F GOOD AND EVIL

by Ernest K. Gann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 26, 1963

San Francisco's Police Department allowed the author to ""live"" with it according to the foreword. The result of this cohabitation is the spitting image of Marric's Gideon's Day. This shared method makes for fascinating reading and is essentially the same as the one the author employed in The High and the Mighty: a dozen story lines are spun out and interweave back to the same point in the same day. Although both author and publisher see this as a ""giant parable"" of the forces of violence creeping up on law and order, the only relation to the parable form is the use of stock characters recognizable from a cell block's distance away: the good Irish Catholic cop; the villainous union racketeer; the nymphet accuser (motivated and acting for the same reasons that set Salem afire); the judge in dilemma; the suicide driven by a Philip Wylie-styled wife. Even if it misses parable heights, the book is nevertheless a fast paced novel of police method and detection. The not-so-subtle sermonizing of the police in regard to juvenile delinquency control, race matters and the good old days of the open brothel are presumed to be accurate renderings of ""the police mind"". The Headquarters headache expertly told.

Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1963

Categories: FICTION