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Deadly Sins #2
The First Deadly Sin
In the first novel in Lawrence Sanders’s bestselling Deadly Sins series, New York cop Edward Delaney chases a serial killer who’s armed with a mysterious weaponNew York Police Department Captain Edward Delaney is called to the scene of a brutal murder. A Brooklyn councilman was struck from behind, the back of his skull punctured and crushed with an unknown weapon. The victim wasn’t robbed, and there’s no known motive. The commissioner appoints Delaney to head up a clandestine task force, but soon this effort ignites an internecine war of departmental backstabbing. Distracted by the serious illness of his wife, Barbara, Delaney begins his secret investigation. Then the killer claims another victim—slain in the exact same way, leaving the strange puncture wound. As more young men are found murdered, Delaney starts putting the pieces together. Soon, he’s faced with a cop’s He knows who the killer is, but the man is untouchable. That’s when Delaney lays a trap to bring a monster to justice . . .
630 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1973
1960 people are currently reading
2538 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Sanders
161 books370 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Lawrence Sanders was the New York Times bestselling author of more than forty mystery and suspense novels. The Anderson Tapes, completed when he was fifty years old, received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for best first novel. His prodigious oeuvre encompasses the Edward X. Delaney, Archy McNally, and Timothy Cone series, along with his acclaimed Commandment books. Stand-alone novels include Sullivan's Sting and Caper. Sanders remains one of America’s most popular novelists, with more than fifty million copies of his books in print. Also published as Mark Upton.
Lawrence Sanders was the New York Times bestselling author of more than forty mystery and suspense novels. The Anderson Tapes, completed when he was fifty years old, received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for best first novel. His prodigious oeuvre encompasses the Edward X. Delaney, Archy McNally, and Timothy Cone series, along with his acclaimed Commandment books. Stand-alone novels include Sullivan's Sting and Caper. Sanders remains one of America’s most popular novelists, with more than fifty million copies of his books in print. Also published as Mark Upton.
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April 18, 2025
Happenstance, combined with Sanders' stellar reputation back after the Gotterdammerung of the Haight-Ashbury freaks - having folded their tents and got a job, finally - led me to read this in the early 1980's.
That was, for my wife and for me, our own Golden Age of Pulp Fiction.
Fiction, like its siblings TV and film, or performed music and theatre, is a way of letting our stress out.
Each age has its individual set of public stressors (in our age, it is of course COVID) and back then, for the established majority, it was us hippies protesting Vietnam - hence its media idols like Archie Bunker.
And now, naturally, ours are Apocalyptic and Dystopian heroes.
Entertainment is designed to treat our breaking-news-related neuroses.
All well and good - but what gives now, Detective Edward X. Delaney, with that ice pick?
My guess was it was weirdos of the Manson variety. We STILL shudder at those. But regardless, Delaney plods on relentlessly. On and on, until the inescapable conclusions point to a high and mighty murderer.
Yikes. It seems a bridge too far for stalwart Edward X...
But Delaney and Sanders pull it all off beautifully, beyond reproach, in the end.
I was Floored by Sanders' writing skills. So much so that I myself, along with my beloved better half, devoured ALL of Sanders' Deadly Sin oeuvre on separate weekends in those faraway years of the 80's.
(But just like Columbo on the tube, Delaney was a redoutable old flatfoot. Media mirrors media, again.)
Of course our horrified shouts of 'don't you DARE tell me what happens next in the story! " would echo from living room to the kitchen as my wife and I exchanged our yelled progress notes.
"And I don't WANT to hear about Delaney's Next Deadly Sin... I'm not even there yet!!"
Yes, as Edith Bunker crooned, Those WERE the Days -
And how we miss 'em!
That was, for my wife and for me, our own Golden Age of Pulp Fiction.
Fiction, like its siblings TV and film, or performed music and theatre, is a way of letting our stress out.
Each age has its individual set of public stressors (in our age, it is of course COVID) and back then, for the established majority, it was us hippies protesting Vietnam - hence its media idols like Archie Bunker.
And now, naturally, ours are Apocalyptic and Dystopian heroes.
Entertainment is designed to treat our breaking-news-related neuroses.
All well and good - but what gives now, Detective Edward X. Delaney, with that ice pick?
My guess was it was weirdos of the Manson variety. We STILL shudder at those. But regardless, Delaney plods on relentlessly. On and on, until the inescapable conclusions point to a high and mighty murderer.
Yikes. It seems a bridge too far for stalwart Edward X...
But Delaney and Sanders pull it all off beautifully, beyond reproach, in the end.
I was Floored by Sanders' writing skills. So much so that I myself, along with my beloved better half, devoured ALL of Sanders' Deadly Sin oeuvre on separate weekends in those faraway years of the 80's.
(But just like Columbo on the tube, Delaney was a redoutable old flatfoot. Media mirrors media, again.)
Of course our horrified shouts of 'don't you DARE tell me what happens next in the story! " would echo from living room to the kitchen as my wife and I exchanged our yelled progress notes.
"And I don't WANT to hear about Delaney's Next Deadly Sin... I'm not even there yet!!"
Yes, as Edith Bunker crooned, Those WERE the Days -
And how we miss 'em!
August 10, 2020
.
★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2
Somewhere approaching 1980, when I started reading for pleasure, I quickly learned before starting a new book to find the copyright date. It automatically placed the book (unless otherwise indicated in the story) in one of three eras: nowadays, the 60s, or--God help me--“olden times,” which ranged from the dawn of the mystery novel (which is all I read) to the start of the sixties. I was young. Naïve as I was, the last category was still relevant. Older mysteries often had elements involved in the solution, the action, and/or the investigation that no longer existed. Cars had something called a running board. You could not mix a drink without this thing called a syphon. And why did you have to speak to an operator before placing a simple phone call?
As I’ve aged the hard lines dividing eras have faded. I can now discern the proper environment of older stories from the copyright date alone, without the generalizations. Modern details pose little problem as well. I can sense if DNA is yet factor in the world of a story. And whether the cell phone is flipped open or swiped on gives me a good idea of what is and is not available to the characters in a particular work. It is only with computer technology that I still lack firm definition. Because I was aware of each stepping stone in the evolution of the personal computer as it came about, I have no reliable markers to anchor each stage in history. I’m probably not alone. As early as 1992 Donald Hamilton felt it necessary to describe a floppy disc. It did not take long for that description to feel superfluous. But today? Maybe not. The floppy has gone the way of the syphon and running boards on cars. And so, computers across recent decades remain blurry.
The First Deadly Sin was copyrighted 1973 and the first oddity I noticed, primarily because of fledgling computer technology, was the enormous amount of paperwork associated with police work. Reams and reams of it. At one point the protagonist has to search the basement of his precinct and he finds it nearly filled to capacity, most of it with old paperwork. And as his investigation proceeds we watch him produce reams more. It’s an element of police work often bypassed by writers.
Edward X. Delaney, Captain of the 251st precinct, pursues most of his paperwork by choice. His investigation is unofficial--but that's the way he's been trained to think. Delaney has taken a leave of absence because of his wife’s unexpected illness and hospitalization, and simultaneously a task force hunting a serial killer is being publicly managed by a politically dangerous but extremely incompetent deputy commissioner named Broughton. Because of Broughton’s access to the best the NYPD has available, there is fear by “the powers that be” that he may solve this in spite of himself. Because Delaney is very good at his job, coupled with his availability, he is asked to covertly beat Broughton to the arrest.
This brings about the other point the passage of time has made obvious. When Delaney attempts to research serial killers, he can find almost no literature on the subject. Today we know these walking horrors can be classified to the point where, sometimes, their next move can actually be predicted. Much of the accepted knowledge in this novel has been disproved. There is no need, however, to make allowances for this in order to enjoy the story. It’s beside the point. This is not a treatise. Nor is it a thriller. It is a study of two men where ostensibly one is hunting the other. In reality it examines how each overcomes, or falls prey to, his growing pride: The First Deadly Sin.
We meet the killer, Daniel Blank, in the first chapter and are present as his seduction by his ego begins. He recognizes the triggers, is aware of the process, yet his mind continues to deteriorate. Delaney’s waltz with Pride is less obvious. Each is slowly revealed in greater detail over the course of the novel. Too much detail? Lawrence Sanders had a reputation for bloated storytelling, sometimes justifiably. Not in this case. This story is meant to be an examination of two men facing different versions of the same sin. Outwardly they are on separate roads leading toward an inevitable showdown. In reality the final battle will be individual in nature, against their inner selves.
The minutia and a slower unfolding of events are absolutely necessary. It gives appropriate weight to the final confrontations. Are there times when we are in an interior monologue with one character when the reader wants to be elsewhere with a different character? Once or twice. And of course Sanders had always been sexually explicit. But any argument regarding pace I’ll have to dispute. While in terms of style and content The First Deadly Sin is without a doubt a product of its time, that should not be taken as any indication that it can’t transcend its era. It easily does.
★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2
Somewhere approaching 1980, when I started reading for pleasure, I quickly learned before starting a new book to find the copyright date. It automatically placed the book (unless otherwise indicated in the story) in one of three eras: nowadays, the 60s, or--God help me--“olden times,” which ranged from the dawn of the mystery novel (which is all I read) to the start of the sixties. I was young. Naïve as I was, the last category was still relevant. Older mysteries often had elements involved in the solution, the action, and/or the investigation that no longer existed. Cars had something called a running board. You could not mix a drink without this thing called a syphon. And why did you have to speak to an operator before placing a simple phone call?
As I’ve aged the hard lines dividing eras have faded. I can now discern the proper environment of older stories from the copyright date alone, without the generalizations. Modern details pose little problem as well. I can sense if DNA is yet factor in the world of a story. And whether the cell phone is flipped open or swiped on gives me a good idea of what is and is not available to the characters in a particular work. It is only with computer technology that I still lack firm definition. Because I was aware of each stepping stone in the evolution of the personal computer as it came about, I have no reliable markers to anchor each stage in history. I’m probably not alone. As early as 1992 Donald Hamilton felt it necessary to describe a floppy disc. It did not take long for that description to feel superfluous. But today? Maybe not. The floppy has gone the way of the syphon and running boards on cars. And so, computers across recent decades remain blurry.
