Perchance of Death

The eighth entry in the Ivor Maddox/Susan Carstairs series of police procedurals is very good, a solid entry in the series — Linington never wrote a dud. Perhaps a shade below the best in the series when judged against those entries, so probably a terrific four-star rather than five this time out for me, but only because I'm such a fan that I'm familiar with her extensive oeuvre.

A missing eighteen-year-old-girl who was a bit silly but not the type to simply run off, a woman called Juanita who picks up men looking for love and robs them, an older woman found dead in a burglary gone bad, but not before she got off a shot, and an old man whose home was destroyed from the inside in the most disgusting way possible by teenagers with no show more conscience are just some of the cases on the docket of the Wilcox Hollywood Precinct this time around. Susan, now married to Maddox but still working as a cop at this point in the series, is frustrated that her and Maddox’s attempts to have a baby have so far failed. Between detective work on the case involving the missing girl, which has a sad end, she has short rants about the “libbers” and those hollering about the “right” to kill babies.

Written in 1977, this doesn’t feel dated at all, as cops lament the state of society and what it’s coming to. Through their voices and their reactions to the cases Linington gives us a common sense argument for sanity and morality. Those things being abandoned by a loud and angry minority in our time does not make them out of date. Morality and common sense didn't go out of date in fiction simply because a loud minority want to abandon traditional values and insist you join them, as Linington makes clear through the voices of her cops. The revelation of just who Juanita is may be politically incorrect and raise the cackles of some, but it is most certainly of modern times in every single way, whether people like hearing it or not.

Legwork and hunches, and some luck, which cops always need more of, help solve some the crimes thrown at Maddox and the gang this time around. But the cases get wrapped up nicely by the end, and after a look at the worst society is capable of, Linington gives readers, and the Wilcox Precinct gang, a look at the best we are capable of with the resolution to the old man whose home was thrashed by desensitized teenagers. A dash of hope, even in 1977, that at some point Good would prevail.

All in all, a very enjoyable outing in the series. Linington’s capturing of dialog, how people actually speak, will be a bit jarring at first for those new to her, but marvelous when it clicks that this is the way people truly speak, especially to cops questioning them. Good stuff from the Queen of the police procedurals. Her Mendoza series was great, and Vic Varallo, but the Maddox/Carstairs series is perhaps my favorite from this prolific writer whose work has aged extremely well, despite what others say to the contrary. show less