The Tin Collectors

Powerful rendering of emotions, dramatic presentation of action, totally believable picture of political corruption (which is almost a redundancy anyway), "The Tin Collectors" is an astonishingly good beginning to a great series.
For anybody who, as I did, begins reading this series in the middle, that is, not with this Number One entry in the Shane Scully series, it might, and, in fact, most likely will, seem confusing. Lots of relationships change.
Yes, best to start with this Number One but even more better is to start. Cannell was one of our greatest story tellers. I strongly recommend "The Tin Collectors."

This gets two stars because it evoked in me enough curiosity about what was going on to persist to the end. But it certainly left me not ever wanting to read another book by the author.

For one, the prose is cringe-worthy. It uses epithets like "the beautiful raven-haired informant" rather than use the name of the character; it has intrusive speech tags like "groused" and uses punctuation like "!?" at the end of sentences. It indicates someone is Hispanic by spelling sentences like: Das allcha gonna haf? It ends on a maudlin cliche--more than one really.

But the reason I find it a pretty lousy novel lies at the heart of the plot. It's what's known as an "idiot plot" in terms of critiquing because it only works if the characters are show more idiots. In the case of the villains, as in so many "gritty" and "hard-boiled" detective fiction, they would have been free and clear if only they hadn't hung a "look-this-way" sign by doing things like persecuting the hero and machine gunning his home. In the case of the hero, Shane Scully, instead of going rogue, it would have made much more sense when opposed by corruption at the top of city government to either go to reporters--or, here's a notion--the Feds. It's rather what the Federal Bureau of Investigation and US Attorney is for, and a cop would know that. show less

I liked this novel about LAPD. It probably would be too passe for readers today (published in 2001) in the sense that it reads too much like a TV movie. Action takes place in downtown LA, Venice, Santa Monica, Long Beach, and Lake Arrowhead. There's even a throwaway character cop named Mark Martinez! Cannell wrote The Rockford Files, The A-Team, 21 Jump Street. This is probably why he got St Martin's Press to publish. They're still a big time name in the business. This story won't stay in your mind after reading, but it does reveal some nice twists. The story involves a cop who shoots a fellow officer. A recent unconnected LAPD case has come up again with officer Frank Lyga where he killed another officer. The story deals with Internal show more Affairs and police corruption tied to political corruption. I like books that describe Los Angeles since the city has changed so much since the 80s. Many of the travel times in the book would be impossible today due to car gridlock. Tin collectors refers (according to the narrator) to Internal Affairs officers who prosecute LAPD officers and take away their police identification shields. show less

Shane Scully of the LAPD gets a late night call from the wife of his former partner - she says her husband is going to kill her. He makes a mad dash over to their house where he finds his former partner in an alcoholic rage. After a struggle, Scully kills the guy with a return shot. An open and shut case of self defense. But things quickly get ugly and talk soon turns towards murder charges. Cannell, a tv writer as well, knows how to move a story along.

Better-than-average thriller by Cannell. Overall I like his writing, but sometimes he's over the top.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
Print: 12/1/2000; St. Martin's Press; 978-0312269595; 389 pages.
Audio: 7/18/2008; Brilliance Audio; B001D066EK; Duration 10:07:00
Feature Film: No.
Series: Shane Scully book 1

CHARACTERS:
Shane Scully—LAPD
Ray Molar—Shane’s former LAPD partner
Barbara Molar—Wife of Ray Molar
Alexandra (Alexa) Hamilton—LAPD Internal Affairs detective
Chooch—15-year-old that Shane agrees to take in for a friend
Sandy—An informant of Shane’s and the mother of Chooch.

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
Selecting this book was due to an earlier accident of having stumbled upon the third book of this series, “Hollywood Tough”. I’d been looking for other books by the author of Incendiary on Overdrive and forgot that when there isn’t show more anything, Overdrive tosses in the closest match. There are other books by Michael Cannell but not in the LAPL Overdrive collection, so it gave me Stephen Cannell.

So, now that we have listened to everything “Connelly”, and after having listened to the first book of Robert B. Parker, and needing a break from that author, I decided to return to this author, and pick up the first two books that I hadn’t realized existed when I picked up that 3rd book of the series. This is the second in the series. I enjoyed this first as much as that third. The characterizations are good, the dialogue is good, and the plot kept my interest.

AUTHOR:
Stephen Cannell (February 5, 1941 – September 30, 2010). According to Wikipedia, Stephen “was an American television producer, writer, novelist, and occasional actor, and the founder of Cannell Entertainment (formerly Stephen J. Cannell Productions) and the Cannell Studios.

After starting his career as a television screenwriter, Cannell created or co-created several dozen successful TV series from the 1970s to the 1990s, often with his creative partner Frank Lupo. Cannell's creations included The Rockford Files, The A-Team, The Greatest American Hero, 21 Jump Street, and The Commish. He also wrote novels, notably the Shane Scully mystery series.”
This book merits my reading the entire series. 😊
NARRATOR: Robert Lawrence. I find no details about this narrator online. I liked Robert’s narration.

GENRE:
Mystery, thriller, crime, police procedure

LOCATIONS:
Los Angeles, Lake Arrowhead

TIME FRAME:
Current-2008

SUBJECTS:
Fatal shooting, criminals, rogue police, conspiracy, corruption, Internal Affairs

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter 1 “Use of Force”
“Shane was in deep REM black. Way down there, but still he heard the telephone’s electronic urgency. The sound hung over him, a vague shimmer, way above, up on the surface. Slowly he made his way to it, breaking consciousness, washed in confusion and anger. His bedroom was dark. The digital clock stung his eyeballs with a neon greeting: 2:16 A.M. He found the receiver and pressed it against his ear.
‘Yeah,’ he said, his voice a croak and a whisper.
‘Shane, he’s trying to kill me,’ a woman hissed urgently.
‘What . . . who is this?’
‘It’s Barbara.’ She was whispering, but he could also hear a loud banging coming over the receiver on her end, as if somebody was trying to break down a door.
‘He’s trying to kill you?’ he repeated, buying time so his mind could focus.
Barbara Molar. He hadn’t seen her in over two months, and then just for a moment at a police department ceremony, last year’s Medal of Valor Awards. Her husband, Ray, had been one of the recipients.
A crash, then: ‘Jesus, get over here, Shane. Please. He’ll listen to you. He’s nuts, worse than ever.’
Shane heard another crash. Barbara started screaming. He couldn’t make out her next words, then: ‘Don’t, please . . .’ She was whimpering, the phone dropped on a hard floor, clattering, bouncing, getting kicked in some desperate struggle.”

RATING: I gave this book 4 stars 😊.

BEGAN LISTENING-FINISHED LISTENING
5/7/21 – 5/15/21 show less