The First Deadly Sin was copyrighted 1973 and the first oddity I noticed, primarily because of fledgling computer technology, was the enormous amount of paperwork associated with police work. Reams and reams of it. At one point the protagonist has to search the basement of his precinct and he finds it nearly filled to capacity, most of it with old paperwork. And as his investigation proceeds we watch him produce reams more. It’s an element of police work often bypassed by writers.
Edward X. Delaney, Captain of the 251st precinct, pursues most of his paperwork by choice. His investigation is unofficial--but that's the way he's been trained to think. Delaney has taken a leave of absence because of his wife’s unexpected illness and hospitalization, and simultaneously a task force hunting a serial killer is being publicly managed by a politically dangerous but extremely incompetent deputy commissioner named Broughton. Because of Broughton’s access to the best the NYPD has available, there is fear by “the powers that be” that he may solve this in spite of himself. Because Delaney is very good at his job, coupled with his availability, he is asked to covertly beat Broughton to the arrest.
This brings about the other point the passage of time has made obvious. When Delaney attempts to research serial killers, he can find almost no literature on the subject. Today we know these walking horrors can be classified to the point where, sometimes, their next move can actually be predicted. Much of the accepted knowledge in this novel has been disproved. There is no need, however, to make allowances for this in order to enjoy the story. It’s beside the point. This is not a treatise. Nor is it a thriller. It is a study of two men where ostensibly one is hunting the other. In reality it examines how each overcomes, or falls prey to, his growing pride: The First Deadly Sin.
We meet the killer, Daniel Blank, in the first chapter and are present as his seduction by his ego begins. He recognizes the triggers, is aware of the process, yet his mind continues to deteriorate. Delaney’s waltz with Pride is less obvious. Each is slowly revealed in greater detail over the course of the novel. Too much detail? Lawrence Sanders had a reputation for bloated storytelling, sometimes justifiably. Not in this case. This story is meant to be an examination of two men facing different versions of the same sin. Outwardly they are on separate roads leading toward an inevitable showdown. In reality the final battle will be individual in nature, against their inner selves.
The minutia and a slower unfolding of events are absolutely necessary. It gives appropriate weight to the final confrontations. Are there times when we are in an interior monologue with one character when the reader wants to be elsewhere with a different character? Once or twice. And of course Sanders had always been sexually explicit. But any argument regarding pace I’ll have to dispute. While in terms of style and content The First Deadly Sin is without a doubt a product of its time, that should not be taken as any indication that it can’t transcend its era. It easily does.
February 2, 2022
This book is a solid, "Wow!" Rarely do I reread novels mostly because there are so many coming out every year and then you add in all the great ones in the past that I missed and there just isn't enough time in the day. This book I have read not twice but three times. I have always been an avid reader and from an early age I was always on the look out for great books. I was in high school, freshmen I think, and was buried waist-deep in a brilliant book called Papillon, a true story about a small time French criminal who escapes from Devil's Island, a fantastic read. I was loosing sleep and neglecting homework over this book. But one day during gym class (during the Papillon era) we were out on the track doing track stuff and the coach, who was normally extremely diligent and disciplined, was reading The First Deadly Sin. He wasn't paying any attention to us and when the bell sounded he kept reading while walking back to the building. He couldn't put the book down. This was exactly the kind of book I was always on the alert for. Before I even finished Papillon I purchased First Deadly Sin at the small new stand walking home from school. I fought the urge to open it and start reading but was afraid of what would happen. I'd get torn in half reading both books at the same time.
When I did read First Deadly Sin it was every bit as good and more, than I expected.
If your a die hard mystery reader you don't want to miss this one. It's a great read.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series.
d.
When I did read First Deadly Sin it was every bit as good and more, than I expected.
If your a die hard mystery reader you don't want to miss this one. It's a great read.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series.
d.
February 20, 2017
Perhaps one of the first mystery/suspense books that changed my pleasure reading habits.
February 20, 2018
I first read this back in about 1975 and was completely gripped by the writing and the suspenseful story.
The book introduces New York City cop Edward X Delaney, who is on the trail of a serial killer, while also trying to care for his wife, who is dying of some unnamed illness.
Daniel Blank is a successful executive at a publishing firm, with a high-rise apartment on New York City’s east side. But he’s a damaged person, and quickly becomes dangerous once he’s influenced by the strange, aloof woman he meets at a friend’s brunch. Once he gets away with the first killing, he becomes unable to stop, addicted to the thrill of the hunt.
Delaney is a cop’s cop. Methodical, tenacious, and with a second sense about the perpetrator he’s after. Embroiled by a political tug-of-war within the city’s police department, he takes a “leave of absence” to care for his critically ill wife, while actually conducting a private investigation. But he has allies and amateur assistants/experts to help him.
I love how Sanders writes these two major characters, filling in the details of their lives – from Blank’s methodical grooming routines, to Delaney’s eating habits. He also includes a varied cast of supporting characters from a quiet housewife to an alcoholic paraplegic. Sanders moves the action back and forth between the killer's perspective and that of Police Chief Delaney, so the reader knows more than the detective, but that doesn't lessen the suspense.
I did think that the subplot about Delaney’s wife was somewhat unnecessary and a distraction from the main plot. It helped to define the Chief, but Sanders might have found another way to doing that without using so many pages.
(Review updated on second reading, Feb 2018)
The book introduces New York City cop Edward X Delaney, who is on the trail of a serial killer, while also trying to care for his wife, who is dying of some unnamed illness.
Daniel Blank is a successful executive at a publishing firm, with a high-rise apartment on New York City’s east side. But he’s a damaged person, and quickly becomes dangerous once he’s influenced by the strange, aloof woman he meets at a friend’s brunch. Once he gets away with the first killing, he becomes unable to stop, addicted to the thrill of the hunt.
Delaney is a cop’s cop. Methodical, tenacious, and with a second sense about the perpetrator he’s after. Embroiled by a political tug-of-war within the city’s police department, he takes a “leave of absence” to care for his critically ill wife, while actually conducting a private investigation. But he has allies and amateur assistants/experts to help him.
I love how Sanders writes these two major characters, filling in the details of their lives – from Blank’s methodical grooming routines, to Delaney’s eating habits. He also includes a varied cast of supporting characters from a quiet housewife to an alcoholic paraplegic. Sanders moves the action back and forth between the killer's perspective and that of Police Chief Delaney, so the reader knows more than the detective, but that doesn't lessen the suspense.
I did think that the subplot about Delaney’s wife was somewhat unnecessary and a distraction from the main plot. It helped to define the Chief, but Sanders might have found another way to doing that without using so many pages.
(Review updated on second reading, Feb 2018)
October 8, 2014
The First Deadly sin is an ambitious and polarizing project that seems to divide the readership into well separated camps. One claims it is self indulgently rambling, at least 300 pages too long and not very convincing in its psychological profiles. Others hail it as one of the best character driven murder mysteries, immersive and filled with accurate observations of human nature, both criminal and law enforcer. I perversely find value in both arguments. The novel is indeed too long and the pacing feels off, with long periods of inactivity or futile investigations of false leads followed by much too short explosions of violence. The main two characters are complex and their motivations multi-layered, yet sometimes they feel artifical, contrived, like actors playing the parts written for them instead of real people. In the end, I was swayed by the moral and arguments and the elegance of the demonstration and was able to ignore the negative vibes. It probably helps that I have read another book in the Cardinal Sins series a long time ago and I considered it one of the best (it was actually one of my first) police procedurals ever published. I'm talking about [the third], which features the same elderly policeman, a very similar plot structure alternating the POV between the criminal and the investigator, and a heavy dose of psychological profiling.
Since I mentioned the plot structure, I probably should explain more about the way it is constructed. The novel is not really a 'mystery' since we are presented right from the first page with the killer. Nevertheless, I should probably warn you that my review may contain spoilers.
His name is Daniel Blank and he is a successful businessman, a model citizen, a sportsman with a passion for mountain climbing and fast cars. A very long first section follows him in the minute details of his daily activities, leading up to the first crime. Then the POV switches to the other side of the law and introduces Edward X Delaney, the commander of the police precinct where the murder takes place. Another long section fleshes out his character traits, his personal family problems (his wife is diagnosed with a rare and deadly kidney disease), his position in the internal political struggles within the department. Then he is called to the scene of the crime. The next section returns to the killerand his next victim, then back to the cop, in ever decreasing chapters reflecting the heating up of the chase and the final confrontation between the hunter and the hunted. All rather standard fare to the readers familiar wih the genre conventions, until the author pulls the proverbial rug from under our feet and changes the roles : the hunter of innocent victims becomes the prey of a merciless adversary, and the man who has sworn to obey the law is ready to do anything, use anybody and break every rule in order to punish the killer.
Before I try to delve deeper into the two personalities clashing in this life and death chess game, I would like to mention how much the setting is part of the story:
He knew that in 1971 New York City had more murders than American combat deaths in Vietnam during the same period. In New York, almost five victims a day were shot, knifed, strangled, bludgeoned, set on fire or thrown from roofs. In such a horrific bloodbath, what was one more?
Edward X Delaney takes it personally though. He has a medieval sense of ownership over the city blocks allocated to his precinct. He has an image of himself as a feudal lord wih an obligation to protect his subjects and punish any who threaten the peace of his domain. He is dour and inflexible, methiculous and a stickler for discipline. His subordinates have nicknamed him "Iron Balls". He loves the city with a clear eyed and demanding passion, aware of its squalor and vice:
His city was an affirmation of life: its beauty, harshness, sorrow, humor, horror, and ecstasy. In the pushing and shoving, in the brutality and violence, he saw striving, the never-ending flux of life, and would not trade it for any place on Earth. It could grind a man to litter, or raise him to the highest coppered roof, glinting in benignant sunlight.
For Daniel Blank, the city is instead a place of corruption, a jungle in which only the ruthless and the strong survive:
It was a city sprung and lurching. It throbbed to a crippled rhythm, celebrated death with insensate glee. Filth pimpled its nightmare streets. The air smelled of ashes. In the schools young children craftily slid heroin into their veins.
