Customer Reviews

Mute Witness

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mute Witness by Robert L. Pike is a fascinating glimpse into the type of police-genre fiction prevalent in the sixties, with a hard-boiled feel to it. It tells the story of one Lieutenant Clancy, a disgraced detective who gets a call from his nemesis, Assistant DA Chalmers and an assignment to guard an organized-crime boss named Johnny Rossi. Clancy wants no part of the assignment, which he scornfully considers babysitting a hood, but Chalmers wants him to do it, in reparation for a screw-up involving another witness that needed guarding who was killed under Clancy's watch.

Pike creates very memorable characters, and it's easy for the reader to sympathize with Clancy who, along with his friend Doc Freeman and junior detectives Stanton and Kaprowski, struggle to untangle a real mess when this witness is also shot and killed, all the while trying to hide from the vengeful Chalmers what's happened. The first thing that bothers Clancy is the witness didn't even have a spare pair of socks. Rossi was too nice, too ordinary-seeming, to be a professional criminal. There's a knife stuck into the guy after he's dead to try to make it look like the shotgun blast he took didn't kill him. The clues lead back to a vivacious blonde woman who seems utterly carefree until she's told Rossi is dead and reacts with a strange grief that doesn't set right somehow.

This is a very convoluted story told in good simple prose that evokes the time frame and draws the reader into a world of bygone police work, where it was all tiring and often frustrating lead-chasing and footwork, with no internet to help speed the process. Pike has a gift for creating environment as well as characters, and his plot is tightly woven. Clancy's game of cat-and-mouse with Chalmers, along with his struggle to make sense of seemingly senseless bits of information, is reminiscent of Columbo without the ingratiating attitude and rumpled raincoat.

Although this novel was the basis for the great police-action movie Bullitt, it has an entirely different feel. The character of Clancy was radically overhauled in the screen personification of Bullitt. Though essentials of the plot remained, it was more of an adaptation than a straight take, much like Stanley Kubrick's rendition of Stephen King's The Shining. Both this novel and the film are brilliant but in different ways; Bullitt placed more emphasis on the action elements in the plot while the book builds suspense with emphasis on what's going on with the characters, especially Clancy.

Highly recommended for fans of police/mystery novels as an enjoyable and well-crafted suspense story from a gifted author.

Mute Witness is a great book that keeps the reader going throughout. It tells the story of a Mafia man who is willing to testify before a commision in New York and is placed under the protection of the police until the trial. After he is shot, the police must sift through the evidence to try and figure out what is going on. Lieutenant Clancy and Doc Freeman try to find out what happened with the support of Stanton and Kaproski, two other officers in the same precinct. This is a great story with plenty of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the end. The movie Bullitt was based on this book and should not be missed if you like the book or the other way around. An excellent story that is worth the search of finding the out of print book!

This is a great bok my dad got for his fifteenth birthday. Its so tight. Its about this guy who is in mafia protection or whatever and he and the man who is watching him gets shot. They made an excellent movie of this called Bullit I know the book is alot to buy but just get it from the library, but at all costs read it.!!!