Showing posts with label policework. Show all posts
Showing posts with label policework. Show all posts
Thursday, August 06, 2020
Friday, October 02, 2015
FFB Review: "King's Ransom: An 87th Precinct Mystery" by Ed McBain
As far back as I can remember, Dad was
an amateur radio operator. On more than one occasion I sat out in his office in
our converted garage while he banged out Morse Code to fellow hams all around
the world. That hobby was a major part of who he was all of his life. His framed
license still hangs on the wall in his very packed office as is everything else
exactly like he left it a little over three years ago when he suddenly passed. Like
a lot of things, my Mom still won’t allow me to go in there and start doing the
very hard task that needs to be done.
I thought a lot more about my Dad than
usual while reading King’s Ransom by Ed McBain. Amateur radio plays a role in the
read and there are references to the parts stores of my youth. Growing up, I
spent many an hour with Dad in parts stories big and small while he surveyed
rack after rack of parts. Dad built radio controlled planes from scratch (what some
folks now call drones and come virtually ready to fly), radio controlled boats,
and all sorts of other cool stuff. That gene bypassed me, who never had the
manual dexterity for building stuff beyond models of various things, and went
to my brother.
It was a far different world back
then. Pretty much everything in my old neighborhood is gone now as it has been
replaced by something else. Those kind of part stores have died out, my Dad has
passed, and yet he lives on in me and my brother. His legacy lives on in a
different way than Ed McBain’s and yet in some ways they are the same. Today on
the blog we celebrate the legacy of Ed McBain. Both here and over on Patti’s
blog where you can find more reading suggestions as part of Friday’s Forgotten Books.
King’s
Ransom: An 87th Precinct Mystery by Ed McBain
It is October 1960 and Douglas King
has worked himself to a position of some power at Granger Shoes. He has plans
to move up and take over the shoe company as do others who intended to use him
as a small part of their plans. Competing agendas and the future for Douglas
King is at stake as his money is tied up in a deal to finally achieve his long
held goal. A goal that he is not going to let anyone or anyone
interfere with
as he finally sees a real opportunity to fulfill his dream.
That future is not going to be
thwarted by the kidnapping of a child. If it was his child, it might make a difference.
It isn’t. It is the child of King’s chauffeur
so Douglas King does not see the need to pay five hundred thousand dollars to
get that kid back. If he gives his money up to meet the ransom demand, he will
lose his opportunity and will very quickly be forced out of a job. One does not
launch a takeover bid and survive the failure.
The men of the 87th Precinct don’t see
things the same way as Mr. King. Detectives Meyer Meyer and Steve Carella
certainly don’t and never will. Of course, they never have had that kind of
money working for the NYPD and never will. They are honest and hardworking cops
who do their best day in and day out despite all the job stresses and
everything else. A kidnapping case gives them a break from petty crimes, bad
coffee, and dirty jokes. It is cold this October in New York and the next few
hours will tell the tale.
King’s Ransom: An 87th Precinct Mystery by Ed McBain is a good classic cops and robbers style read.
Along with the complex details of the business deal and the kidnapping case,
readers are treated to the backstory of numerous characters and their own
situations as day to day life is a business deal as well. Sometimes, by fate or
chance, you make the wrong bargain with the wrong people.
King’s Ransom: An 87th Precinct Mystery
Ed McBain
Thorndike Press
ISBN# 978-0-7862-9173-1
Large Print Hardback (available in
other formats)
315 Pages
Material supplied by the good folks
of the Plano Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2015
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Saturday, May 02, 2015
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Via Do Some Damage: Police, torture, and crime fiction
Do Some Damage: Police, torture, and crime fiction: (I really didn't know what to call this post) A couple of days ago our very own Jay Stringer asked where now for procedural writers in...
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Review: "Proof Positive: A Joe Gunther Novel" by Archer Mayor
Ben Kendall was known to be a hoarder. The piles of debris
outside his home tended to indicate that. Anyone who looked inside would know
it as well, but he allowed very few access. Once he finally made it home from
Vietnam he had wanted to be left alone all these years. For the most part he
had been. That meant he also did not get the help he needed to deal with the
trauma of war and what he saw and experienced there as a combat photographer.
Medical examiner Beverly Hillstrom did as much for Ben as he
would allow over the years. With the recent discovery by a burglar of Ben’s
decomposing body in his home, Beverly isn’t really sure what happened to her
first cousin. The Vermont State Police are handling the case. Having taken a
look at the autopsy there are things that have her curious. Unfortunately, she does
not have somebody like VBI agent Joe Gunther working for the state police. The
good thing is she does have an increasing connection with Joe and he is willing
to make a phone call. Another good thing is the fact that the lead investigator
for the Virginia State Police, Owen Baern, is very open to Joe taking a look. That
includes going out to the house and working their way into where Ben was found.