A luncheonette owner was shot dead when he could not supply apple pie to a demanding customer. A French tourist was robbed in daylight, then shot and paralized. A pregnant woman was raped by three men in a subway station at 10:30 in the morning. Bombs were set. Acid was thrown. Explosions destroyed embassies, banks, and churches. Infants were beaten to death. Glass was shattered, leather slashed, plants uprooted, obscene slogans sprayed on marble monuments. Zoos were invaded and small animals torn apart.
His poisoned city staggered in a mad plague dance. A tarnished sun glared down on an unmeaning world. Each man, at night, locked himself within bars, hoping for survival in his iron cage. He huddled in upon himself, hoarding his sanity, and moved through crowded streets glancing over his shoulder, alert to parry the first blow with his own oiled blade.
Daniel's outdoor activities have built up his strength, have given him steely nerves, fast reactions and a taste for risk taking. His recent divorce, caused apparently by his demands for more unusual and unconventional bedroom activities, have liberated him from the need to conform to 'tame' social conventions. He has become a predator, an adrenaline junkie, a man without a conscience who believes everything is permitted to the one who dares. When he meets Celia Montfort, a disillusioned, self-destructive socialite with a taste for the morbid and the bizarre, he feels he has found a kindred spirit ('Evil implies intelligence and a deliberate intent' she declares). Daniel's personality portrait is completed with the expected childhood traumas, self absorbtion and lack of conscience, muddled sexual identity and split personality. The author lies the foundation with a bit of a heavy hand, but I can't challenge his basic assumption that an investigator shouldn't be complacent and dismiss the value of a thorough profiling.
In all his personal experiences with and research on psychopatic killers he had never come across or read of a killer totally without motive. Certainly the motive might be irrational, senseless, but in every case, particularly those involving multiple murders, the killer had a "motive". It might be as obvious as financial gain; it might be an incredible philosophical structure as creepy and cheap as an Eiffel Tower built of glued toothpicks.
But however mad the assassin, he had his reasons: the slights of society, the whispers of God, the evil of man, the demands of political faith, the fire of ego, the scorn of women, the terrors of loneliness ... whatever. But he had his reasons. [...] He wondered what this man might be thinking and dreaming, might be hoping and planning.
Here are a few examples to illustrate Sanders thesis about how people become killers:
He grew up in that silent, loveless, white-tiled house and, an only child, had no sun to turn to and so turned inward, becoming contemplative, secretive even. Almost all he thought and all he felt concerned himself, his wants, fears, hates, hopes, despairs. Strangely, for a young boy, he was aware of this intense egoism and wondered if everyone else was as self-centered.
Daniel's apartment is filled with mirrors. He likes to look at himself, as if the whole world outside is unimportant, irrelevant. He likes to pose naked in front of his mirrors, to touch himself, to even wear feminine apparel, gold and lingerie. The man is pathologically in love with himself.
Not one mirror or fitted tiles of mirrors, but more than fifty individual mirrors adorned the wall; tiny mirrors and large mirrors, flat and beveled, true and exagerative, round and square, oval and rectangular. The wall quivered with silver reflections.
Other aspects of his true self are revealed in the bedroom. His roleplaying involves sunglasses or the wearing of bestial African masks - accesories that allow him to hide and observe the world from an outsider, detached position. Daniel discovers he is at least as much interested in same sex partners as in the attentions of his girlfriend Celia, an added complication that frankly I thought was overkill, but was probably given more credit for deviant behaviour back in the seventies.
Coming back to Delaney, he has unexplored character traits himself, behind his gruff, authorian facade. He was born old, with hope, a secret love of beauty, and a taste for melancholy. I have met his counterparts, almost carbon copies, in two of my favorite series : Sam Vimes of the Ankh Morpork City Guard and Martin Beck of the Swedish Criminal Bureau. They are the silent and sad cops who have started by patrolling the streets, and who raised trough the ranks until they become commanders, the ones who reluctantly and forever complaining do what needs to be done to keep the city safe.
Delaney is more than a simple policeman. He is concerned with understading motivations, with teaching others how to catch their man; he is as ruthless in introspection as he is the hunt for the killer. He has written a series of essays on the role of the policeman, that might be unintentionally too intimate and candid for public consumption:
Delaney had prepared a third article for the series. This dealt with his theory of an "adversary concept" in which he explored the Dostoevskian relationship between detective and criminal. It was an abstruse examination of the "sensual" (Delaney's word) between hunter and hunted, of how, in certain cases, it was necessary for the detective to penetrate and assume the physical body, spirit, and soul of the criminal in order to bring him to justice. This treatise, at Barbara's gentle persuasion, Delaney did not submit for publication.
Since I mentioned Barbara, I should also point out that she is the opposite of the enabler Celia. The two women never meet in the novel, Barbara being confined in a hospital bed, but they are assigned equal parts in shaping the personalities and acting as the subcoscious voice of their men. Celia exarcebates and provokes the madness in Daniel. Barbara is the voice of reason, the ray of sunshine, of laughter, of hope and moderation in the life of Edward. without her moral support and assistance, even 'Iron Balls' will get lost in the dangers of the game he plays. And the significance of the title is finally made clear:
It was surely the most deadly; compared to pride, the other six seemed little more than physical excesses. But pride was a spiritual corruption and, worse, it had no boundaries, no limits, but could consume a man utterly.
In him, he knew, pride was not merely self-esteem, not just egotism. He knew his shortcomings better than anyone except, perhaps, his wife. His pride went beyond a satisfied self-respect; it was an arrogance, a presumption of moral superiority he brought to events, to people and, he supposed wryly, to God. [...] "Punishment." That was the key word. His damnable pride had driven him to making a moral judgement, and, having made it, he had to be cop, judge, jury. He had to play God; that's where his arrogance had led him. Too many years as a cop. You started on the street, settling family squabbles, a Solomon in uniform; you ended hounding a man to his death because you knew him guilty and wanted him to suffer for his guilt. It was all pride, nothing but pride.
November 20, 2015
Lawrence Sanders (1920-1998) was a highly prolific and successful author, who wrote his first novel The Anderson Tapes in 1970 when he was fifty (it won an Edgar award for Best First Novel). One of the minor characters in that novel was Captain Edward X Delaney and, in this book, Delaney takes centre stage for the first in the 'Deadly Sin' series. Published in 1973, this was made into a film with Frank Sinatra and it is a stylish and stunning crime novel.
This book is firmly located in 1970's New York and is based on character and not action. Captain Edward X Delaney takes a leave of absence after his wife Barbara becomes seriously ill, when he is approached by some high ranking members of the department to personally investigate a high profile murder. A political activist is struck down on the street and the official investigation is going nowhere. Amid a lot of political infighting, Delaney is asked to carry out a totally unofficial investigation into the case. Around him, he gathers a taskforce of amateur experts and the chase is on as the murders mount.
From the beginning, you are aware of who the murderer is and much of this novel alternates between the storyline concerning Delaney and the investigation and that of the man who is responsible for the crimes. This is a book which explores what motivates the killer and how Delaney intends to track him down. This is a very different crime novel from many written now; in which plot (often with an eye on a possible tv series by the author) supersedes character. The most interesting aspect of many modern detectives is a possible drink, or relationship, problem. Delaney is certainly not a cop with issues - apart from the troubles facing his wife, he is a man who knows exactly what he is doing and why and who believes wholeheartedly in the law.
In the later years of his career, Lawrence Sanders was perhaps not as successful - in fact, there were even rumours that his later, McNally series, was either co or ghost written. However, this is the author at his height of his powers and the Delaney series (with this novel in particular) is the best work he ever produced. This really is a classic of the crime genre and it is wonderful to see it republished on kindle for a new audience to discover. The next book in the series is The Second Deadly Sin (The Edward X. Delaney Series).
This book is firmly located in 1970's New York and is based on character and not action. Captain Edward X Delaney takes a leave of absence after his wife Barbara becomes seriously ill, when he is approached by some high ranking members of the department to personally investigate a high profile murder. A political activist is struck down on the street and the official investigation is going nowhere. Amid a lot of political infighting, Delaney is asked to carry out a totally unofficial investigation into the case. Around him, he gathers a taskforce of amateur experts and the chase is on as the murders mount.
From the beginning, you are aware of who the murderer is and much of this novel alternates between the storyline concerning Delaney and the investigation and that of the man who is responsible for the crimes. This is a book which explores what motivates the killer and how Delaney intends to track him down. This is a very different crime novel from many written now; in which plot (often with an eye on a possible tv series by the author) supersedes character. The most interesting aspect of many modern detectives is a possible drink, or relationship, problem. Delaney is certainly not a cop with issues - apart from the troubles facing his wife, he is a man who knows exactly what he is doing and why and who believes wholeheartedly in the law.
In the later years of his career, Lawrence Sanders was perhaps not as successful - in fact, there were even rumours that his later, McNally series, was either co or ghost written. However, this is the author at his height of his powers and the Delaney series (with this novel in particular) is the best work he ever produced. This really is a classic of the crime genre and it is wonderful to see it republished on kindle for a new audience to discover. The next book in the series is The Second Deadly Sin (The Edward X. Delaney Series).
February 17, 2022
I feel I may have cheated when reading this book because I read it in, gosh, too many years ago to count. However, Sanders's Deadly Sin series was the first stories that put my heart to pounding and made me wish I could write. Recently, I wanted to see if that belief was still true, and darned if it isn't.
Lawrence Sanders quite simply is a master. Of characterization, of research, of police procedure, of getting inside the characters' (and readers' heads). His set up might indeed be frowned upon today. He starts the book with several chapters surrounding the antagonist, and then we meet Captain Edward X. Delaney and several chapters pertain to him and the politics surrounding a police captain with a critically ill wife.
But a killer is on the streets of New York City, and soon Captain Delaney is torn. Torn between sitting by his wife's bedside and putting a madman away. Naturally it's not as simple as that because as I said politics is afoot, and a new kind of police reorganization has got the department all the way to the mayors' office in turmoil.
