The person who wrote the jacket-leaf essays said This is "one of Wambaugh's most skillful, baffling, entertaining and suspenseful novels ever." I believe that writer was correct. It's a great novel. Buy the book whydoncha? ( )

his is the first Wambaugh that I’ve read that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy beginning to end. While all over the place story lines are usually his forte, this time it didn’t work for me at all. Not a single character stood out enough to be truly likeable and it really wasn’t until the frenzied finish that anything actually made any semblance of sense. ( )

There was an interesting story here, with just the right amount of twists and turns...unfortunately, for me, the writing ruined the reading experience.

For most of the book, the characters weren't much better than stereotypes, and stereotypes which they'd done little to transcend by the end of the book. And then, there were the exclamation points. Mature writing rarely needs exclamation points, outside of dialogue, but even a less conservative writer/reader than me would have to come to the conclusion that Wambaugh overused them here, and to a ridiculous extent. Unfortunately, this meant that what should have been the most suspenseful moments in the book were nearly turned comical, and the story became more of a farce than a mystery at various points because of the less-than-adept writing.

Simply, Wambaugh needed a better/harder editor, and a bit of restraint. A bit more time spent on characterization would have helped as well. In short, you won't find me picking up another of his books, or recommending him to other readers. ( )

police procedural

8.93