There is an elite group of detectives in the Los Angeles Police Department belonging to the Felony Special unit. These are the best of the best and when an ex-cop is murdered, the case is sent over to this unit. But this case is very important to the chief of police and he wants it handled by the best detective in the unit. The problem is the best detective in the unit quit 11 months earlier when he was upset suspended from a case he was working on. In that case, a potential witness was murdered and the detective Ash Levine was upset over it and made it personal in order to find the person responsible. Lieutenant Frank Duffy was the one who suspended him and now he must convince Ash to come back and work on this case.
A little background is revealed about detective Ash Levine - he is Jewish. Before he became a cop and later a detective - much against the wishes of his parents - he went to Israel and served in the service over there. His family was affected by the holocaust years before he came along and so he harbors some emotions because of that. When he came back to the states he became a cop and was brought up the ranks by now Lieutenant Frank Duffy.
Ash agrees to come back on this case and even though Duffy has told him he has to leave the past case along, he wants to work on it on the side when he gets the chance. Of course not everybody is happy about having him back on board. And there is at least one bigot in the group who Levine finds it hard to work with. But he gets to working on the case and starts digging stuff up. As we are to find out, even though there are those who want the truth about the murder of the ex-cop to come out, there are those who want to cover it up. Can this case be related to the case Levine was involved in investigating when he was suspended almost a year ago? This is something you can look forward to discovering when you read the book.
What are some of the things this book offers? Although I am not a part of the California and specifically LA culture, I think it offers a lot of information about this as part of the story. Not only is our investigator Jewish but he likes to surf. He also a variety of foods from different nationalities which is due to the diversity available in LA. Of course there are several levels of the society available and portrayed in the stories. Of course this a story of the cops and detectives and the criminals involved in gangs and drugs but sometimes there can be a fine line between the good and bad. And while differences can be sources of conflicts, sometimes those differences just don't make that much of a difference.
In general here are some things I found interesting about the story. When the story started out in the Prologue, the story was told on the outside. But when detective Levine was introduced into the story, it starts to take on the first person point of view. I think this is important in telling this type of story.
Another thing I like is how the title is tied into the story. Obviously Kind of Blue ties into the law enforcement aspect of the story. But it is also tied into another aspect of our detective - his musical taste and how it relates to his moods. Kind of Blue is the title of a song by Miles Davis and Levine likes to listen to the jazz by him. As a side note, I think it is interesting that the author shares the same first name as the jazz artist.
I was impressed by this book. Does it sound like something you would be interested in reading?
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