Edward X Delaney's wife takes a turn for the worse, and he tries to resign. A police commissioner persuades him to take a leave of absence, while secretly investigating Daniel G. Blank (who the reader clearly knows is the man walking the streets of New York and hacking unsuspecting men with an ice ax.)
Captain Delaney must do much of the leg work and research himself, and we see him recruit civilians to aid him in this quest, including a bedridden mountain climber, a 70+ retired curator dying to be of assistance and the widow of one of Blank's victims. Much of the case is done thanks to these people when the city is in a full-blown panic because of the new administrations' blunders and inability to catch the killer.
Captain Delaney is called back to work. And with police resources given him, he makes every effort to stop a killer from killing again.
A masterpiece of writing.
Lawrence Sanders quite simply is a master. Of characterization, of research, of police procedure, of getting inside the characters' (and readers' heads). His set up might indeed be frowned upon today. He starts the book with several chapters surrounding the antagonist, and then we meet Captain Edward X. Delaney and several chapters pertain to him and the politics surrounding a police captain with a critically ill wife.
But a killer is on the streets of New York City, and soon Captain Delaney is torn. Torn between sitting by his wife's bedside and putting a madman away. Naturally it's not as simple as that because as I said politics is afoot, and a new kind of police reorganization has got the department all the way to the mayors' office in turmoil.
Edward X Delaney's wife takes a turn for the worse, and he tries to resign. A police commissioner persuades him to take a leave of absence, while secretly investigating Daniel G. Blank (who the reader clearly knows is the man walking the streets of New York and hacking unsuspecting men with an ice ax.)
Captain Delaney must do much of the leg work and research himself, and we see him recruit civilians to aid him in this quest, including a bedridden mountain climber, a 70+ retired curator dying to be of assistance and the widow of one of Blank's victims. Much of the case is done thanks to these people when the city is in a full-blown panic because of the new administrations' blunders and inability to catch the killer.
Captain Delaney is called back to work. And with police resources given him, he makes every effort to stop a killer from killing again.
A masterpiece of writing.
August 20, 2020
3.5 stars
I liked the serial killer and how he was described and his daily interactions with friends - it was kind of bizarre. IMO the author revealed a similarity between cop (hero) and serial killer (bad guy). The single focus/concentration of the cop and the pride/euphoria to solve and get "his man" is similar to the serial killer and his focus/concentration and the pride/euphoria of the killer. It may not make sense how I write this, but it is there with Sanders writing of this story.
I never thought about how onerous and how much manpower was needed for police work prior to computers. This story takes place when computers were very expensive and they were not on desk tops with lots of programs to make things easier. The details in how much legwork and tedious sifting & through paper details then sorting was amazing.
This series was written in the early 70's and it shows with the stereotypes, etc. Yes, the book was dated and ponderous for those who want a faster execution of cop gets the bad guy. I liked the details.
I've read reviews of the next book - not sure I will read. Although the couple of chapters of book 2 are included and they seem interesting, I'll have to think about it.
I liked the serial killer and how he was described and his daily interactions with friends - it was kind of bizarre. IMO the author revealed a similarity between cop (hero) and serial killer (bad guy). The single focus/concentration of the cop and the pride/euphoria to solve and get "his man" is similar to the serial killer and his focus/concentration and the pride/euphoria of the killer. It may not make sense how I write this, but it is there with Sanders writing of this story.
I never thought about how onerous and how much manpower was needed for police work prior to computers. This story takes place when computers were very expensive and they were not on desk tops with lots of programs to make things easier. The details in how much legwork and tedious sifting & through paper details then sorting was amazing.
This series was written in the early 70's and it shows with the stereotypes, etc. Yes, the book was dated and ponderous for those who want a faster execution of cop gets the bad guy. I liked the details.
I've read reviews of the next book - not sure I will read. Although the couple of chapters of book 2 are included and they seem interesting, I'll have to think about it.
July 12, 2018
Well well well.
Do you like sandwiches? Trench coats? Dragnet? Things that are very un-PC? Do you like being creeped out? Writing that effortlessly makes you feel 1000 things at once? The letter X? If so, boy do I have the book for you.
A noir Big Lebowski meets American Psycho with a dash of every good 50s detective show ever. The creepiest beginning I’ve read in memory (I thought I’d grabbed the wrong book and checked online to make sure I hadn’t). And a hero so full of twists and turns I couldn’t ever correctly guess what he’d do next - but damn did I love him.
I think if you ask me for a book rec in the next 3 months you’re likely to get this lobbed your way. I loathed it at times (I described it as having a hair stuck in the back of my throat or feeling like spiders were crawling all over me). Doesn’t matter. This book is way bigger than my petty booboojeebies and moral hang-ups (and we ran into about a thousand of those).
Of course I send all my love to Suanne who is my all-time, world-greatest, book-recommender. To be able to recommend books well for someone is to get who they are. What they like and dislike. To be able to recommend something so unique and strange to a reader like me is...well, with Suanne I feel seen. And I can’t ask for much more.
I’m going to read a couple of easy books. Bc I earned it. And then I have 2 more books in this series here at the house. Sandwiches!
Do you like sandwiches? Trench coats? Dragnet? Things that are very un-PC? Do you like being creeped out? Writing that effortlessly makes you feel 1000 things at once? The letter X? If so, boy do I have the book for you.
A noir Big Lebowski meets American Psycho with a dash of every good 50s detective show ever. The creepiest beginning I’ve read in memory (I thought I’d grabbed the wrong book and checked online to make sure I hadn’t). And a hero so full of twists and turns I couldn’t ever correctly guess what he’d do next - but damn did I love him.
I think if you ask me for a book rec in the next 3 months you’re likely to get this lobbed your way. I loathed it at times (I described it as having a hair stuck in the back of my throat or feeling like spiders were crawling all over me). Doesn’t matter. This book is way bigger than my petty booboojeebies and moral hang-ups (and we ran into about a thousand of those).
Of course I send all my love to Suanne who is my all-time, world-greatest, book-recommender. To be able to recommend books well for someone is to get who they are. What they like and dislike. To be able to recommend something so unique and strange to a reader like me is...well, with Suanne I feel seen. And I can’t ask for much more.
I’m going to read a couple of easy books. Bc I earned it. And then I have 2 more books in this series here at the house. Sandwiches!
April 9, 2010
Read lots of Lawrence Sanders while I lived in Paris since the apartment I was renting had shelves lined with his books. When I had gone through the books that came with the apartment, I dropped into Shakespeare & Company and picked up some more.
Warning!: With all the talk of food in this series of books, it's hard to get through one without taking a sandwich break (or two).
Warning!: With all the talk of food in this series of books, it's hard to get through one without taking a sandwich break (or two).
September 5, 2020
Lawrence Sanders at it's BEST!
August 30, 2019
American author Lawrence Sanders was a multi-talented writer of crime, spy, and detective fiction. He didn't wear just one hat. One would want to conveniently label him a 'crime writer'; but it just doesn't quite fit.
No scribbler of cheap genre mysteries (of any flavor) and no mere writer of stylized violence, he. Far too innovative. Sanders' prose is fantastically smooth; knowledgeable; well-paced and mature. He wrote approximately 60 titles!
In the period when he wrote, he muscled his way top the top of every best-seller list; but today he is probably only vaguely remembered. Its probably because he was not easily classified by his choice of writing.
He indulged in some serial franchises, certainly; but his most successful books have no recurring characters; when they did--the plot was always dissimilar from anything else he had tried before. Wildly different. Sanders must have had a restless, precocious creativity; its as if he never wanted to repeat himself.
His book titles--if anything--are the catechism to remember him by: starting with 'The First Deadly Sin' series; the 'Ten Commandments' series, the 'Timothy' series. Though sharing the same title-motif, nearly every one of these consecutively-labeled books will perversely explore a different type of crime, or a different type of character, or unusual setting. In one book he describes a sex-ring, in another, child-abuse; in another: jewels; in another: pharmaceuticals.
In each one, he thoroughly 'owns' what he sets out to do.
He also penned one of the all-time great serial killer novels with the 'First Deadly Sin'; and he led the field with this imaginative exercise for quite a while. This unusual book heralded the over-saturated era of serial-killer romps which we abound in these days. Few are better than this one. It's the last word in 'cat-and-mouse' between cop-and-killer. There's the extraordinarily creative fetish-ization too (Sanders was prescient in this regard) for 'the object' which dominates our culture these days. In this case it is the fascinating and exotic mountaineer's ice-axe. Just awesome. This is the unforgettable, lasting symbol of this fine novel and it's why it is found on most of the book's cover art no matter the edition. [If anyone you know owns an ice-axe like this, give them a wide berth.]
To sum up: in all the Sanders novels, 'someone is hiding something'; 'no one is what they really seem', and everyone hovers on the brink of a mortal catastrophe or ruin, depending on how well they hide their secrets. There's not a single character who can be trusted. Wonderful writer!
No scribbler of cheap genre mysteries (of any flavor) and no mere writer of stylized violence, he. Far too innovative. Sanders' prose is fantastically smooth; knowledgeable; well-paced and mature. He wrote approximately 60 titles!
In the period when he wrote, he muscled his way top the top of every best-seller list; but today he is probably only vaguely remembered. Its probably because he was not easily classified by his choice of writing.
He indulged in some serial franchises, certainly; but his most successful books have no recurring characters; when they did--the plot was always dissimilar from anything else he had tried before. Wildly different. Sanders must have had a restless, precocious creativity; its as if he never wanted to repeat himself.
His book titles--if anything--are the catechism to remember him by: starting with 'The First Deadly Sin' series; the 'Ten Commandments' series, the 'Timothy' series. Though sharing the same title-motif, nearly every one of these consecutively-labeled books will perversely explore a different type of crime, or a different type of character, or unusual setting. In one book he describes a sex-ring, in another, child-abuse; in another: jewels; in another: pharmaceuticals.
In each one, he thoroughly 'owns' what he sets out to do.
