Book 'em, Dana!
Five
"bookings" now. I started with the fifth (most recent) in
Dana King's Penns River police procedural series after reading a
piece he posted on a mutual friend's blog. I liked "Pushing
Water" so much I decided to read them all. Hooked more by the
characters than on the plots--as usual for me--but I did find the
plots, twisting their way thru all five novels as grist for the
policing skills of Penns River's finest, are clever enuf and
realistic enuf and surprising enuf to keep me clicking up the pages
of my Kindle editions with pee breaks my only interruptions.
By
the time I'd finished the series' first four, I knew this small town
police department so well I half-expected to get a call from Chief
Stush reminding me to bring donuts to his office for the morning
meeting. I got to know some of the crooks, too. And even some of the
snitches. "Something should still be done about evolutionary
cul-de-sacs like Dwight Wierzbicki," Det. Dougherty observes in
"Worst Enemies." A little later, frustrated by Wierzbicki's
waffling, Dougherty grumbles that the snitch, a petty miscreant they
call The Bick, "could inspire the Dalai Lama to steal a knife to
stab him with."
Dougherty
(pronounced Dockerty, thus his nickname "Doc") loves to
engage in "ball-busting" with associates and friends--even
an FBI agent he meets for the first time.
“My
God,” Doc said. “A federal officer, come right to my house. What
can I do for you?”
“You
could invite me in,” the man said.
“You
could show me some identification,” Doc said. “It’s not just
Feds who dress unimaginatively.”
While
sipping beer in Doc's kitchen, the two continue such bantering. The
FBI guy gives as good as he gets, but Doc's zingers are best: “I
went to school with a girl named Kathryn Whitlock. She was, well,
slow, and that’s being charitable. We used to call her Special Kay
behind her back.” He took a swallow. “I just assumed Special
Agent had the same origin.”
Humor
pops in constantly, some of it predictable, like the ubiquitous ball
busting banter, but surprises, as well. There's a marvelous double
barfing scene involving a hungover husband fleeing his enraged wife.
Hubby runs in front of a car, ends up on the hood where he upchucks
all over the windshield moments after the car's driver heaves all
over it from inside the car...I guess ya gotta be there.
Then
there's the casino blackjack dealer "a greasy little shit who
spent the night trying to look down Mary’s blouse.” The dealer's
name? Steve Onan.
The
series' ensemble cast includes some criminals, as well as cops.
There's the local Italian mobster, and one of his lieutenants, a tall
guy called "Stretch." After deciding to promote Stretch's
6'8" nephew from car thief to collector, and arguing what his
nickname should be, they settle on "Stretcher."
But
enuf about my opinions, except for this: These novels are terrific
fun. Please enjoy them, and record your own opinions here. You
wouldn't want Mike "The Hook" Mannarino to have Stretch
strap you to the backboard behind his house and throw fifty fastballs
at you, would you now?
In
chronological order, starting with Worst Enemies, the series
includes:
Grind
Joint
Resurrection
Mall
Ten-Seven
Pushing
Water.
I'm
more than ready for Dana to book #6!
[Find
more Friday's Forgotten Books links at Todd
Mason's amazingly eclectic blog]
