Cop Out [Hardcover]

Susan Dunlap (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 1997

In a city of rule breakers, she's the law.  But in a hunt for a killer, she's breaking all the rules....

In Berkeley, people don't just disagree, they make careers out of it. And in a city where anything goes, where burned-out sixties hippies haunt the shadows along Telegraph Avenue, no one can outrun the past. Now police detective Jill Smith is plunged into a case that's pure Berkeley: a tangled tale of sins and retribution that has led to one man's disappearance, and another man's murder.

The missing man is Jill's friend, countercultural private eye Herman Ott, who always wears yellow and always offends. The murder victim was a flamboyant mediator of civic disputes, found shot to death in Ott's office. Now, fearing for Ott's safety, and defying the wishes of her own male-dominated department, Jill is about to wade into the wild, woolly world of Berkeley's most contentious citizens. For somewhere among the passionate, the poseurs, and the pranksters lurks a killer--and one very good reason why Herman Ott is running for his life....


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Any mystery that begins in the parking lot of the Claremont Hotel, that gorgeous old Victorian woodpile on the edge of the radical community of Berkeley, California, already has something special going for it. And Susan Dunlap's latest book about Berkeley cop Jill Smith doesn't disappoint: it's a rich and thoughtful mixture of the familiar (Jill's edgy nostalgia for the Berkeley of the '60s, her scratchy relationship with her fellow officers, her dogged determination to solve cases on which everyone else has given up) and the original--in this case, the tangled relationships between politics, business, and medicine. Fans of Marcia Muller and the late Ross Macdonald who have yet to discover Dunlap could well plunge in with this fine example of her work. Previous books in the Smith series in paperback are: As a Favor, Death and Taxes, Diamond in the Buff, A Dinner to Die For, Karma, Not Exactly a Brahmin, Sudden Exposure, Time Expired, and Too Close to the Edge.

From Library Journal

With each Jill Smith mystery (this is the ninth), the plots grow more convoluted and harder to believe, no matter how hard one tries. In this case, Smith tries to help p.i. Herman Ott, who also happens to be a murder suspect. The trail leads from a Telegraph Avenue jewelry vendor and a religious leader who surrounds himself with thugs to a tattoo artist, a patient defender, and ultimately a deadly pesticide. The offbeat Berkeley setting and mix of characters may appeal to Californians, but for others the detritus of the Sixties is just that.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press; 1st edition (April 7, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385316003
• ISBN-13: 978-0385316002
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,662,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Susan Dunlap keeps getting better and better., April 5, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Cop Out (Hardcover)

Berkley Police Detective Jill Smith prefers to work with the outcasts of society. That is why she is just about the only cop who gets along with Herman Ott, a private eye for the counterculture. This time Jill must help Herman when a corpse of a prominent person is found in the man's office and he has seemingly disappeared. ......The police believes that Ott is guilty, especially when he fails to show up in a reasonable amount of time. Jill is not so sure that her friend is the culprit. She begins to investigate the case only to learn that the case is much more complex than a simple killing. It seems that fraud is the underpinning behind the murder and no one is what they appear to be at first, including the justice loving Ott. With her superiors irate with her not by the book investigation and her romance causing additional problems, Jill still digs deeper into the case, only she seems to be digging herself into a deeper hole. If Jill does not solve the case soon, she probably will be yanked off the investigation. ......COP OUT is the fabulous Jill Smith at the top of her game in the tenth entry in this charming and very eccentrically brilliant series. Berkley has never seemed livelier with its rebels. riffraff, bums, and yes middle class police officers. Readers will not tire of reading about Susan Dunlap's heroine, a woman strong enough in her self-worth to get the job done despite the cost. .......Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good addition to the genre, July 15, 2000

By 

Helen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cop Out (Mass Market Paperback)

If this book is indicative of the whole Jill Smith series, then it is a good addition to the genre. The protagonist is an uncompromising police officer in a world where compromise is survival. While the plotting in this book is not compelling, and Jill's dedication to getting to the bottom of the problem is not readily understandable, I would nevertheless recommend this. It has certainly made me want to hunt out and read the rest of the Jill Smith series, and other books written by the same author.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable for Berkeley ambience and characters, April 17, 1998

By 

Bonnie MacBird (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cop Out (Mass Market Paperback)

Narrative drive is strained when policewoman heroine persists in the case - her altruistic devotion to the repulsive Ott is confusing, as is the response of her department to her. But creative handling of secondary characters and the setting make this a diverting read.