He also penned one of the all-time great serial killer novels with the 'First Deadly Sin'; and he led the field with this imaginative exercise for quite a while. This unusual book heralded the over-saturated era of serial-killer romps which we abound in these days. Few are better than this one. It's the last word in 'cat-and-mouse' between cop-and-killer. There's the extraordinarily creative fetish-ization too (Sanders was prescient in this regard) for 'the object' which dominates our culture these days. In this case it is the fascinating and exotic mountaineer's ice-axe. Just awesome. This is the unforgettable, lasting symbol of this fine novel and it's why it is found on most of the book's cover art no matter the edition. [If anyone you know owns an ice-axe like this, give them a wide berth.]
To sum up: in all the Sanders novels, 'someone is hiding something'; 'no one is what they really seem', and everyone hovers on the brink of a mortal catastrophe or ruin, depending on how well they hide their secrets. There's not a single character who can be trusted. Wonderful writer!
January 7, 2012
نموذج مثالي لكيف تكون الرواية البوليسية تدور حول قصة قاتل ومحقق بارع قضى أكثر من عشرين عاما في كشف ملابسات العديد من القضايا المحيرة
دانيال بلانك هو رجل وحيد , وسيم , يعمل في شركة كبرى متعلقة بالنشر يحصل على راتب ضخم مُطلّق يملك العديد من السيارات , يعيش في شقة فاخرة يلبس أرقى الملابس وفي خزانته مئات الجوارب والأحذية والعديد من المعاطف يمارس هواية تسلق الجبال باحتراف , منظم لدرجة الهوس , ليس لديه أصدقاء سوى فلورنس وصموئيل مورتون وهما زوجين يملكان محلا لبيع مواد متعلقة بالجنس أطلقا عليه ( أيروتيكا ) يقوم الزوجين اللذان شعرا بمأساة أن يبقى بلانك معزولا دون أي علاقات تشغله وهو الرجل الناجح بتعريفه على فتاة غريبة الأطوار تشبه الساحرات بيضاء البشرة ضئيلة الحجم لها عادات غريبة ومهووسة نوعا ما
سيليا مونت فورت تعيش مع طفل في الثاني عشرة من العمر تدعي أنه أخيها , تحدث الكثير من العلاقات المتشابكة بين بلانك ,الطفل وسيليا
هذه العلاقات الشاذة بين الأطراف الثلاثة ساهمت في أخراج نوازع الشر الكامنة لدى الشخصية الأساسية في الرواية من خلال ارتكابه لسلسة من الجرائم لشخصيات لا تمت له بصلة وولكن الراوي أوجد دوافع من نوع آخر لداني ستعرفها فيما لو قررت خوض غمار هذه الرواية
ساندرز كان بارعا بل تجاوز هذا الحد في رسم شخصية ديلاني المحقق والكيفية التي استطاع
بها أن يتتبع خيوط الجرائم يربطها ببعض , يمسك بتلابيبها دون أن يكون على رأس عمله وذلك بكل دهاء وذكاء نادريين حين كنتُ أقرأ هذه الرواية وأقرأ وصف الرواي للحياة التي كان يعيشها داني كنت أتذكر راسكولينكوف قاتل الجريمة والعقاب الذي اختار أيضا العزلة والإمتناع عن الاختلاط بالآخرين لم يكن لديه أصدقاء للدرجة التي أصبح يرافقه الشعور بالاشمئزاز من الآخرين , في حين بطل رواية ساندرز كانت دوافعه مختلفة وحياته الإجتماعية على النقيض كان هناك شيء ما يربط بين الشخصيتين !
كانت تساؤلاتي كانت تدور حول هذه الرغبة التي تخرج على السطح حين يصبح خنقها مستحيلا رغبة القتل لماذا القاتل دائما يعاني من العزلة ويلجأ إلى قطع الصلة بالآخرين !
في الوقت الذي كان فيه راسكولينكوف يعاني من تأنيب الضمير كان داني يقتل بدم بارد
بل كان يستشعر اللذة حين يغرس آداته الحادة في جمجمة ضحيته
المنولوجات التي كتبها الرواي على لسان القاتل كانت أروع ما قرأت في الرواية
حنكة الكاتب في الأمور البوليسية والتفاصيل التي جمعها ديلاني من الصفر عن القاتل
النهاية العظيمة التي اختارها الرواي بفطنة شديدة كل ذلك كان ممتعا مشوقا كل حواسك تبقى متيقظة لكل حرف لكل كلمة لكل مشهد
وطبعا ما ذكرته ماهو إلا نذر قليل مما تحويه رواية لورنس ساندرز
770 صفحة دون أن يكون هناك مدخلا للملل
October 14, 2021
The suspense thriller The First Deadly Sin is a great character study of two men who share the same “deadly sin,” the sin of pride, but whose pride manifests itself in opposite ways. Captain Edward X. Delaney of the New York Police Department is justly proud of his career and his long marriage to his wife, Barbara. Daniel Blank is a wealthy young executive who lives in Delaney’s precinct on the Upper East Side and is proud of his achievements as a mountain climber. No sin there on either side. But that’s not where either man’s pride ends.
Sanders first introduces us to Blank. We learn that his fast-track business career was built in part on deceit and manipulation of others. He takes a lot of pleasure in looking at himself in the mirror (or more accurately, dozens of mirrors arrayed around his apartment) and has some predilections that might be described as “kinky.” Then he meets the mysterious Celia Montfort, who opens up a new world for him.
At a dinner party, Celia suggests that “‘true evil has a kind of nobility … I’m not talking about evil for the sake of ambition. I’m talking about evil for the sake of evil. Not Hitler—no. I mean saints of evil—men and women who see a vision and follow it. Just as Christian saints perceived a vision of good and followed that.’” Celia awakens in Blank “a fire in the veins, a heightened awareness, a need compounded of wild hope and fearful dread.” With Celia’s encouragement, he commits a murder, and then several more. Not for any reason other than to do it and get away with it (and at least initially, to please Celia). After he kills his first victim, he feels “first of all an enormous sense of pride. That was basic. It was, after all, an extremely difficult and dangerous job of work, and he had brought it off.” Now when he looks in his mirrors, whom does he see? Maybe a “saint of evil.”
Meanwhile, Captain Delaney is a dedicated cop with a tough reputation that has earned him the nickname “Iron Balls.” He thinks he became a cop because “there is, or should be a logic to life … that is both orderly and beautiful … [but] crime, all crime, is irrational. It is opposed to the logic of life, and so it is evil.” He is honest with himself, though. “It was perhaps due to his Catholic nurture that he sought to set the world aright. He wanted to be God’s surrogate on earth. It was, he knew, a shameful want. He recognized the sin. It was pride.” So Delaney also wants to be a saint, but unlike Daniel Blank, a saint for good—God’s surrogate. The question is, how far can and will Delaney go to set the world aright? Will his pride make him go too far?
The book is structured with sections alternating between Blank’s point of view and Delaney’s point of view. Readers know that Blank is the murderer before Delaney does, but this doesn’t diminish the suspense. The question for readers shifts from whether Delaney will identify the murderer to if, when, and how he will bring him to justice.
My feelings about the book are mixed. It is very detailed and very long. In my opinion, the detail is a strength with respect to getting to know Captain Delaney and watching his investigative techniques. (Given that the book was published in 1973, some of those techniques are dated, of course.) I don’t know that it was as necessary, though, to spend so much time with the very unlikable Daniel Blank, especially so much time at the beginning of the book. I think some of the Blank sections could have been shortened without damage to the overall story. But aside from that criticism, I think the book is quite good. If you’re willing to spend some time with it, and as long as you can overlook some unenlightened attitudes that reflect the times, it’s well worth reading.
Sanders first introduces us to Blank. We learn that his fast-track business career was built in part on deceit and manipulation of others. He takes a lot of pleasure in looking at himself in the mirror (or more accurately, dozens of mirrors arrayed around his apartment) and has some predilections that might be described as “kinky.” Then he meets the mysterious Celia Montfort, who opens up a new world for him.
At a dinner party, Celia suggests that “‘true evil has a kind of nobility … I’m not talking about evil for the sake of ambition. I’m talking about evil for the sake of evil. Not Hitler—no. I mean saints of evil—men and women who see a vision and follow it. Just as Christian saints perceived a vision of good and followed that.’” Celia awakens in Blank “a fire in the veins, a heightened awareness, a need compounded of wild hope and fearful dread.” With Celia’s encouragement, he commits a murder, and then several more. Not for any reason other than to do it and get away with it (and at least initially, to please Celia). After he kills his first victim, he feels “first of all an enormous sense of pride. That was basic. It was, after all, an extremely difficult and dangerous job of work, and he had brought it off.” Now when he looks in his mirrors, whom does he see? Maybe a “saint of evil.”
Meanwhile, Captain Delaney is a dedicated cop with a tough reputation that has earned him the nickname “Iron Balls.” He thinks he became a cop because “there is, or should be a logic to life … that is both orderly and beautiful … [but] crime, all crime, is irrational. It is opposed to the logic of life, and so it is evil.” He is honest with himself, though. “It was perhaps due to his Catholic nurture that he sought to set the world aright. He wanted to be God’s surrogate on earth. It was, he knew, a shameful want. He recognized the sin. It was pride.” So Delaney also wants to be a saint, but unlike Daniel Blank, a saint for good—God’s surrogate. The question is, how far can and will Delaney go to set the world aright? Will his pride make him go too far?
The book is structured with sections alternating between Blank’s point of view and Delaney’s point of view. Readers know that Blank is the murderer before Delaney does, but this doesn’t diminish the suspense. The question for readers shifts from whether Delaney will identify the murderer to if, when, and how he will bring him to justice.
My feelings about the book are mixed. It is very detailed and very long. In my opinion, the detail is a strength with respect to getting to know Captain Delaney and watching his investigative techniques. (Given that the book was published in 1973, some of those techniques are dated, of course.) I don’t know that it was as necessary, though, to spend so much time with the very unlikable Daniel Blank, especially so much time at the beginning of the book. I think some of the Blank sections could have been shortened without damage to the overall story. But aside from that criticism, I think the book is quite good. If you’re willing to spend some time with it, and as long as you can overlook some unenlightened attitudes that reflect the times, it’s well worth reading.
January 23, 2014
The five star system just hasn’t worked for me so far this year. This time I want to award negative stars. How do you rate a book that gave you serious pain for the last 50 pages because it just wouldn’t end?
