Stephen J. Cannell, Vertical Coffin

Vertical Coffin

Stephen J. Cannell

St. Martin's, Jan 2004, $24.95, 400 pp.

ISBN: 0312304250

Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff Emo Rojas is handing out a routine warrant when Vincent Smiley kills him. Cops kill Vincent, but that is not the end of the story. The Sheriff's Department is outraged not because one of them was gunned down. With the amount of ammo stored inside Smiley's abode, they believe that the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco knew what their deceased comrade was walking into, but provided no warning.

Not long afterward, AFT Special Reaction Team member Billy Greenridge lies in a coffin with his compatriots convinced that this was payback for Emo's death. The only major neutral law enforcement group in Southern California is LAPD. The brass assigns Sergeant Shane Scully to keep the peace between the hostile armies by solving the second homicide. Shane alienates not only both bellicose sides but his wife and other superiors as he defies everyone by investigating Smiley, but not as a "suicide by cop" victim as his superiors including his wife believe.

The latest Scully tale is the best to date as the key players from both armed camps, several criminal elements, LAPD especially the hero's wife, his temporary Internal Affairs partner, and Shane seem so real. The tempers flaring make Shane's endeavor that much more difficult, but as a consequence that is more fun for the audience. Stephen J. Cannell is at the top of his game with this powerful police procedural that has the Blue Knights ready to war with one another unless Shane can prove in a rapid response that Greenridge's death was caused by a third party.

Harriet Klausner