Robert L. PikeBesprekingen

Kommissarie Frank Bullitts senaste uppdrag är en ren rutinsak, han ska skydda ett vittne i en viktig rättegång, en smal sak. Men innan natten är över ligger vittnet döende på marken och männen som gjorde det är försvunna.

Frank Bullitt ger dock inte upp i första taget, han tänker se till att både mördarna och vem det nu än var som gav dem jobbet, hamnar bakom lås och bom, och han är precis rätt man för uppdraget.

Gang’s all here! Clancy, Stanton, Kaproski, Porky, Captain Wise, Doc Freeman, and good ol’ Mary Kelly. Clancy wants to know why Caper Connelly stepped in front of a NY subway train. Another case involves an old man who lies dead in a "horder" type apartment. And then there is the safety of a UN meeting to contend with. Life as usual in the 52nd!

I like how each chapter begins with a quick, short story of a crime in the city. I like how Clancy goes about his work and I like his team. Very quick read, but very enjoyable. I'm just sad that it's the last one. Three just isn't enough.

"And the wash of crime across the police blotter flows and ebbs, its clear effluent seeping quietly away in the silent sands of the past; the dregs are retained, recorded, studied, compared, and then buried with the other detritus of our current civilization. Cells are filled and emptied; pages of painfully penned names and addresses drift like idle seed-pods into numberless filing cabinets and disappear forever in shadowed archives."

God speed Lieutenant Clancy! And thank you Robert L. Pike!½

The sequel to the book that inspired the movie "Bullitt", and a good one at that!
Lieutenant Clancy is back, and this time he has to deal with a prison break! Four men are on the lamb, one of whom threatened to kill the lieutenant and a few other folks. So, Clancy and his men have to find that fella, and stop him.

A good read, with good characters, action, and dialogue. Most of the gang from the first book are back, which I really like! And I enjoyed everyone giving Clancy a hard time about “that nice Mary Kelly...”. A funny running gag throughout the book! That, and telephones!

Can't wait to read the next one!

Lieutenant Clancy reminds be a bit of Dashiell Hammet’s Continental Op, in the way he distributes resources and gives orders. And I mean that in a good way! Also, he's kind of Sherlock Holmes-ish at the end, when telling his tale!

I liked this story quite a bit! Better than the movie! Funny, in the book, the story goes from CA to NY, and in the movie, it's the other way! And, no big car chase in the book. But, the plot is so much clearer and understandable in the book! SO much! And I liked the little bit of humor with the clothes line outside Clancy's office. Nice little dash to a dark toned tale. I think I'd like to read the next Clancy book now!

Humorous mystery featuring three old friends traveling on a luxury cruise ship. They get into trouble while tangling with a couple of card sharps.½

Simply put, this book has no merit whatsoever. It is just a story; pulp fiction. The characters are not believable, their conversations are inane, it tells us nothing new about the world it describes, and the author has no observations to make on life. There are no lessons here.

Or almost. The book has a single saving grace in that it was the source of the film Bullitt, which is an amazing film, but one in which the plot is very difficult to follow. Continued

I picked this up because it's a while since I've read any US detective fiction. It's a long time since I saw the Steve McQueen movie and all I really remember is the car chase. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the novel had originally been published under a completely different title - and it's not only that which changed in transition from page to screen. New York became San Francisco and the Irish cop hero Lieutenant Clancy became the far more Hollywood Frank Bullitt, a name so hard it spits nails in your eyes even before you picture Steve McQueen in the role. Actually, the hero of the novel is a little more cerebral. He's not really a tough guy and the only real battles he fights are against the politicians and bureaucrats who seek to make his job far more difficult than it ought to be. (More power to him!) He's a thinker who puzzles his way through a complex cover up despite some tricky red herrings and genuinely surprising plot twists.

Mute Witness delivers exactly what you want from a crime novel and at under 200 pages doesn't outstay its welcome either. It's faster than most car chases...

The time is 1954. Hek Huuygens is known as a successful smuggler.
He gets a call from an old acquaintance from his days in the Resistance. A man and his wife need the services of a first rate smuggler.
15 years ago, SS Officer, Col. Wilhelm Gruber murdered Kek's family in reprisal for Kek's killing a German soldier. Since Kek was on the run, his girlfriend stayed behind. Gruber added to Kek's hatred when he married the girlfriend.

Kek has wanted revenge for a long time and now plots his course of action. With the help of two Resistance associates, he meets with Gruber, Kek, had changed his name so Gruber doesn't recognize him. Then he finds that Gruber wants to smuggle a large quantity of valuable art out of Lisbon.

This plot based story is interesting from its time in history and how much the world has changed in the last 50 years. There isn't much suspense but provides a quick read.

The story was nominated for an Edgar Award for best short story in 1967,

15 years ago,

Four elderly ex-mystery writers, fallen on hard times, decide to put their intelligence to use and set up a "Murder League." They advertise for clients and will dispatch someone for £1,000 plus expenses. Their goal is £10,000 to invest for themselves and live off the interest. They successfully complete nine such arrangements, but an innocent bystander is arrested for the 10th murder. Being men of integrity (?!) they 'fess up to their involvement, then hire a famed defense attorney. A fast read; humorous tale. The end has a surprise twist that will make the reader laugh out loud.

i forgot to enter this book and now like most mysteries i can't remember it very well.

3028 A Gross Carriage of Justice, by Robert L. Fish (read 31 Oct 1997) This is a spoof: two American crooks in England decide to extract money from three old mystery writers. The book is so silly, and Sir Percival Pugh, England's leading criminal writer, saves them. There is much funny in the book but the ending is very weak and disappointing. Scarcely worth reading.

Rude, crude parody and awful puns. A sequel to The Incredible Schlock Homes.

Savory fare indeed if you like rude, crude parody and awful puns. Homes and Watney are absolute idiots, but Homes always solves his case by the most convoluted and irrational and misinformed logic you will ever find.