I started to read The First Deadly Sin just after Christmas. After reading the first couple of chapters, I checked out the reviews on Amazon. There were a lot of people who hated this book, but they “hated” the whole book so much after reading just a little bit of the beginning. One reviewer made it through almost a third of the over 600-page book before he “couldn’t stomach it” any longer. But there are raving reviews about how great the story and book are. Of course those reviewers read the whole book. I decided I was going to go on reading the book until New Year’s Eve. At midnight I’d decide if I was going to continue reading the book or put it away and start something else begin 2014. This was not my first book of 2014. I enjoyed my first book of 2014.
The one positive I can say about The First Deadly Sin is that it’s only January and I’m quite sure I’ve already read this year’s worst book on my reading list! It’s an old book. I know in 1973, when it was written, it would’ve been a horrendous choice for seven-year-old. In 2013 and 2014 it was a horrendous choice for a 47-year-old.
The book is about 300 pages too long, 603 pages too long for my taste. It’s overly descriptive about unimportant things that don’t need to be described for character or plot development. Perhaps that added to the fact that I simply didn’t like any of the characters. I didn’t care who the good guys were, who the bad guys were or who came out on top in the end. Add to that the subplot of the main character’s sick wife that really didn’t need to be part of the story and only added a flat character and made the main character less likable. The end of the book was 50+ pages, 10 days, of a long drawn out anti-climax. There was no shocking high point in the action. There was no “I can’t believe that!” There was no edge of your seat reading. There was just an incredibly boring description of the last 10 days of the story. It was just the same redundant over descriptive detail.
So there you have it. I read the whole book. I should be singing the praises of a great well-written story. What happened? Maybe I just live in the wrong state to legally like The First Deadly Sin.
I started to read The First Deadly Sin just after Christmas. After reading the first couple of chapters, I checked out the reviews on Amazon. There were a lot of people who hated this book, but they “hated” the whole book so much after reading just a little bit of the beginning. One reviewer made it through almost a third of the over 600-page book before he “couldn’t stomach it” any longer. But there are raving reviews about how great the story and book are. Of course those reviewers read the whole book. I decided I was going to go on reading the book until New Year’s Eve. At midnight I’d decide if I was going to continue reading the book or put it away and start something else begin 2014. This was not my first book of 2014. I enjoyed my first book of 2014.
The one positive I can say about The First Deadly Sin is that it’s only January and I’m quite sure I’ve already read this year’s worst book on my reading list! It’s an old book. I know in 1973, when it was written, it would’ve been a horrendous choice for seven-year-old. In 2013 and 2014 it was a horrendous choice for a 47-year-old.
The book is about 300 pages too long, 603 pages too long for my taste. It’s overly descriptive about unimportant things that don’t need to be described for character or plot development. Perhaps that added to the fact that I simply didn’t like any of the characters. I didn’t care who the good guys were, who the bad guys were or who came out on top in the end. Add to that the subplot of the main character’s sick wife that really didn’t need to be part of the story and only added a flat character and made the main character less likable. The end of the book was 50+ pages, 10 days, of a long drawn out anti-climax. There was no shocking high point in the action. There was no “I can’t believe that!” There was no edge of your seat reading. There was just an incredibly boring description of the last 10 days of the story. It was just the same redundant over descriptive detail.
So there you have it. I read the whole book. I should be singing the praises of a great well-written story. What happened? Maybe I just live in the wrong state to legally like The First Deadly Sin.
November 25, 2018
A man whose life has been previously bland but for his mountain-climbing hobby finds his calling in life: random murders. And the
police detective opposing him tries to discover his identity from the thinnest of clues. The titular sin? Pride.
I didn't care for the opening--I hadn't heard of the book, and I was worried the whole thing would be written from the serial killer's point of view. But eventually we got to the detective, Delaney, who is just great, a flawed guy who is a consummate bloodhound. This is probably the first police procedural I've read where I liked that aspect of it; usually the writers either glide over procedure or turn it into a hassle the police have to overcome in order to get their work done. Here, the procedure is used to pry open the case, and believably and brilliantly so.
The villain isn't quiiiite believable, more a caricature of entitled white affluent assholes than anything else. I believe this guy could exist, but less than I believe that Patrick Bateman of American Psycho does.
The end was brutal and realistic, unflattering. An anticlimax. But sin is terrible and shouldn't be glorified. I think the end of the story destroys any possible romance to this particular game of cat and mouse, at least.
In the end, I really liked this, warts and all. Recommend for mystery/suspense readers.
police detective opposing him tries to discover his identity from the thinnest of clues. The titular sin? Pride.
I didn't care for the opening--I hadn't heard of the book, and I was worried the whole thing would be written from the serial killer's point of view. But eventually we got to the detective, Delaney, who is just great, a flawed guy who is a consummate bloodhound. This is probably the first police procedural I've read where I liked that aspect of it; usually the writers either glide over procedure or turn it into a hassle the police have to overcome in order to get their work done. Here, the procedure is used to pry open the case, and believably and brilliantly so.
The villain isn't quiiiite believable, more a caricature of entitled white affluent assholes than anything else. I believe this guy could exist, but less than I believe that Patrick Bateman of American Psycho does.
The end was brutal and realistic, unflattering. An anticlimax. But sin is terrible and shouldn't be glorified. I think the end of the story destroys any possible romance to this particular game of cat and mouse, at least.
In the end, I really liked this, warts and all. Recommend for mystery/suspense readers.
September 6, 2013
"We are each dealt a hand at birth and play our cards as cleverly as we can, wasting no time lamenting that we received only a pair instead of a straight flush. the best man plays a successful game with a weak hand - bluffing, perhaps, when he has to - but staking everything, eventually, on what he's holding."
For a book that is a phycological thriller by genre, this one is also very very philosophical.
Written and set in the 1970s, it gave me a sense of how it was a much slower time compared to the fast paced world we live in today. The killer however was as deadly and sinister as they come, and an added sophistication to the character just made him colder and more deadly.
But for me, the book was longer and slower than I would have liked. I guess when one picks up a thriller, one expects to be sitting at the edge of their seats and just racing through it. Not to say that is was uninteresting or boring - it wasn't - infact, it is a very well thought out, intelligently written book with a lot of philosophy on love, life and humanity to mull over.
For a book that is a phycological thriller by genre, this one is also very very philosophical.
Written and set in the 1970s, it gave me a sense of how it was a much slower time compared to the fast paced world we live in today. The killer however was as deadly and sinister as they come, and an added sophistication to the character just made him colder and more deadly.
But for me, the book was longer and slower than I would have liked. I guess when one picks up a thriller, one expects to be sitting at the edge of their seats and just racing through it. Not to say that is was uninteresting or boring - it wasn't - infact, it is a very well thought out, intelligently written book with a lot of philosophy on love, life and humanity to mull over.
May 23, 2013
This took me a while to get into (a few hours in the audiobook) because it took that long for a crime to be committed, and I was anxious for a nice bloody murder. Say much about me? Probably, but we'll ignore that for now.
Once there was a body, the book really picked up for me. And in hindsight I realize that Sanders does the reader a service by giving us so much about Daniel Blank and Edward X. Delaney during the first section of the book. This character development and story groundwork are essential for the rest of the book's tension and meticulous plotting.
I love the back-and-forth sections dealing with the narrative "sides" of the story, and I love that Sanders gives us not a mystery of "who-done-it" but a mystery of procedure, logic, and method. And of course, there's quite a bit of Sanders-esque weird and sex thrown in there, too. It's the kind of story Christie's Poirot would have enjoyed, and it's one that I absolutely did.
Once there was a body, the book really picked up for me. And in hindsight I realize that Sanders does the reader a service by giving us so much about Daniel Blank and Edward X. Delaney during the first section of the book. This character development and story groundwork are essential for the rest of the book's tension and meticulous plotting.
I love the back-and-forth sections dealing with the narrative "sides" of the story, and I love that Sanders gives us not a mystery of "who-done-it" but a mystery of procedure, logic, and method. And of course, there's quite a bit of Sanders-esque weird and sex thrown in there, too. It's the kind of story Christie's Poirot would have enjoyed, and it's one that I absolutely did.
September 26, 2014
This book, which I listened to, was rather long for my taste, but I was fascinated with the quality of the writing. Frankly, about one third of the way through it, I considered it possibly the most well written book I have read. I enjoyed the back and forth inner thoughts of the killer and the police captain who tried to end his reign of terror. I thought it was fascinating both men, who initially seemed completely different, in the end were much alike in many ways. They were both searching for the meaning of life. I also enjoyed the change of venue from NYC to a mountain peak. I am appalled that any reviewer would rate this book a 1, which is ridiculous. A one should be reserved from an illiterate buffoon who can't put an intelligent sentence together who is clueless when it comes to the mechanics of good writing. Lawrence Sanders does not deserve this.
March 29, 2021
It Would Be A Crime To Miss Out, 99 CENTS!!!
For Those Who Love Thrillers/Police Procedurals, Etc.
I read Lawrence Sanders years ago when I was a mystery/thriller/police procedural/psychological addict. I would read those books, starting and not stopping until the end. Thought I would let you all know it was on sale :DDD
The Anderson Tapes (Deadly Sins #1)
The First Deadly Sin (Deadly Sins #2)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Second Deadly Sin (Deadly Sins #3)
The Third Deadly Sin (Deadly Sins #4
The Fourth Deadly Sin (Deadly Sins #5)
For more Reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways
For Those Who Love Thrillers/Police Procedurals, Etc.
I read Lawrence Sanders years ago when I was a mystery/thriller/police procedural/psychological addict. I would read those books, starting and not stopping until the end. Thought I would let you all know it was on sale :DDD
The Anderson Tapes (Deadly Sins #1) The First Deadly Sin (Deadly Sins #2)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Second Deadly Sin (Deadly Sins #3) The Third Deadly Sin (Deadly Sins #4 The Fourth Deadly Sin (Deadly Sins #5)For more Reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways
October 3, 2016
I was delighted with The Anderson Tapes and how it managed to be thrilling, character driven and also a little philosophical without getting too pretentious, but this entry to the rest of the Deadly Sins series downright blew me away. Just like the previous book toyed with the blur between justice and crime and good and evil, Delaney's journey to the root of senseless evil in investigating a stream of New York street murders leaves him questioning the world and himself more than the culprit. Everyone from his deathly ill wife to his network of patrolmen & references keep hounding "Get him, Delaney!" as if this was a pulpy hero vs monster tale and he could sweep out evil with clean triumph, but nothing is so simple. Towards the end it becomes clear the sin of pride is as much in Delaney as in the killer since he is willing to socially engineer, manipulate, press and torment his civilian resources and the suspect to the point of reason-less suffering and needless loss of life.
