I read and enjoyed several of the Luis Mendoza novels written by Dell Shannon (aka Elizabeth Linington) back in the 1980's. It's been a while, but I always thought these novels were really good police procedurals similar to Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels. In this one Mendoza and his crew are up against a lone bank robber who is able to disappear after the heist. Then the robber kills one of Mendoza's detectives who happened onto the scene of another robbery making him one of their top priorities. Mendoza also has to deal with the shooting of a young black girl who was dusting in her living room and the murder of a young gas station attendant who was robbed and then beaten and shot. All of these cases lead Mendoza and his squad down various dead ends but of course, they are resolved in the end. The theme of this focused on the randomness of death and how it can strike anyone by happenstance.
I'm glad I finally dipped back into this enjoyable series. These books were written in the 1960's and 70's so they are definitely dated. The cops used a lot of legwork and patience in the days before computers and DNA evidence! But the novel does mention some gun laws such as having a police officer sign and vouch for anyone getting a gun permit. If only we could get some common sense gun laws in place today!
I'm glad I finally dipped back into this enjoyable series. These books were written in the 1960's and 70's so they are definitely dated. The cops used a lot of legwork and patience in the days before computers and DNA evidence! But the novel does mention some gun laws such as having a police officer sign and vouch for anyone getting a gun permit. If only we could get some common sense gun laws in place today!
