Report to the Commissioner

First published in 1972, this gripping reissue from Mills (The Hearing) shows the influence of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series, but also demonstrates the author’s own ability to riff on the police procedural. Told in the form of a collection of interview transcripts, police reports, and other documents, it focuses on Bo Lockley, an honest New York City cop barely out of college, who has already messed up an early assignment. His eagerness to please makes it easy for the cynical cops at the 16th squad to push him around and manipulate him, including Richard Blackstone, an officer with a history of vigilantism and a violent temper. After failing to land any arrests for a while, Lockley gets pulled into a case involving a drug dealer known as Stick. Stick’s also being worked on by Pat Butler, an undercover officer, and the eventual shootout between Stick and his pursuers is still exciting, despite the reader’s advance knowledge of the outcome from the preface. Though the book shows its age at times, and only Blackstone and Lockley emerge as fleshed-out characters, Mills deserves credit for this solid and original crime novel about injustice and corruption in the NYPD. (Sept.)