Rene Gutteridge, Snitch

Snitch

Rene Gutteridge

WaterBrook, May 2007, $12.99

ISBN: 0877881995

Although retirement looms on the near horizon and he earned the desk job, Las Vegas police sergeant Ron Yeager is bored. Thus when the brass asks him if he would agree to train an undercover task force of rookies to infiltrate an auto theft gang, Ron euphorically says yes. He might have reconsidered his agreeing if he had met his inexperienced team before his acceptance.

Ron meets his squad and instantly knows some idiot must be punishing him as they make the worst choices he could imagine going undercover inside the underbelly of Sin City. The squad includes an open Christian Mackenzie "Mack" Hazard trying to get converts, super-egotistical Jesse "know it all" Lunden trying to get Ron's job, and Dozer trying to stay awake more minutes than Disney's Sleepy. Ron thinks this trio will send him into disability retirement due to high blood pressure.

The second Occupational Hazards tale (see SNOOP) is a delightful police procedural due to a strong prime cast. Ron is fabulous as he wonders what insanity led him to say yes. His tyros are eccentrically different as Mack makes her religious beliefs known to her teammates, Jesse makes it clear he knows more than anyone else including Ron, and Dozer cannot stay awake. Humor and police on the job training and investigation fit nicely together in Rene Gutteridge's fun, inspirational tale.

Harriet Klausner