Wed 15 Jan 2014
Reviewed by Allen J. Hubin: COLLIN WILCOX – A Death Before Dying.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[2] Comments
Allen J. Hubin
COLLIN WILCOX – A Death Before Dying. Henry Holt, hardcover, 1990; paperback, 1994.
A Death Before Dying is the latest of Collin Wilcox’s novels about San Francisco homicide department chief Frank Hastings. The ingredients are here: wicked men (with a dip of the hat to a famous murder case and Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood), personal involvement for Hastings, an array of characters, police procedure.
But for me the story remained mechanical, without real emotion. One day Hastings encounters a childhood friend, now grown into a notable beauty. Desperate, too, it would seem, though she doesn’t say much about that.
Too bad: the next view Frank has of her is her strangled corpse. The investigation begins: she lived well, without an obvious source. A kept woman, presumably, but by whom? Gradually the pieces begin to add up in very nasty fashion….
Vol. 12, No. 4, Fall 1990.
The Lt. Frank Hastings series —
The Lonely Hunter (1969)
The Disappearance (1970)
Dead Aim (1971)
Hiding Place (1973)
Doctor, Lawyer…. (1975)
Long Way Down (1975)
Aftershock (1975)
The Third Victim (1977)
Twospot (1978; in collaboration with Bill Pronzini, whose Nameless detective also appears)
Power Plays (1979)
Mankiller (1980)
Stalking Horse (1982)
Victims (1985)
Night Games (1986)
The Pariah (1988)
A Death Before Dying (1990)
Hire a Hangman (1991)
Dead Center (1992)
Switchback (1993)
Calculated Risk (1995)
January 16th, 2014 at 1:54 pm
This review was accidentally posted before it was ready, but I decided to leave it and fill in the missing components as I had the chance.
Late last night I added the Hastings bibliography, and just now the cover image.
Wilcox had a long career in writing mystery fiction, but my opinion seems to agree with Al’s on this one: workmanlike, fully professional, but never more than moderately gripping.
January 16th, 2014 at 3:49 pm
My general opinion of Wilcox was the same, certainly a solid read, but nothing special, still I read all of them up to ’86, and always found Wilcox pleasant to read.
I think this series and particularly Frank Hastings were comfortable — I’m not putting him down, but like a pair of favorite slippers or your recliner, a place you went to when you wanted comfort with no surprises — not heavenly, but no bumps or low places either.
I did enjoy the crossover TWO-SPOT, but more for Pronzini and Nameless than Wilcox and Hastings. Still, while I can’t remember any of them vividly, I do recall enjoying them in the way sometimes you want mac and cheese instead of filet mignon.