Where Robert Daley was a high-ranking police executive
(and that's all he ever was; he never worked his way up from
patrol officer like most cops), and that for only a short
time, William Caunitz was a career policeman who spent most
of his career in middle-management. Specifically, a detective
lieutenant in command of a precinct investigative squad.
Most, though not all, of his heroes are also squad
commanders, and most, though not all, of his books are
one-shots rather than series entries. In fact, he only
re-used a character once, and you could say it was the death
of him.
Cauntiz's first book was ONE POLICE PLAZA which featured a
Manhattan squad commander involved in what
(at least to me) seemed very unlikely international political
shenanigans. Then again, given recent events, maybe he was
prescient. I enjoyed his second book, SUSPECTS, about the
investigation into the murder of a shady (but not necessarily
dishonest) police officer by a one-legged squad commander
(based on a real-life colleague of Caunitz's), much
better.
Cauntiz followed with BLACK SAND, about an NYC squad
commander and a Greek cop collaborating on an international
investigation (the hunt for an ancient artifact, making this
book sort of Caunitz's MALTESE FALCON); EXCEPTIONAL
CLEARANCE, Caunitz's version of the "hun-for-a-serial-killer"
plot with an NYPD squad commander in the lead role; and
CLEOPATRA GOLD, about the attempt to break up an
international drug ring, the only book featuring a hero, a
deep cover narc detective, who's not a squad commander.
Caunitz's penultimate book, PIGTOWN, about a Brooklyn squad
commander whose investigation into a gang killing uncovers a
cabal of high-ranking crooked cops, is, in my opinion, his
best. It's hero, squad commander Matt Stuart, returned in
Caunitz's posthumoulsy published CHAINS OF COMMAND, which was
completed by another popular procedural novelist, Christopher
Newman, author of the Joe Dante series.
Interestingly, although Caunitz clearly liked police work and
being a cop, he doesn't seem to have liked the NYPD much. He
portrays a department swimming in corruption, and pulls no
punches doing it. This is in stark contrast to another former
NYPD middle-manager, Detective Captain Dan Mahoney, about
whom more tomorrow.
JIM DOHERTY
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