It does not take long before Joe and Owen realize this is
not a simple case of a hoarder being crushed to death by his own stuff. Somebody
else, besides the burglar who reported the body, was in the house at the time
of the death or shortly before. Hoarders are always rumored to have high value
treasures buried in their homes. Whether somebody else was going after rumors
of wealth and killed Ben several weeks ago or somebody was specifically searching
for materials connected to the exhibition of photographs Ben took during the
Vietnam War is open to debate. Not only is it important to figure that out to
bring Ben’s killer to justice, considering the fact that Beverly’s daughter,
Rachel, was involved in getting the photographs displayed as part of a well-publicized
art exhibit, she could be in danger if the photographs and other things she has
been working with are the target of the killer or killers.
With a series that began in Open Season the latest in
Joe Gunther series showcases the
continuing evolution of the characters themselves as well as in their relationship
to each other and society as a whole. This is a series that should definitely
be read in order. It is not a static series where folks don’t age and change.
Instead, it is one where those involved continue to change-- sometimes in large
ways -- as folks in the real world do as events and situations occur. That life
like aspect coupled with a solidly good mystery make Proof Positive: A Joe Gunther
Novel” as well as the many other books in the series excellent reads.
Proof
Positive: A Joe Gunther Novel
Archer Mayor
Minotaur
Books (St. Martin’s Publishing Group)
September 2014
ISBN#978-1-250-02639-2
Hardback
(also available in audio and e-book formats)
303 Pages
$25.99
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas
Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2014
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Via Lesa Holstine-- Any Other Name by Craig Johnson
If you have been around these parts awhile you know I read this series and am absolutely going to review it. Unlike Lesa, I'm not getting a copy from the publisher to review it. So, I'm doing the hold list thing. The local library system is getting three copies and I am number three of seven. So, once it clears "in-process" and therefore is tagged and marked so it can be released into the wilds of the Plano Texas Public Library System I will finally have a chance to get it and read it.
In the meantime, you can read Lesa's review here. And know that I will be reading and reviewing it as soon as I can get my grubby hands on it.
In the meantime, you can read Lesa's review here. And know that I will be reading and reviewing it as soon as I can get my grubby hands on it.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Review: "Suspect" by Robert Crais
If Police Officer Scott
James had done something different that evening his partner Stephanie Anders
would still be alive. But, she isn't because they were in the wrong place at
the wrong time as Scott James was looking for a very specific noodle place a Rampart
Robbery detective had raved about. Nine
months later, she is still dead, the suspects involved in a brutal murder are
still running free, and Police Officer Scott James is haunted by terrible
physical pain and horrific nightmares.
Having refused a medical
discharge, James is trying to come back with a new role in the K-9 division. James
knows nothing about dogs, no matter what he told the LAPD, and is learning on
the fly as fast as he can. He is eventually paired up with Maggie, a beautiful
German Shepard, who is suffering her own physical pain and mental anguish after
her most recent tour with the Marines in Afghanistan.
Shifting in point of view
primarily between James and Maggie Suspect by Robert Crais charts their
recovery as well as their involvement in working the case of his shooting. A
complicated mystery that is about not only redemption, but persistence despite
the odds. This book clearly reads as a potential first novel in a new series
from this talented author.
Those who are strict about
such things will take issue with the point of view sections from the dog's
perspective. They will say it isn’t possible to get inside the mind of a traumatized
dog looking for a new pack leader. But, those sections do work and make Maggie
come alive for the reader in ways she otherwise would not have. PTSD in dogs as
well as humans is a documented fact and author Robert Crais, while
fictionalizing some things, illustrates the issue well without preaching to the
reader. That aspect is just one part of the mystery and serves as character
development while Scott James and Maggie work the shooting case.
Certainly this is not a Joe
Pike/Elvis Cole type novel and is not intended to be one. Readers and reviewers
expecting that kind of novel will be disappointed. Taken for what it is, something
new and very different than his previous books, Suspect is a good book
from a very talented author and well worth your time.
Suspect
Robert Crais
G. P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin Group
USA)
2013
ISBN# 978-0-399-16148-3
Hardback (also available in e-book
and audio book forms)
315 Pages
$27.95
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano,
Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2013
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