Line of Duty

292 pages. Octavo (8 1/4" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's red cloth with silver lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. First edition. The Shaft successes behind him, Tidyman has written a somewhat more seriously intentioned novel of Cleveland detectives during an all too body-filled period of two or three days -- hard rain, black sky, a cold wind coming down off Lake Erie, and a killer cop as a hit man for the local Mafia. The reader is swept from scene to bleak scene of violence, sinister pizza parlors, bars, hijackings, gunnings, rapes with plenty of police procedure. Detective James Dempsey, aging, balding, divorced by a frigid wife who boils like a screaming kettle whenever he tries to visit his kids, is an empty man who sells his soul to the big hoods and plans to start over in South America when his nest egg outweighs his leaden heart. But the department has finally started looking into the six deaths for which he's responsible. While the Mafia steps up its truck heists, Dempsey gets paid to rub out a driver-stoolie. He's also into some mad athletics with a throaty singer. His demise brings fair irony -- strong enough for a flick -- but Tidyman's fake grim humor never rises above the crime entertainment level even if he has something more ambitious in mind. Still it might do well. Condition: Corners gently bumped, small tape stain to front paste down. Jacket lightly soiled, 2 inch by 1 inch jagged tear to spine head extending to back else very good in like jacket.