However, despite the rather bleak introspective character journey the Delaney takes, he is one of the best fictional detectives I have ever come across and really amazing in his depth of personality and perspective. He is in retirement age and lovingly known as "iron balls" by a lot of his co-workers at the precinct because he refuses to suffer fools, even ones that out rank him, but it is only because he has a sincere respect and faith in the criminal justice system. His discipline and faith holds despite even being surrounded by petty office politics and organizational discrepancies in an overall flawed system. He follows precinct procedure,formal regulation and predictable statistical constructs on an almost religiously committed level. Delaney clearly desires order in a chaotic world even while knowing that such an ideal is unrealistic, but this is his main coping mechanism against the darkness and pain his eyes are forced to be open to as part of his day to day duties.
Unlike famous detectives like Sherlock Holmes or even more semi-modern favorites like Colombo, Delaney does not operate on genius level deductive reasoning, special talent or rely entirely on social engineering alone. He runs mainly on pure discipline & experience- being willing to do extremely tedious, mind numbing documentation during the course of an investigation that outsiders to the industry take for granted. His depth of experience allows him to apply proven psychological statistics and experience based hypothesis's to get information he wants and to narrow down suspects and possibilities. This is real detective work. I never doubted the validity of how much of a grind it really is and I respect that the author was willing to de-glamourize detective work without letting it drag down the story.
There's a great segment where Delaney visits a paraplegic retired mountain climber and lets him know he can help the case through extremely tedious list making of magazine subscribers and the dude is like "What a drag! A real detective wouldn't have to do this kind of shit" and Delaney gets annoyed and corrects that actually detective work isn't like the movies where there's a showdown and jumping to building to building to catch the culprit. Impactful, life-saving detective work is based in a lot of clerical bullshit that can't be avoided, but it's just as important.
The realism of how detective work unfolds in this book extends to the characterizations, atmosphere and location in the story. This wasn't a story I was ever detached and idly reading. Lawrence Sanders performs world building within New York that made this book an experience. You will taste the rye highball, feel the building anxiety of the case and laugh and sigh in annoyance along with Delaney as he experiences the diverse, quirky mix of people he needs to lean on to solve the case. Every one of the varied supporting characters leaves a resonating impression and entertains while being entirely believable and grounded in reality. In particular I was a fan of Dr. Ferguson for his heavy handed flattery of Delaney's deductive skill and sarcasm. Every phone conversation was both interesting from a medical point of view and funny.
As far as villains go, the killer, much like the dashing thief Anderson, is explored and given humanity and a fair amount of sympathetic rendering despite committing very inhuman, violent crime that shake the many characters in the novel. I again commend Sanders for writing a three dimensional criminal that has complex emotions, motives and an intriguing personality and character journey of his own. So many crime/mystery novels are lazy and make the killer a complete evil sicko for the sake of making him easy bait for the reader to rally against emotionally. The killer does commit great evil, but as a whole he is much more on the scale of morally ambiguous due to mental and emotional illness than misplaced malice or aggression. As if he was the psychological shadow of Delaney, he wants order in an order-less world to some extent and needs to find a way to cope with a cold world his own way. He is capable of kindness, love, charm, success etc. but he has a deep depression and spiritual emptiness that he has failed to properly address and it leaves his cornered ending more tragic than triumphant.
This book is masterful- perfect plotting, character development, content, just everything. It also has a full array of anything you could possibly desire from a book: humor, romance, suspense, sex, crime, tragedy, mystery, horror, inspiration, philosophy, psychology, profound musings on the world- everything!
However, despite the rather bleak introspective character journey the Delaney takes, he is one of the best fictional detectives I have ever come across and really amazing in his depth of personality and perspective. He is in retirement age and lovingly known as "iron balls" by a lot of his co-workers at the precinct because he refuses to suffer fools, even ones that out rank him, but it is only because he has a sincere respect and faith in the criminal justice system. His discipline and faith holds despite even being surrounded by petty office politics and organizational discrepancies in an overall flawed system. He follows precinct procedure,formal regulation and predictable statistical constructs on an almost religiously committed level. Delaney clearly desires order in a chaotic world even while knowing that such an ideal is unrealistic, but this is his main coping mechanism against the darkness and pain his eyes are forced to be open to as part of his day to day duties.
Unlike famous detectives like Sherlock Holmes or even more semi-modern favorites like Colombo, Delaney does not operate on genius level deductive reasoning, special talent or rely entirely on social engineering alone. He runs mainly on pure discipline & experience- being willing to do extremely tedious, mind numbing documentation during the course of an investigation that outsiders to the industry take for granted. His depth of experience allows him to apply proven psychological statistics and experience based hypothesis's to get information he wants and to narrow down suspects and possibilities. This is real detective work. I never doubted the validity of how much of a grind it really is and I respect that the author was willing to de-glamourize detective work without letting it drag down the story.
There's a great segment where Delaney visits a paraplegic retired mountain climber and lets him know he can help the case through extremely tedious list making of magazine subscribers and the dude is like "What a drag! A real detective wouldn't have to do this kind of shit" and Delaney gets annoyed and corrects that actually detective work isn't like the movies where there's a showdown and jumping to building to building to catch the culprit. Impactful, life-saving detective work is based in a lot of clerical bullshit that can't be avoided, but it's just as important.
The realism of how detective work unfolds in this book extends to the characterizations, atmosphere and location in the story. This wasn't a story I was ever detached and idly reading. Lawrence Sanders performs world building within New York that made this book an experience. You will taste the rye highball, feel the building anxiety of the case and laugh and sigh in annoyance along with Delaney as he experiences the diverse, quirky mix of people he needs to lean on to solve the case. Every one of the varied supporting characters leaves a resonating impression and entertains while being entirely believable and grounded in reality. In particular I was a fan of Dr. Ferguson for his heavy handed flattery of Delaney's deductive skill and sarcasm. Every phone conversation was both interesting from a medical point of view and funny.
As far as villains go, the killer, much like the dashing thief Anderson, is explored and given humanity and a fair amount of sympathetic rendering despite committing very inhuman, violent crime that shake the many characters in the novel. I again commend Sanders for writing a three dimensional criminal that has complex emotions, motives and an intriguing personality and character journey of his own. So many crime/mystery novels are lazy and make the killer a complete evil sicko for the sake of making him easy bait for the reader to rally against emotionally. The killer does commit great evil, but as a whole he is much more on the scale of morally ambiguous due to mental and emotional illness than misplaced malice or aggression. As if he was the psychological shadow of Delaney, he wants order in an order-less world to some extent and needs to find a way to cope with a cold world his own way. He is capable of kindness, love, charm, success etc. but he has a deep depression and spiritual emptiness that he has failed to properly address and it leaves his cornered ending more tragic than triumphant.
This book is masterful- perfect plotting, character development, content, just everything. It also has a full array of anything you could possibly desire from a book: humor, romance, suspense, sex, crime, tragedy, mystery, horror, inspiration, philosophy, psychology, profound musings on the world- everything!
July 23, 2013
One of the most compelling books I have read. Lots of philosophy in the book, but so simply written that anyone can identify with it. At the same time, you can't put the book down - not because it's a thriller, but because it is so beautifully written. And like someone who gifted me the book told me, it's not about who the killer is, but about how the story unfolds. Undoubtedly a masterpiece. I can go on writing about it, but then it'll just be a spoiler.
April 21, 2020
Edward X. Delaney is a near-perfect character. Although he made a modest appearance in Sanders' earlier book, this is the first one about him. Can't wait to read the rest.
May 31, 2021
Definitely on the long side for a thriller. Lots of character development before the body count even starts. It all comes together into a great back and forth with a POV from the detective and the killer.
June 2, 2022
When I was fourteen, our milf neighbor Beverly loaned me a stack of racy, grown-up novels including this police procedural. I didn't finish The First Deadly Sin and I'm not sure why, since it exerted a powerful pull on my imagination at the time and even more so in subsequent years.
The murderer - revealed at the outset - is a pudgy schlub who reinvents himself post-divorce as a meticulously dressed, shaven-pated, mountain climber and sexy bon vivant (to my fourteen-year-old way of thinking, at any rate). This being several decades before Pulp Fiction-era Bruce Willis, let alone Heisenberg, the cue ball 'do, concealed in public by an "Ivy League" work wig and a curly "Via Veneto" play rug, is, I think, like his elaborate, multiply-mirrored and gold-chain-festooned masturbation ritual, a simultaneously appealing/appalling way of telegraphing the compelling but censurable otherness of Daniel Blank's radical self-reinvention. As is the kink-lite sexual entanglement with "witchy" Celia Montfort that precipitates his killing spree. An evolving Daniel Blank eventually morphs into someone who brains his victims with an ice hammer in order to achieve a mystico-erotic homosexual union with strange men, but he starts out doing it to impress his girlfriend.
While I never aspired to serial murder, I did aspire to kinky sex and I was as unhappy with myself as any adolescent, so Blank represented a kind of fictional icon of athletic and sexual self-transformation that I found deeply attractive. I never pursued it, and I've reached the age that I can confidently say that I'm not going to now, but, because of this book I've been somewhat fascinated with climbing as a synecdoche of human perfectibility my entire adult life. I had a casual friend in college who was a climber and it was precisely the unforgiving nature of the sport that he liked. "You can't make a mistake," Dave liked to say, and I guess he didn't until he and a friend climbed a granite column like Devil's Needle in this book. They made a mistake and Dave's friend died, which taught me that people are less perfectible than we might like to think.
