William Caunitz (1933–1996)

Can't remember why I picked this up. I think I read a great review of his first book. This collection had his first three books printed in reverse chronological order. Even though they are all standalone, I still had to read the whole thing backwards. They were all pretty ropey 80s police stories. The first one starts with a murder but soon went completely bonkers and ended up with the Mossad commandeering some US Army ordnance to defeat a terrorist attack in New York with jeep-mounted show more machine guns and rocket launchers. Not your average police crime procedural. show less

Caunitz's work is incredibly detailed when it comes to the procedurals of police work, but the problem with this is that the details also make the work incredibly dated. But, that aside, it is enjoyable. This is more of an average every-day whodunit than the high-stakes suspense tales that we see coming out every day now, which is rather refreshing. On the other hand, while the tale has plenty of twists, it also has a few too many subplots, and the dialogue is sometimes fairly contrived, if show more not simply unbelievable. Still, the story is enjoyable, and it provides a decent escape, albeit one you may well feel detached from. It's just not a suspense novel which you can be so sucked into as to feel as if it really is happening at the moment or something which could mean life or death. show less

I thought I had read more of Mr. Caunitz's books I probably have but it was way before I started keeping track of them.

I really enjoyed going back in time and reading how the police really worked the cases back in the day. I can't even imagine how they managed to do it! Especially in a large place like New York City.

This was a very well written police procedural about a Lt. who is very dedicated to the Job. He has a colorful group of detectives who work for him. They are dedicated but they show more also like to play around a bit. I'm sure this was how is was back in that era. I loved the dialog between the detectives, the ribbing they gave each other were hilarious, it was all in good fun. This is not a P.C. novel, it was written before that all came into play. So if you are easily offended then this is not the novel for you. This was written by an experience New York city detective and it shows, he understands the way they guys were back then. it was a true "Boy's Club" and it really was in this era.

If you like older police procedurals you'll love this. I'm going to go back try to read some of these older books, they are such a hoot.

I would like to thank MysteriousPress.com/Open Road for providing me with an e-galley of this novel for my honest review. show less

For a police drama, I felt this was one of the best reads. The characters are real, the scenes far more believable, the plot ugly enough and the story arc right on the money.
This is the first Cauntz novel I've read, but definitely not the last.
The scattering of sex scenes are somewhat graphic, but not so detailed as to put me off.
I felt the ending was a tad too abrupt and left way too many questions - more appropriate to a continuing series. But then, I'm awfully picky when it comes to endings.