Sun 24 Aug 2014
Reviewed by Dan Stumpf: JOHN VAN DER ZEE – Stateline.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Reviews[2] Comments
JOHN VAN DER ZEE – Stateline. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, hardcover, 1976. Pyramid, 1977.
Similar in vein to Murder Plan, by John Bingham (reviewed here) is Stateline, by John van der Zee, which seems very 70s in parts (the heroine’s name is Rain, for instance) but come to think of it, a lot of 70s stuff seems rather 70s at times.
The plot depends on the Police overlooking a rather obvious clue, and ignoring a bit of procedure that was SOP when I started Police Work in ’72, but the remarkable thing is that the characters and story are strong enough to hold the tale together despite this.
Ferrell is a retired cop, working Security at a chintzy casino in Stateline, Nevada, and suffering from a near-terminal case of low self-esteem. One morning he’s handed an unusual Bad Check case: the author of the rubber has not skipped out, as most do, but is waiting around in his hotel room to be arrested.
Ferrell tries to talk him into a settlement, but the man — who neither admits nor denies his guilt – refuses and is duly incarcerated pending trial. Ferrell warns his bosses that this may all be leading up to something tricky, but he can’t think what, and they press charges anyway — and when the plot explodes, they duly elect Ferrell as their scapegoat.
As I say, there are holes here big as a roulette wheel, but there are also some very nice touches of characterization and a few telling incidents related with some skill: an early off-the-cuff detail of gamblers and tourists stepping over a heart-attack victim on their way to the tables, for instance, or scenes of Ferrell’s co-workers nervously shunning him as the corporate ax prepares to fall.
All this, tied in with a plot that keeps moving to a neat, low-key wrap-up, make this one quite enjoyable.
Bibliographic Note: John van der Zee (1936- ) has one other title listed in Hubin, that being Blood Brotherhood (Harcourt, 1970). Says Kirkus of this earlier book, in part: “Somehow Mr. van der Zee […] contrives to put forth this tale about the portentous murder of an Establishment-bucking labor leader as not only remotely possible but current.”
August 24th, 2014 at 4:12 pm
It sounds as though this ought be the basis of a fairly good movie, one that a small film company should be able to do without a huge budget.
August 24th, 2014 at 4:47 pm
Anyone but me notice how much the man on the cover looks like Gene Hackman? Talk about the seventies.
Luckily my work for Pinkerton’s was in corporate counter espionage and investigative. Skip tracing is the lousiest and most unrewarding job a private investigator does, though on my own I tracked down a few dead beat dads for friends later on. It is also the most common job an investigator does other than divorce work at the independent level.