Welcome to Litsy!

Finally finished! I found the intended theme of sexual perversity (by 1973 standards) and the casual racism off putting (invariably describing black cops as "the black" or "the big black"? Really?). I also didn't love the psych games the MC cop played with the killer. Writing and crime story are pretty good, though. Also interesting to read about a pre-Internet crime investigation...you forget how much things have changed in only 40 years or so.

Aargh, the main cop protagonist is a lawsuit waiting to happen. 1) Illegal search of suspect's apartment, 5 pages later FINALLY mentions that oh yeah, nothing he found would be admitted in court because illegal search. 2) Plotting with colleague how to kill slippery suspect but make it look like cops shot him in self-defense, complete with planted evidence. 3) Prank calls suspect pretending to be one of his murdered victims.
WTF Lawrence Sanders?!

For other geeky lawyers: the quote about the law being in flux. This book was first published in 1973, so yeah. They were still dealing with adapting existing case law to Miranda and other important cases in that window. 🤓⚖️

I have been reading this book forever! Good golly, it's long. It's picked up momentum as it goes, though, and the creepy perversity of the early chapters has been diluted by the crime investigation parts of the book. Interesting side note for lawyers - there's a little paragraph on how the recent laws of evidence and admissibility were confusing to cops at this point (early 1970s), no doubt due to Miranda and other recent landmark cases.

I got sidetracked by this today. Scribd suggested that I might like it, based on some other things I've read. WOW. This book is...weird. I guess it was daring and edgy in the 70s? It kind of just reads as creepy and sleazy now. The florid writing doesn't help. Also I'm to chapter 6, and nothing has really happened yet besides this guy's sexual obsession with this weird and creepy woman of mystery. DON'T GO UP TO HER ROOM, DUDE. #sobaditsgood