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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Like The Title Says,
This review is from: No Holiday for Crime (Hardcover)
could sense a bit of disappointment with this selection among members of my mystery discussion group. Hey, you try to find a good holiday themed mystery once a year, think you've finally found something that's not too whimsical and sugary, something wit a bit of grit--and still you find people are getting way to scrooge-y about the whole thing. Bah, humbug.Well, I liked this novel a lot. Then again, I can see why "who dunnit" types wouldn't cotton much to this police procedural. That was apparently Dell Shannon's specialty. And she was pretty darn good at portraying the day-to-day realities of a bunch of tough but likeable LA cops. The book is also something of a time capsule. This is the LA of some 40 odd years ago. The cops talk about the hippies a bit, but we don't actually meet any this time out, although there are brief references to one character having used marijuana--and yeah, you'd think she'd been dropping acid w/ Timothy Leary the way the cops talk. Reminds me a bit of DRAGNET in that regard. But the TV shows this book is actually most like are the Stephen Bochco classic shows like HILL ST. BLUES and NYPD BLUE. It's as much about character as it is plot, maybe moreso. There are several concurrent plotlines, some of which are more readily and more quickly resolved than others (just like, we can assume, real life policework). Most resolutions are plausible, although one or two kind of stretched things a tad. I won't go into spoiler-length detail, but suffice to say one or two characters have really good hunches. But it's not always the officers themselves, sometimes it's their WIVES, whom they're wont to confide in at the end of the day. And speaking of women characters, it's interesting to note that although the author was herself a woman (born Barbara Elizabeth Linington), there are no major female characters here. They're all in supporting roles: wives, girlfriends, friends who may BECOME girlfriends. The sole policewoman in the department is an odd-girl out when we first meet her, a woman officer in a new department whom no one quite knows what to do with (she's there as the result of a departmental merger). When someone discovers that she can and will GLADLY type their reports for her male colleagues, everyone (including the woman) heaves a sigh of relief at having figured out how to handle that awkward situation. Guess we had to wait 15 years or so for Betty Thomas...or Tyne and Sharon, gutsy women who could kick it when necessary and who wouldn't make coffee on a bet. If you read the book in that aforementioned "time capsule" mode, however, it can be kind of fascinating. There are plenty of modern flourishes, including making her hero, Lt. Luis Mendoza, a pround Hispanic (who somewhat unrealistically--and annoyingly--throws Spanish phrases into nearly every utterance) and who gets along famously with his black, Jewish and Irish-American colleagues. (Only women have yet to break through the force's glass ceiling as yet, it appears). NO HOLIDAY FOR CRIME appeared some 13 years into Ms Shannon's Luis Mendoza series, and if I'm counting correctly, there were well over 20 stories preceding this one. The members of my mystery group felt that this novel was quite sketchy, and that it was difficult to keep all the cops' straight, let alone figure out their family situations and their interrelations with each other. Very likely fans of the series never had this problem. Unless this novel is the exception, it would seem that Dell Shannon's modus operandi was to expose you to her characters' quotidian world and let you get to know them over time. For me, that worked. It seemed much more realistic than the maverick cop tales so prevalent then and now. I have a feeling I'll be coming back to Ms Shannon's work again, in the not-too-distant future. As soon as I finish next month's mystery, that is.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Like The Title Says...,
This review is from: No Holiday For Crime (Mass Market Paperback)
I could sense a bit of disappointment with this selection among members of my mystery discussion group. Hey, you try to find a good holiday themed mystery once a year, think you've finally found something that's not too whimsical and sugary, something wit a bit of grit--and still you find people are getting way to scrooge-y about the whole thing. Bah, humbug.Well, I liked this novel a lot. Then again, I can see why "who dunnit" types wouldn't cotton much to this police procedural. That was apparently Dell Shannon's specialty. And she was pretty darn good at portraying the day-to-day realities of a bunch of tough but likeable LA cops. The book is also something of a time capsule. This is the LA of some 40 odd years ago. The cops talk about the hippies a bit, but we don't actually meet any this time out, although there are brief references to one character having used marijuana--and yeah, you'd think she'd been dropping acid w/ Timothy Leary the way the cops talk. Reminds me a bit of DRAGNET in that regard. But the TV shows this book is actually most like are the Stephen Bochco classic shows like HILL ST. BLUES and NYPD BLUE. It's as much about character as it is plot, maybe moreso. There are several concurrent plotlines, some of which are more readily and more quickly resolved than others (just like, we can assume, real life policework). Most resolutions are plausible, although one or two kind of stretched things a tad. I won't go into spoiler-length detail, but suffice to say one or two characters have really good hunches. But it's not always the officers themselves, sometimes it's their WIVES, whom they're wont to confide in at the end of the day. And speaking of women characters, it's interesting to note that although the author was herself a woman (born Barbara Elizabeth Linington), there are no major female characters here. They're all in supporting roles: wives, girlfriends, friends who may BECOME girlfriends. The sole policewoman in the department is an odd-girl out when we first meet her, a woman officer in a new department whom no one quite knows what to do with (she's there as the result of a departmental merger). When someone discovers that she can and will GLADLY type their reports for her male colleagues, everyone (including the woman) heaves a sigh of relief at having figured out how to handle that awkward situation. Guess we had to wait 15 years or so for Betty Thomas...or Tyne and Sharon, gutsy women who could kick it when necessary and who wouldn't make coffee on a bet. If you read the book in that aforementioned "time capsule" mode, however, it can be kind of fascinating. There are plenty of modern flourishes, including making her hero, Lt. Luis Mendoza, a pround Hispanic (who somewhat unrealistically--and annoyingly--throws Spanish phrases into nearly every utterance) and who gets along famously with his black, Jewish and Irish-American colleagues. (Only women have yet to break through the force's glass ceiling as yet, it appears). NO HOLIDAY FOR CRIME appeared some 13 years into Ms Shannon's Luis Mendoza series, and if I'm counting correctly, there were well over 20 stories preceding this one. The members of my mystery group felt that this novel was quite sketchy, and that it was difficult to keep all the cops' straight, let alone figure out their family situations and their interrelations with each other. Very likely fans of the series never had this problem. Unless this novel is the exception, it would seem that Dell Shannon's modus operandi was to expose you to her characters' quotidian world and let you get to know them over time. For me, that worked. It seemed much more realistic than the maverick cop tales so prevalent then and now. I have a feeling I'll be coming back to Ms Shannon's work again, in the not-too-distant future. As soon as I finish next month's mystery, that is.
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