Columbo: The Hoover Files

Columbo (Tor Series) #6

by William Harrington

When a biographer threatens to reveal secrets buried in the Hoover files, Lt. Columbo must determine if a former FBI agent will stop at nothing--including murder--to keep those secrets hidden. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Mystery Thriller

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

William Harrington is mainly known as the author of Murder at the President’s Door, his specialty was mainly in detective stories. He was a lawyer from 1958 to 1976, an electoral adviser from 1962 to 1965 in Columbus, and finally an attorney from 1978 to 1980. His first novel The Justice Which, Which the Thief, published in 1963, received positive critics. It was a real case story about a couple of jewelry robberies in Ohio.

His other popular book was published in 1982, The English Lady, it is an espionage novel about Winston Churchill and her confidante spying on the Germans during the Second World War. Between 1993 and 1998, he wrote the Columbo series, inspired by the television series American Columbo. He Co-authored with Elliot Roosevelt on the investigations of Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the US president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Between 1963 and 2001, he has written over 20 interesting and captivating books.

Reviews

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Harrington *really* knows how to write Columbo. This is the second I've read, and you can absolutely picture Falk saying every single line. The mannerisms are all there. This one was interesting because it had the usual Columbo format (we know who the murderer is, but we follow Columbo along as he figures it out for himself), but it also had another murder mystery thrown in that was only a tiny bit related to the original case.

The villain of this piece referred to every woman he came into contact with as "that whore," and that got a bit jarring to hear every single time he was in a scene. I guess this was to highlight the fact that he was a total prick in addition to being a murderer, but it could have been toned down a bit. But overall, a great mystery with my favorite American detective.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last of the series and really the only one where reading the others first may be a good ideal. The others don't really mention the other books, though this one did quite a bit for mainly background purposes. In this case, Columbo is after the killer who took out a journalist who was writing a book that was going after J Edgar Hoover. The killer (it's like the Columbo show, the killer isn't a spoiler) is a retired FBI agent and thus could be a worthy adversary.

It's a solid book and I did enjoy it, though I do think it was the weakest. Even though there were plenty of suspects, Columbo seemed to solve this one fairly easily. While solving other important cases along the way. I can see why this was the end it seems that there were just out of ideals. However again I did enjoy it, it does portray the old TV chatacter well and is well written.

Highly recommended, the whole series is.

[JoeK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how William Harrington died, but I suspect that his contract for this series ended with this final book because he was ill. He died only two years after its completion.

I enjoyed the series, but there were things that I didn't like in this novel. One of them was Harrington trying to create a Columbo-verse of recurring characters. I had no problem with team members; the coroner, co-workers, and boss reappearing, that all makes sense. I didn't mind the inclusion of Adrienne Boswell either. In the TV show a lot was conveyed by Peter Falk's acting that isn't easily transferable to the printed page in the same way. Having a part-time partner to help with advancing the story made sense.

What I didn't like was revisiting characters (particularly murderers) from the previous books. For people entering the series, every book should be a standalone, just like each TV episode was. This one referred to many previous stories from the series and made Ai-Ling Cooper-Svan, the villain of the last volume almost into a hero. In this novel it says she murdered her "abusive" husband, but as I remember it, he cheated on her and stole money from her. Not the same thing. Possibly the author was thinking about showing redemption or correction, but this didn't work for me, especially since the Ai-ling seems to be getting out of prison in less than five years for first-degree murder.

[James Joyce]

Just couldn't do it. I was reading it and it seemed kind of... workmanlike. Just... there.

A self-centred guy kills someone and Columbo is assigned the case. But Columbo isn't Columbo. His jokes and general patter are too normal, without the character's, well... character.

I wasn't getting around to finishing it, so I took it back to the library.

[Robert Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just one more thing!

[D. Wickles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these Columbo mysteries it is just like watching the Columbo movies. This one dealt with the FBI and J Edgar Hoover and someone who didn't want some information to be published.

[Nicolas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series never really managed to catch what I like about the show. Like Grassy Knoll before it, this book connects Columbo to a major historical event and its just unnecessary. Not a great finale to the series, but I guess that fits.

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Voor velen - net zoals voor mij - blijft de figuur van insoecteur Columbo voor altijd onverbrekelijk verbonden de de televisiereeks met Peter Falk in de hoofdrol. Dat zorgt er natuurlijk voor dat de boeken er automatisch een visueel element bij krijgen. De regenjas, de oude Peugeot en de typische manier van de extra vraagstelling bij het weggaan...
Het merkwaarrdigste en mogelijk unieke van de Columbo-verhalen is dat er helemaal geen spanning zit in het te weten komen van wie de dader is of hoe hij/zij de moord pleegde. Dat is immers het onderwerp van het eerste hoofdstuk waarmee elk verhaal begint. Hoe Columbo vanuit het niets de steeds - bijna - perfekte moorden oplost is de essentie van het boek.
De hier veel minder bekende en ondertussen aktueel gezien totaal achterhaalde figuur van J. Edgar Hoover, ex-directeur van de Amerikaanse binnenlandse veiligheidsdienst FBI, is de spilfiguur waar alles om draait. Ook homoseksualiteit en travestie zijn niet langer taboe en/of strafbaar.
Toch kunnen deze zaken makkelijk ge-extrapoleerd worden naar onze tijd, denk maar aan de klimaathysterie, het identitair verzet, de omvolking, islamitisch terrorisme, ...
Het is een plus om de tv-serie bekeken te hebben maar geen absolute voorwaarde.
Aangenaam om lezen, leerzaam zelfs, intellectuele spanning.

[Leslie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the story. It kept my interest all the way through. I thought that because of how all the loose ends are being tied together during the last 1/4 of the book, the very end of the book was a bit of a let-down for me. Still good overall though.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of like the Castle books.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: did tell-all biographer Betsy Clendenin go too far into the Hoover files? She received a mail bomb. Columbo shuffles in.