Another Home Run for Stephen J. Cannell’s Shane Skully

You ever heard of something called the parallel market? How about a parallel universe and a secret city of drugged-out rogue cops? What starts out as a mysterious appearance of a Jody Dean, Shane’s best friend, thought long dead, turns into a conspiracy of such magnitude as to endanger the life of not only Shane but his best and deepest love, Alexa Hamilton. “…it’s up to you to light the bitch up,” are the words spoken to order Shane to assassinate the woman he means to marry. Is Jody Dean a dead man or the most deadly man on the planet, that is the question. Before the end of the story, there are some strong contenders to rival Jody Dean’s bloodthirst. Multiple murders is only the beginning of this crime adventure.

I’ll warn you that a Viking funeral is a rather dubious honor. The Vikings is a hard club to get into and even harder to get out of. And what’s worse is that some of the seemingly nicest guys belong to it. Shane’s intention to reveal that such a club even exists threatens to undo him as he is already under psychiatric treatment for duress on the job.

“His career was already in big trouble. This little story about seeing a dead man on the 405 freeway would make him look as though he’d started carrying his shit around in a sock.”

Still, there are moments of great justice and humour in this dire story. Only Shane could pull off keeping his son, Chooch, in school by utilizing the talents of Officer Krupke from the West Valley Canine Hall of Fame. I didn’t count the times Shane pulled out his little lock picks to break and enter but I can tell you it was often and without shame. And there is a dangerous blonde in the story by the name of Lisa who is a femme fatale like no other. The ending is epic, I have some cop friends you felt it was totally unbelievable. You have to read it for yourself because it would be a crime to ruin it. Once again, I couldn’t stop until the book was done. Don’t miss THE VIKING FUNERAL, second in Stephen J. Cannell’s Shane Skully series.