Police procedurals
What do we mean by 'police procedural'?
Above all, the procedural thrusts the detective into the middle of a working police force, full of rules and regulations. Instead of bypassing the police, as occurs in most private eye or cosy crime stories, the procedural takes the reader inside the department and shows how it operates. These are stories not just about policemen, but about the
world of the policeman.
While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several unrelated crimes in a single story. Traditional mysteries usually adhere to the convention of having the criminal's identity concealed until the climax (the so-called 'whodunit'), but in police procedurals, the perpetrator's identity is often known to the audience from the outset.
Classic examples include Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels, John Creasey's Inspector West, and the work of Joseph Wambaugh.
May we suggest...
 The Black Echo
Michael Connelly
In the first Harry Bosch story from the bestselling Michael Connelly, LAPD Detective Harry Bosch must walk the line between criminals and crooked cops following the death of an old war buddy.
Visit michaelconnelly.com.au |
 The Marx Sisters
Barry Maitland
When one of three elderly sisters, great-granddaughters of Karl Marx, is found dead in her Jerusalem Lane house, Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla and Detective Chief Inspector Brock investigate. The first in the acclaimed Brock and Kolla mysteries.
Visit barrymaitland.com |
 The Salati Case
Tobias Jones
Set in the fog of a northern Italian winter, The Salati Case introduces Casta, a detective with a hard boiled exterior and a soft centre. |
 Suffer the Children
Adam Creed
DI Will Wagstaffe - 'Staffe' to friends and enemies alike - is a man with many burdens. On the eve of leaving for a personal trip abroad he is called to the scene of a horrific crime: a known paedophile has been butchered in his own home. |
 Ratking
Michael Dibdin
Police Commissioner Aurelio Zen had crossed swords with the establishment before - and lost. But from the depths of a mundane desk job in Rome he is unexpectedly transferred to Perugia to take over an explosive kidnapping case involving one of Italy's most powerful families. The first of the acclaimed Aurelio Zen stories, recently adapted for UK television. |
 The Tower
Michael Duffy
Young detective Nicholas Troy is basically a good man, for whom working in homicide is the highest form of police work. But when a woman falls from the construction site for the world's tallest skyscraper, the tortured course of the murder investigation that follows threatens his vocation. A gripping, fast-paced crime novel by an investigative journalist who knows where the bodies are buried in Sydney, the City of Sharks...
Visit michaelduffy.com.au |
 Rizzo's War
Lou Manfredo
Lou Manfredo's stunningly authentic debut, partners a rookie detective with a seasoned veteran on his way to retirement in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. |