Here is your Advent Calendar book for Dec 3rd.
"Since the early 2000's, I've discovered and enjoyed a few police procedural mystery series, notably the Commander Gideon series by JJ Marric, set in London and the 87th Precinct series set in a fictional US city, by Ed McBain. Unexpected Death by Dell Shannon is a new series for me, this being the 18th book in the Lt Mendoza police procedural series. The series was written in the 60s / early 80s and is set in Los Angeles, with Lt Mendoza in charge of his precincts Murder Squad.
Basically, this story (I don't know about the others yet, but I presume they are similar) follows the squad in a week or two of investigation as they look into a number of cases. They work on cases that happened earlier and continue to investigate and also as new cases crop up each day, they take those on as well. It's the daily grind, basically, the interrogations, the foot work, the paper work, the meetings over lunch at the local pub / restaurant, the family life of each and the conversations at home. It's a microcosm of a police squad.
No matter how seemingly trivial, each case is examined nicely and worked thoroughly, ideas brought up, rejected, people questioned, miles of footwork put down.. You have the woman raped and murdered in her bedroom (was it her husband? a stranger? a family friend?). You have the 5 children, whose parents are away, who all die. What happened? Food poisoning? You've got the young woman, in the green cocktail dress, whose body is found in an alley, a case that gets under Mendoza's skin. And various other cases that the squad looks into.
It's a fascinating story, sometimes confusing as we jump from detective to detective, from case to case, but the story is interesting, the people, both squad, their families and the victims, are all interesting. It's down to earth and realistic. A most enjoyable, entertaining read. I'm searching for more books in the series now. Woo hoo! (4.0 stars)"
Have a great week!
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