Felony Report

This is simply a fabulous entry in the Ivor Maddox/Susan Carstairs series of police procedurals, from one of my favorite writers all-time, Elizabeth Linington — aka Dell Shannon, Lesley Egan, Anne Blaisdell, etc. One of the great crime and mystery writers, she became known as the Queen of police procedurals due to her incredible influence in shaping the genre.

While Elizabeth Linington and Ed McBain became known as the King and Queen of them, and there are a number of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct entries which are stellar police procedurals, even iconic, I’ve come to prefer Linington’s approach, blending the family life of her officers with the overwhelming job of protecting the citizenry and the barrage of crime they must deal with show more to do so. Linington was braver creatively, not limiting herself to just the groundbreaking Luis Mendoza series, but creating the Maddox/Carstairs series, and the Vic Varallo series, for starters, in addition to writing stand alone mysteries.

Her officers were decent men and women, lamenting societal decline and the state of humanity as they themselves tried to hold the line against evil and general mischief, sometimes wondering if the toll it took on them was worth it. At the same time, her cops were likable, with distinct personalities and foibles, but always on the side of good. More than once in this series and all her others, cops allude to criminals being Satan’s helpers. Linington always used her police officers to draw the moral line between right and wrong, as well as the legal line. Her conservative take and traditional values always shone through in her creations, showing police officers to be decent people fighting the good fight.

In this one, Sue is pregnant, and close to being able to take leave. She and Ivor have her mother living with them, and a Japanese dog they love. The dog was unusual in its kind. It was also unusual for Linington as in her Luis Mendoza series and Vic Varallo series cats were family pets, and played a role in the domestic side. No one ever in fact blended the domestic lives of cops and the workaday as well as Linington. In that respect she is also unique. There is a reason that for three decades she was wildly popular. Her moral take and the voices of her officers is refreshing today, even more pertinent than it was in the decades when she was a book club favorite, and a favorite of critics and public alike.

Some of the cases thrown at the Hollywood Wilcox precinct in this entry include:

1) A string of burglaries being committed in tight quarters which make it seem all but impossible.

2) A dismembered body, whose pieces keep gruesomely popping up around the city.

3) Two young black girls abducted off the street and raped by two white men.

4) A knifing at a gay bar where, as expected, no one saw anything.

5) A gentleman liquor store robber who dresses well and is extremely polite about the whole thing.

6) An old woman is mugged, the perp not realizing there was a huge fortune in her purse, because she did not like banks.

7) A date goes very wrong and it leads to murder.

8) A horrid mother standing between a beautiful young daughter with a good head on her shoulders who wants no part of Hollywood, and wishes to marry a teacher who loves her very much. Both Sue and Daisy side with the young woman and the teacher, as there is nothing unchaste going on here. It is rather the shallow and grasping mother who is the problem, which slowly moves this story toward near-tragedy.

9) The biggest case is someone lacing ground beef in supermarkets with massive doses of demoral, leading to several tragic deaths. It is Sue who figures out the method, which turns out to be so maddeningly simple that preventing it, much less catching the culprit, seems near impossible. At least nine people lose their lives, including a couple of children, before they get a break and catch the culprit.

There is drama and humor and warmth and disgust in a very breezy yet real look at cops doing their best against a barrage of crimes. Ivor, D’Arcy, Rodriguez, Fienman, Daisy and Sue all do their best to keep home life normal, and live their lives as they try to keep others safe. The crime is so relentless that even on the night shift new cases appear, in desperate need of solving as our everyday heroes perform a juggling act on that high wire between their work and private lives.

There is a bit of melancholy here for me, as this is the next to final entry in this lengthy 13-book series which began in the mid-60s and ended in the mid 80s, due to Linington’s sad passing. Fortunately I have them in hardcover, so can go back to the beginning and start all over at some point. Linington’s prolificness was as stunning as her talent, and Felony Report is as always, an excellent entry in my favorite series she wrote, which were all of high quality. show less