Mario Taboada wrote:
Another good author who seems forgotten these days is Dell
Shannon. I
recently read her 1982 "The Motive on Record" featuring Lt.
Luis Mendoza
of the LAPD - an entertaining and very well written
procedural in a
realistic style. According to the dust jacket this is the
thirty-third
entry in what was a very long-running Mendoza series, though
this is my
first sampling of it. She's an author to keep in mind, and
one who was
doing it long before the revolution that brought so many
female writers
into the field of mystery fiction.
I suppose I should be willing to grant her credit for being
in the
game fairly early, but since she was a self-described
"police
procedural writer," one thing I must judge her on is her
ability to
realistically portray police procedure, and, in that respect
she comes
a cropper.
She knew less about LAPD procedures than any avid viewer of
*Dragnet*
reruns, this in sharp contrast to, for example, the
detailed
descriptions of NYPD or Scotland Yard procedures to be found
in the
works of Ed McBain or J.J. Marric. She called outlying
stations
"precincts" when they are (or were) referred to as
"divisions." She
had lieutenants in charge of squads that would be commanded
by a
captain. She didn't catch on for five years that LAPD no
longer had a
central homicide detail (it merged with the robbery detail
in 1969 to
become "Robbery/Homicide"). She still had plainclothes
officers
referred to as "detective" during a period when they were
addressed as
"investigator." And I don't even know that much about LAPD.
To
anyone who was really in the know, her books were laughable.
- Jim
Doherty
--UNS_gsauns2_2924932736--
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