REVIEWED BY TONY BAER:

   
TUCKER COE – Murder Among Children. Mitch Tobin #2. Random House, hardcover, 1968. Signet P4030, paperback, 1969.

   Mitch Tobin was kicked off the force. By rule, 2 cops on every call. He and his partner got a routine call, but Mitch had his partner go it alone, as Mitch and his ‘lady friend’ had a ‘date’. The ‘routine’ call turned out anything but, and Mitch’s partner was shot dead.

   The force was everything to Mitch. And he lost it. Now he’s got nothing. Nothing but his wife, who for some reason forgives him and still cares for him. A fact equal parts comfort and shame.

   All Mitch wants now is to disappear. He is barely of this world anymore. He just wants to read Twain’s Life on the Mississippi and build a brick wall around his back yard. He doesn’t care how long it takes. The longer the better. It’s just the process. Build the wall, read the book. Stay out of this century, stay out of this world. Disengage.

   But the world keeps trying to pull him back in.

   This time, it’s a cousin, a young pretty hippy-chick. She started a coffee shop in the East Village, but a cop keeps hounding them. She doesn’t know what he wants. Could Mitch please talk to him and ask him to leave them alone?

   Mitch isn’t too thrilled by the prospect, but reluctantly agrees. He’s always hated cops on the take — and he figures that’s what this is. He makes a date to go to the coffee shop tomorrow afternoon to talk to the cop.

   But when Mitch shows up, his cousin is covered in blood, holding a bloody butcher knife, with two bodies laying abreast of her frozen figure. Still life with knife.

   She’s in shock and can’t remember a thing. But Mitch becomes convinced she’s not guilty when the killer comes after him next.

   It’s a very short (140 page paperback) detective novel. Most interesting for the fact that Tobin hates himself for his betrayal of his wife and partner. And he feels there’s nothing left for him to do but hide, work on his wall, and read his Twain. The only peace he gets is when he’s put in jail as a suspect. He’s finally released, but would rather not go, if it’s all the same to you. He was kind of enjoying it there.

   It’s worth reading for the Tobin character. He’s got to be the most depressed, self-loathing detective I know.
   

      The Mitch Tobin series —

Kinds of Love, Kinds of Death. Random 1966
Murder Among Children. Random 1968
A Jade in Aries. Random 1970
Wax Apple. Random 1970
Don’t Lie to Me. Random 1972