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ON THE GRIND by Stephen J. Cannell

ON THE GRIND

by Stephen J. Cannell

Pub Date: Jan. 6th, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-36628-5
Publisher: St. Martin's

Could it be that one of the LAPD’S fairest-haired boys is actually a dirtbag? Say it ain’t so, Shane (Three Shirt Deal, 2008, etc.).

The evidence that Detective Shane Scully is a cheesy blackmailer is so conclusive that three of his colleagues show up at his house in the dead of night to arrest him. Even loyal Alexa Scully—aka Lt. Scully, chief of detectives—seems deeply distressed by her husband’s base behavior. In short order, Scully is stripped of badge, gun, rank and dignity, though for the good of the service he’s allowed to resign. No sooner has he been shown the door, however, than Scully is determined to hook up with “the dreaded Haven Park PD.” Could it be there’s something so rotten in Haven Park—a haven indeed to bent cops, crooked politicians and diverse lowlifes—that extraordinary measures are required to sweep it clean? Could it be that Shane is only a counterfeit dirty cop? Readers who suspected as much on page two will soon find their perspicacity rewarded. From then on to the denouement, it’s the usual Cannell hodgepodge of violence, sadism and limp plotting.

“The mop-up,” says our hero as crooks, creeps and assorted bottom feeders finally surrender to the forces of good, “was right out of a Bruckheimer movie.” Or a phoned-in Cannell novel.