Copp For Hire by Don Pendleton
Copyright 1987
From the man who created and wrote the first 38 "Executioner" series adventure books, comes a hard case, hard ass, L.A. PI living on the hard side. And that's how Pendleton wants us to see him as. Joe Copp is an ex-cop who wants to pick-and-chose his own cases, which is why he went "private."
In the first of the six novel series, Copp sets out to find why his stripper client, who just hired him, is killed as she is leaving his office. Quickly the case takes him to strip clubs, meeting sleazy cops, and finding murder, murder, and more murders. Joe Copp is tough, mouthy, and quick with the gun. He chases after a sex-psycho politician and his masochistic nephew, from LA to Hawaii. The Honolulu police give him plenty of rope to settle the score, and Joe doesn't let them down.
"I rip his gun loose and hear several fingers crunch in the release. I decide to leave him with his head intact. I merely bang it on the floor until he quits struggling."
This one is bang, bang action-hardboiled and a bit hardcore. Not for the ladies, Pendleton wrote this for his target audience-men who like fast aggressive action. Copp sees all, acts fast, and will stop and preach a little to us. We're not talking Pulitzer here; just fast, exciting, hard PI fun.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Copp For Hire by Don Pendleton
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3 comments:
I read a couple Copps and liked 'em fine. mtm
I have all of the books in this series, and like'em all. Wish there were more.
The Executioner novels were Pendleton's best work, which were always deeper in theme and subject matter than the guns-and-guts covers lead you to believe. The Copp books were also-rans compared to big Mack Bolan. Pendleton tried to carry the same themes over but it didn't quite work as well. That's okay, I have all of them (and most of the Executioners!) and enjoyed the Copp books. Their tongue-in-cheek action and humor were very appealing after the seriousness of the Executioner.
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