“She spoke like a woman of some education; but he thought that, whatever emotions she’d once had, they’d been driven out of her, or wasted away, somehow, for some time.”


Mark of Murder is three books down the road from Death of a Busybody. We discover that Alison has had the twins hinted at at the end of the aforementioned, in Dell Shannon’s eighth entry in the terrific Lt. Luis Mendoza series, which spanned the ‘60s, ’70’s and ‘80s. This entry from the Queen of the police procedurals is from 1967, when the prolific Elizabeth Linington was writing several series at once, under various pseudonyms. I recalled this one as a highlight in the series, and it didn’t disappoint!

As it opens, the Mendoza’s have embarked on a cruise to the Bahamas. Luis is taking a vacation for the first time in many years, but not without protest. While Alison is enjoying the sparkling sea air, and a rest from the twins, Luis feels uncomfortable sans suit and tie, and can’t keep his mind away from the squad room in Los Angeles. Having to duck the boring Kirchner’s aboard ship, doesn’t make the prospect of being out of touch for three weeks any more appealing to Luis. The detective has trouble even finding a paper, but once he does, things begin happening quickly. A little hotel murder he left Hackett, Palliser and Higgins to attend to has turned into something major, with a slasher is on the loose in the City of Angels. And then comes the call…

Hackett is near death in the hospital, and they have no idea how it happened. Hackett can’t tell them, because he’s in a coma and might not wake up. The Medoza’s get a flight out in a hurry, and this one deftly moves from vacation cozy to police procedural as Mendoza tries to figure out whether a doctor’s murder, or something connected to the slasher case got Hackett into more trouble than even a cop of his size and experience could handle. Because Linington was never afraid to kill off a major character, we really don’t know how it will turn out for Hackett. His wife, Angel, whom Luis has never been fond of, and likewise, shows herself to be of more import than Luis believed, earning his respect. In turn, Angel sees Luis working around the clock to find out who did this to Hackett and also changes her mind about him.

While Linington never shied away from showing that some cops were better or more qualified at their jobs than others, there was always a respect for the tough job in her work. Cops were refreshingly shown in a positive light, a force for good unappreciated by the public it served to protect. If it was true then, and it was, in our day it's true in spades. There’s a big dose of that here as Hackett’s situation has everyone working feverishly to find out what happened. It’s the same feeling conveyed by Ed McBain, in his 87th Precinct series. But Linington (Dell Shannon) focused even more so on the domestic side of cops, correctly portraying them as human beings with families and lives outside the badge.

Meanwhile in this one, there’s a disfigured slasher with a twisted grudge against everyone, and a doctor’s murder Luis must deal with while he continues trying to figure out what Hackett saw or did that led him to be attacked. This was 1967 and what they discover about the doctor does date one element of the plot, but makes it no less interesting. This one has Luis, who has been on the force for twenty-two years, telling Alison that he’ll retire if Hackett dies. But Luis hasn’t retired yet, and he realizes too late that the media reports might lead the slasher to escalate his attacks. Also, there is a seemingly insignificant clue:

“Now this I don’t believe. The clue straight out of Edgar Wallace.”

It proves to be an important clue, however, the one which leads Mendoza to Hackett’s attacker. How it does, or why, will have to remain a mystery. Before it happens, however, there is a very exciting shootout and chase involving the slasher. As Luis realized, but almost too late, he has escalated his anger to a broader target. Seven people go down in this one, some of them cops, but the ending is worth it. Definitely a top-notch entry in this long-running series. The blending of cozy mystery, domestic life and police procedural was never done better than by Linington, which is why this popular series lasted for so many years.

On a technical note, this edition from Carroll & Graf, with the snazzy cover showing a dead girl and the hotel sign outside the window, has very small print. It is not 265 pages as listed, but 208, thus the small print. If you’re an older person looking to pick up a copy but don’t like the smaller fonts, be forewarned, this might not be the edition to get. The other snazzy cover Carroll & Graf edition I have, Root of All Evil, has a more normal font size. Mark of Murder is a well written snapshot in time, as well as a good mystery and police procedural. Highly recommended! ( )

Good read. ( )