate a case so far away. Another error of note is near the end of his account. Tony says that he has talked many times to the witnesses since the incident, however the witnesses have clearly stated that they made many calls to him which went unanswered. He then appeared in an article in one of the national newspapers publicly decrying the witnesses and announcing that the whole incident was a hoax and the witnesses were, in effect, lying. This left both of the adult witnesses furious at the way they’d been treated and refused to speak with or assist him any further. Therefore, Tony has had no contact with the witnesses since early in 1997. You must also bear in mind that Tony never met the witnesses or surveyed the area himself, leaving a Scottish investigator, Mr Brian Rooney, to do all the leg work. I find that very strange, as Tony himself described this case as ‘of such significance’ in his original report for UFO magazine.

Two questions come immediately to mind at this point...

First, bearing in mind that Tony jets around the world attending UFO lectures and carrying out 'investigations' many times a year, proving that finance is not a problem. Then why couldn’t he come two hundred miles north for a couple of days to investigate a case ‘of such significance’?

Secondly, it is a matter of public record that Tony has filed this case as a hoax and classed the witnesses as liars, so why does this case feature prominently in his book as a bona fide case three years later?

When viewed in the light of this incident investigation, I must warn the reader that they should be wary of the other incidents described within the pages of Tony’s book . Whilst I cannot categorically prove that these others are as misleading as his Fife Incident account is, I have my doubts as to their authenticity as recounted within his book.

My verdict on this book is…

With verifiably misleading information detailed within the book I would certainly recommend that it should be avoided if you wish to find out the true facts of the cases reviewed. No evidence is presented to the reader at any stage to back up some of the outlandish claims made by Tony. Apart from the ‘James Bond’ style introduction I could find little of entertainment value in it at all.