JON A. JACKSON – The Blind Pig. Random House, hardcover, 1978. Dennis McMillan Publications, softcover, 1988. Dell, paperback, 1995. Grove Press, softcover, 2000.

   If you’ve ever spent any time in or around Detroit, you surely know what a blind pig is. You also know how Detroit is a city awash with guns. Sergeant Mulheisen works for the Detroit Police Department, and guns are part of his everyday working life. And where else but in Detroit would a train be hijacked to steal a boxcar containing over two million dollars’ worth of rifles and ammunition?

   The case begins with a pair of street cops mowing down a gunman hiding in a darkened garage, and it grows to include a gang of Cuban revolutionaries as well as the constant underlying presence of the local Mafia.

   Mulheisen, whom we met previously in The Diehard, no longer seems plagued by self-doubt, and the subtler
aspects of his character have disappeared. Loosely put together, for a detective
novel, and vaguely dissatisfying.

Rating:   C plus.

[UPDATE] 06-01-11.   In spite of my only so-so comments about The Blind Pig, and even though it took 12 years for the next in the series to appear, Jon Jackson has gradually put together a sizable reputation for tough, hard-boiled crime fiction, including this one. I don’t remember reading any of the books following The Blind Pig, but there have been seven more:

      The Detective Sergeant Mulheisen series:

1. The Diehard (1977)

2. The Blind Pig (1978)
3. Grootka (1990)
4. Hit on the House (1993)

5. Deadman (1994)
6. Dead Folks (1996)
7. Man With an Axe (1998)
8. La Donna Detroit (2000)
9. No Man’s Dog (2004)