A couple of weeks ago Jim Doherty posted a message on the
list asking about Prowl Cop (1956) by Gregory Jones, which
had been listed by Anthony Boucher as a good example of the
police procedural. I've had the book for a while, and the
comment prompted me to read it .... (some spoilers
ahead)
The book
starts off in promising James M. Cain territory with the
story's hero, honest cop Johnny Gerand, being pursued by the
lustful young trophy wife of the police captain, and Johnny's
cop partner later offering him money to aid his (the
partner's) divorce by getting involved with his wife. Lucky
Johnny. After a lengthy story set-up, a murder occurs halfway
through the book, a murder-deduction plot then unfolds, and
any Cain comparisons disappear.
It's an odd
book to be referred to as a "police procedural", as it
doesn't have much in common with other books that I've read
in that genre (namely books by Georges Simenon, Ed McBain,
and Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo). Despite the fact that almost
all the characters in Jones' book are either policemen or
wives of policemen, there are only a few scenes of the daily
grind of police work, and little of the dogged investigation
and clue-following that I associate with the police
procedural. The story loses steam after the central murder
occurs, and the occasional descriptive paragraphs that pop up
early in the book notably disappear at that halfway point. I
get the feeling the second half was a rush job.
Prowl Cop
isn't the worst paperback original that I've read, but it's
mediocre, and suffers badly in comparison with another book
that I was reading recently, Briarpatch by Ross Thomas. Now
that's a good book.
Paul
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