Review: Entertaining Introduction to Cop Series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 9, 2014
Author Roger Stelljes had already written two novels detailing the exploits of St. Paul police detective Mac McRyan when he decided to give readers a proper introduction to the character. The resulting novella, First Case, gives readers a good look at the character and an interesting mystery to watch him take on.Although the novella serves as an introduction to the character of McRyan, the author is more interested in telling a story than filling readers in on every detail of the character's life history. And the story he tells is a pretty good one. It's McRyan's first homicide case, and the victim is a rising young lawyer from a prominent local law firm who was hit over the head and found dead in the parking lot of a local night club. The victim was well respected professionally but, in his personal life, he was an inveterate womanizer with dozens of short term affairs in his past. As a result, McRyan has a large potential suspect list of jealous husbands and boyfriends.Despite the tawdry nature of the victim's love life, Stelljes doesn't try to spice up the book with steamy details. Instead, he lets readers into the thought processes of McRyan as he tries to solve the case. What surprised me was that McRyan, in his first case, proves quite shrewd and logical, far more Sherlock Holmes than Joe Friday. He turns the case into an interesting logic puzzle, mapping it out on paper and reasoning step by step who the killer has to be. Because of the slim size of the book, there's of necessity a limited list of suspects and amount of investigating that can be done, but it's still fun to watch McRyan think things through.First Case is a remarkably efficient book, moving briskly to a conclusion while filling viewers in along the way with bits and pieces of McRyan's personal life. The case may mark the beginning of a chapter in McRyan's professional career but the end of one in his personal life, as his marriage is rapidly coming to an end. Just as the murder case is presented in a solid, low key manner, despite the victim's rather seamy personal life, Stelljes does not turn McRyan's marital problems into either melodramatic soap opera or an opportunity for morose self-examination. Mac McRyan approaches his own personal life in the same well organized manner as he approaches the murder investigation.First Case is well written and moves quickly. It tells us enough about McRyan to interest us in the character, and enough about Stelljes the author to interest us in his writing style. I read this book as a part of a trilogy devoted to McRyan, and I'm looking forward to seeing how both McRyan and Stelljes handle a longer, more complicated book.