Tilt-a-Whirl Book

If someone combined the DNA of Captain America and Dudley Do-Right to create a superior human being, then John Ceepak would probably be the result. And then we would have to rise up and slay him for making the rest of us look so bad.

Ceepak was with the military police in the army, but a bad tour in Baghdad has left him with a phobia about driving. He's now a police officer in a vacation resort town called Sea Haven where a young part-time cop and local boy named Danny Boyle is assigned as his partner, but Danny's main job is really just acting as Ceepak's chauffer. Ceepak and Danny are having some breakfast and getting ready to start a day investigating crimes like the theft of a tricycle when a screaming young girl covered in blood starts running down the street. Her father has just been shot and killed at a nearby amusement park, and when it turns out that he was one of the richest men in America, Sea Haven finds itself in the center of a media frenzy as the cops try to solve the crime.

The main selling point for this one is the Ceepak character. It's apparent early that Ceepak is a good guy. Not just a good guy like, "Sure I'll help you move." or "Yeah, I'll come bail you out even though it's 2 AM on Christmas morning.", but a good guy in the sense that an Eagle Scout would look like a tweaker in a motorcycle gang by comparison.

Ceepak is polite and courteous to everyone and doesn't lie or swear. He strictly follows rules and procedures, and he's such a devoted cop that his idea of a good time is watching forensic shows on the Discovery Channel. If he gives you his word, it's as good as money in the bank.

Sounds like he'd be a self-righteous bore, right? That's the neat part. He isn't. The story is told in first person narration from Danny's point of view, and it's his voice that makes this work. Danny's a nice guy, but not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He's the kind of likeable goof hanging around his home town that would normally be content to just coast along with dead end jobs and drinking beers with his friends, and Ceepak could run circles around him mentally or physically. Instead, Ceepak treats him with respect, tries to teach him police work without being a pompous jerk about it and generally just encourages Danny to be a better person by example. It's because he never acts like he's better than anyone else while being better than everyone else that makes what could be an annoying character more inspirational than pain-in-the-ass.

Plus, when we learn Ceepak's tragic past, you realize that this isn't a guy who's so good because he was raised on a farm in Smallville, Kansas, by Ma and Pa Kent. This is a guy who consciously decided to be this way and holds himself to such a high standard because he wants to make things better for others. That also cuts down on the potential goody two-shoes factor.

All in all, this kind of reminded me of a TV series that would be like something you'd see on the USA Network. You've got a quirky but likeable main character and his sidekick solving crimes that are just dark enough to give it some gravity, but not so grim that you feel like sticking your head in the oven. Lightweight, but fun and entertaining enough that I'll check out more in the series at some point.