I suppose all of this is to say that finally completing this engaging and workmanlike but probably not timeless thriller was personally very satisfying. It was quaint, from my jaded middle-aged perspective, with every conceivable perversion instantly available on the Web for my pornographic contemplation, to revisit a self-consciously naughty but comparatively tasteful text that my filth-starved adolescent self had found so intensely erotically charged. For a reader obsessed, as I am, with the seventies, this novel was an evocative time capsule - mostly in a good way, although there was a cheap, reflexive homophobia that, while not mean-spirited, I found, at best, to be provincial in an author who obviously prides himself on his urbane sophistication and, at worst, occasionally off-putting (e.g. Celia Montfort's sinister, mincing majordomo Valenter actually speaks with a spelled out lithp).
The First Deadly Sin reminded me of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in that a great deal of the sleuthing is accomplished by multiple parties - the dogged Capt. Edward X. Delaney and his ad hoc team of "amateurs" - painstakingly sifting through paper documents over the course of weeks, in a race against Blank and the ever-tightening cycles of his murderous compulsion. With databases, this part of the mystery could be solved in a matter of minutes. The murderer is himself an early digital adopter - his day job is as the circulation manager for a trade magazine publisher and he has, shortly before the action commences, computerized the operations of his organization. The computer, yclept AMROK II - a Colossus-era behemoth, all tape spools and flashing lights - occupies half a high-rise floor.
One 70s throwback that gave me a great deal of pleasure was the loving attention to food and its consumption. This novel was written long before the rise of foodie culture, but Sanders, who, one senses, fancies himself urbane - if grounded and sensible - in all manners of sophistication, is clearly a self-conscious gourmet and an enthusiastic gourmand. I enjoy graphic descriptions of food and eating in any book almost as much as I enjoy graphic descriptions of sex and, as another Goodreads reader has pointed out, The First Deadly Sin, perhaps more frequently than any other novel I can think of, made me want to eat a sandwich.
The murderer - revealed at the outset - is a pudgy schlub who reinvents himself post-divorce as a meticulously dressed, shaven-pated, mountain climber and sexy bon vivant (to my fourteen-year-old way of thinking, at any rate). This being several decades before Pulp Fiction-era Bruce Willis, let alone Heisenberg, the cue ball 'do, concealed in public by an "Ivy League" work wig and a curly "Via Veneto" play rug, is, I think, like his elaborate, multiply-mirrored and gold-chain-festooned masturbation ritual, a simultaneously appealing/appalling way of telegraphing the compelling but censurable otherness of Daniel Blank's radical self-reinvention. As is the kink-lite sexual entanglement with "witchy" Celia Montfort that precipitates his killing spree. An evolving Daniel Blank eventually morphs into someone who brains his victims with an ice hammer in order to achieve a mystico-erotic homosexual union with strange men, but he starts out doing it to impress his girlfriend.
While I never aspired to serial murder, I did aspire to kinky sex and I was as unhappy with myself as any adolescent, so Blank represented a kind of fictional icon of athletic and sexual self-transformation that I found deeply attractive. I never pursued it, and I've reached the age that I can confidently say that I'm not going to now, but, because of this book I've been somewhat fascinated with climbing as a synecdoche of human perfectibility my entire adult life. I had a casual friend in college who was a climber and it was precisely the unforgiving nature of the sport that he liked. "You can't make a mistake," Dave liked to say, and I guess he didn't until he and a friend climbed a granite column like Devil's Needle in this book. They made a mistake and Dave's friend died, which taught me that people are less perfectible than we might like to think.
I suppose all of this is to say that finally completing this engaging and workmanlike but probably not timeless thriller was personally very satisfying. It was quaint, from my jaded middle-aged perspective, with every conceivable perversion instantly available on the Web for my pornographic contemplation, to revisit a self-consciously naughty but comparatively tasteful text that my filth-starved adolescent self had found so intensely erotically charged. For a reader obsessed, as I am, with the seventies, this novel was an evocative time capsule - mostly in a good way, although there was a cheap, reflexive homophobia that, while not mean-spirited, I found, at best, to be provincial in an author who obviously prides himself on his urbane sophistication and, at worst, occasionally off-putting (e.g. Celia Montfort's sinister, mincing majordomo Valenter actually speaks with a spelled out lithp).
The First Deadly Sin reminded me of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in that a great deal of the sleuthing is accomplished by multiple parties - the dogged Capt. Edward X. Delaney and his ad hoc team of "amateurs" - painstakingly sifting through paper documents over the course of weeks, in a race against Blank and the ever-tightening cycles of his murderous compulsion. With databases, this part of the mystery could be solved in a matter of minutes. The murderer is himself an early digital adopter - his day job is as the circulation manager for a trade magazine publisher and he has, shortly before the action commences, computerized the operations of his organization. The computer, yclept AMROK II - a Colossus-era behemoth, all tape spools and flashing lights - occupies half a high-rise floor.
One 70s throwback that gave me a great deal of pleasure was the loving attention to food and its consumption. This novel was written long before the rise of foodie culture, but Sanders, who, one senses, fancies himself urbane - if grounded and sensible - in all manners of sophistication, is clearly a self-conscious gourmet and an enthusiastic gourmand. I enjoy graphic descriptions of food and eating in any book almost as much as I enjoy graphic descriptions of sex and, as another Goodreads reader has pointed out, The First Deadly Sin, perhaps more frequently than any other novel I can think of, made me want to eat a sandwich.
January 21, 2022
One of the best detectives I've ever read. This was way back when, btw. Oh I do remember that reading this book always made me hungry and make big ass sandwiches with mustard and pickles...
February 6, 2008
I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but I was more annoyed than entertained by this one.
I'm sure the only reason for this is that it was written in 1972 and resembled most of what I was reading/watching in the 70's. I feel badly for giving a lukewarm review for this because in 1972 this probably was a shocking, tough and suspensful read, and it didn't read like a box full of cliches.
But in 1999, it does, I'm afraid. Here's what I mean:
a) On every 3rd page, it seemed, our hero Delany was refered to as Captain Edward X. Delany.
b) Everyone, peers and subordinates, are in such awe of Delany that the hero-worship was really beginning to wear thin.
c) "Iron Balls" as a nickname??
d) He's a tough cop...a damn good cop.
What I liked about the novel? Our villain stalks the streets of New York. As he passes an unsuspecting victim he whirls around and *thunk*, it's an ice pick to the back of the head.
Very very creepy indeed, and it's something that will stick in my mind (pardon the pun) as I walk the streets.
For those chapters dealing with our villain, Sanders is bang-on...for those with, ahem, CAPTAIN EDWARD X. DELANY, they were pretty cliche'd, for the '90's reader. But, if you don't mind that, then by all means read the story. It's a favorite for many people and just because I didn't do backflips over it doesn't mean you won't enjoy it.
I'm sure the only reason for this is that it was written in 1972 and resembled most of what I was reading/watching in the 70's. I feel badly for giving a lukewarm review for this because in 1972 this probably was a shocking, tough and suspensful read, and it didn't read like a box full of cliches.
But in 1999, it does, I'm afraid. Here's what I mean:
a) On every 3rd page, it seemed, our hero Delany was refered to as Captain Edward X. Delany.
b) Everyone, peers and subordinates, are in such awe of Delany that the hero-worship was really beginning to wear thin.
c) "Iron Balls" as a nickname??
d) He's a tough cop...a damn good cop.
What I liked about the novel? Our villain stalks the streets of New York. As he passes an unsuspecting victim he whirls around and *thunk*, it's an ice pick to the back of the head.
Very very creepy indeed, and it's something that will stick in my mind (pardon the pun) as I walk the streets.
For those chapters dealing with our villain, Sanders is bang-on...for those with, ahem, CAPTAIN EDWARD X. DELANY, they were pretty cliche'd, for the '90's reader. But, if you don't mind that, then by all means read the story. It's a favorite for many people and just because I didn't do backflips over it doesn't mean you won't enjoy it.
May 14, 2021
I rated this as one star only because there is no option for a lower rating. Beware--from this point forward it is difficult to write how I really feel about this book without revealing a lot of the story, but I'll give it a try. While Sanders undeniably is a talented writer, he created a story here with no redeeming characters. Edward X. Delaney is a self-righteous police captain who spends much of the book blowing his own horn while engaging in procedures that paint him as corrupt and morally bankrupt as the criminal he pursues--well, maybe he isn't that bad, since the criminal is a serial killer. Sanders goes into way too much detail in many parts of this book; the book realistically could have been about half as long as it was. Sanders drags us to the "end" and then jumps the shark by spending 50 pages or so detailing the culmination of the story. The scenes Sanders describes detail a mind-boggling waste of resources and manpower in the pursuit of one suspect. I would like to think this story is dated, having been written in 1972, and this case would be handled much differently today. All of that being said, if Sanders' intent was to show that there is a really thin line between the morals of the police and the criminal, I suppose he met that challenge.
July 5, 2018
This is a reread from many years ago - when the book was first released. Unbelievably the main thing I remembered about the book series was the sandwiches! The main character, New York Police Chief Delaney - likes sandwiches. It starts out subtley in this book, but if I remember correctly, more sandwiches are described in the future books. I always have to make me a sandwich when I read these descriptions. Today, a ham, tomato and cucumber sandwich - lol. I seem to remember him leaning over the sink eating a "wet" sandwich in one of the next books :)
Anyway, this crime is about a guy who loves to kill people - because he just "loves" it - it makes him feel loved and powerful and strong (yes, a real nutcase). He surprises men on the street and hits them from behind with an ice axe. Delaneys wife is seriously ill and he takes a leave of absence, but works on this case unofficially. Of course, there is a whole undercurrent about that too
Anyway a great book - I am glad I revisited it. I enjoyed it just as much the 2nd time around
Anyway, this crime is about a guy who loves to kill people - because he just "loves" it - it makes him feel loved and powerful and strong (yes, a real nutcase). He surprises men on the street and hits them from behind with an ice axe. Delaneys wife is seriously ill and he takes a leave of absence, but works on this case unofficially. Of course, there is a whole undercurrent about that too
Anyway a great book - I am glad I revisited it. I enjoyed it just as much the 2nd time around
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