The ultimate police procedural novel, with even a glossary of police terms and radio codes, from which the title is taken, Code 61 being an American notification that the transmission is not secure. Written by a former Deputy-Sheriff in Iowa, it has authenticity oozing from every one of the 370 pages, for it is a thick, big-format paperback. Though I am not a great fan of American tales, partly because I cannot empathise with the terminology, locations and monotonously bad language (both grammatical and obscene), I enjoyed this book for its authenticity and honest plotting - it starts at the beginning and goes on to the end, with no diversions.
The story is seen through the eyes of Deputy-Sheriff Carl Houseman in Iowa (no surprise there) who has to investigate a series of deaths where the possibility of vampire activity is raised. Most of the action takes place in a large old mansion on a bluff above the Mississippi, where a group of young weirdoes are house-sitting for the rich woman owner, who lives in adjacent Wisconsin. One of them is found dead in the bath, looking almost, but not quite, like a suicide. Houseman calls in Hester Gorse, a Special Agent of the State Division of Criminal Investigation (which the jacket blurb wrongly calls the FBI) and from then on, the action speeds up, with a finale in an old silica mine under the house.
The strength of the book is in its characterisation of the police officers, especially their interactions in the office and on the job. One gets the feeling that the author is using a lot of autobiographical material, grafted on to his fictitious plot and for aficionados of the procedural novel, this is a winner. Even the forensic pathology is almost all correct - though not quite!


( Bernard Knight ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
New Books by Donald Harstad at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by Donald Harstad at Alibris.com

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