Vixen (Brant Series #5) Book

Bruen's a very prolific writer of whose work I haven't read nearly enough -- this is just the third of his novels that I've read, the others being The Guards, which I enjoyed, and American Skin, which impressed me less. Both readings were a few years ago.

In Vixen the "vixen" of the title is a psycho called Annie who's teamed up with small-time crooks Ray and Jimmy Cross to extort money from the police through setting off minor bombs in London venues and promising a bigger one unless the rozzers cough up. There are other plot strands going on, but this is the central one. As I was reading, I felt very strongly that what Bruen was doing in this book -- part of an established series -- was essentially to recreate Ed McBain's 87th Precinct for a modern audience. Yes, this is a police procedural; yes, it's fairly short; yes, it reads like a rocket; yes, it's interested in the interplay between its various characters. Imagine my smugitude when, seemingly in recognition of this, Bruen introduces a completely gratuitous reference to McBain's Fat Ollie's Book, one of my favorites of the 87th Precinct yarns.

There's a carelessness in places for which McBain would never have stood. The proofreader seems to have fallen asleep for a dozen or so pages near the end. A minor character undergoes a name change from Bob to Bill between introduction and his reappearance some while later. I think another does something similar, going from Rachel to Karen, but in this instance it may be deliberate.

As with the precursor series, it seems to me that it's best to assess Bruen's tales of the Southeast London police squad as a body, rather than title-by-title. I have another already on my shelf, so I imagine it'll be pulled down soon . . .