Customer Reviews

Exceptional Clearance

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This is author Caunitz's shortest book and that is my only complaint. He does not write "mysteries" in the classic sense; he writes police-procedural novels. You get the salty cop dialogue, an authentic inside look at what a cop's life is like, and all of the political, criminal, and hectic details - since the author is a former NYPD lieutenant. If you want a read "with the bark off" and enjoy hearing what a cop's life is REALLY like, you will enjoy this book immensely. If you are looking for something clever and Sherlockian, this isn't it. I love Caunitz's stories and reread them every once in a while.

Synopsis: There have been a series of violent murders involving women with no known connection having their throats slashed with a some kind of weapon that the NY City coroners have never seen before. A special task force is set up to catch the mysterious killer and Lt. John Vinda, a tainted cop is placed in charge of the investigation (partially because he's that good and partially because he will be easy to pin the blame on since he is already damaged goods)

This was an enjoyable read, but it was kind of like eating a handful of candy - it was fun while it was going down but there wasn't much to it. There was an interesting twist to the manhunt in that the cop and the serial killer have both suffered similar losses. It is interesting to see how the serial killer has warped himself into a monster while Vinda has buried himself in his job to avoid his pain. In reality, he's not dealing with his loss that much better than the killer.

Caunitz is a retired NYPD detective so the language and scenes ring true and it is fun to watch the chase unfold. I dropped the rating for this book a bit for a couple of the more contrived scenes.

"Exceptional Clearence" is a book with no outstandings qualities. There's no great detective work or a gripping and interesting mystery to solve. The characters are poorly developed and I remember Ed Mc Bain's 87 Precint novels as a good example of how to built a convincing and weel structured police novel. Caunitz has too much to learn in this way before reaches a respectable position among the great police writers, like Mc Bain, Chandler and others.