V as In Victim

Decker, Taylor & Freeman #1

by Lawrence Treat, Leslie S. Klinger (editor)

Routine hit-and-run case ties freakishly in with murder; ploding third grade detective Mitch Taylor and intellectual lab technician Jub Freeman dovetail the answer. In this contrasted team Mr. Treat has created the most believable police professionals in American detective fiction; in its unpretentious way, this may be an epoch-making book, marking a fresh, new, realistic approach to police procedure.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

Lawrence Arthur Goldstone (1903 - 1998), better known by his pseudonym, Lawrence Treat, was an American mystery writer, a pioneer of the genre of novels that became known as police procedurals. A practicing lawyer before turning to writing, he was a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America and a two-time winner of the MWA's Edgar Award. His first award came in 1965, for the short story "H as in Homicide"; his second was a Special Edgar Award in 1978 for editing a new edition of the Mystery Writer's Handbook, the MWA's guide for aspiring mystery writers, first published in 1956.

As a member of the League of American Writers, he served on its Keep America Out of War Committee in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact

Reviews

[tortoise dreams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The "police procedural" is a subset of crime fiction and drama, characterized by a specific police department (e.g., homicide, sex crimes) operating as a team using the full panoply of investigative and forensic techniques, without the benefit of the "great" or "genius" detective. It's easily recognizable today as a staple of of myriad television crime shows. V as in Victim, published in 1945, is generally recognized as the first American police procedural novel, a form that reached a quick pinnacle with Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books. Maurice Procter, in The Chief Inspector's Statement (1951), is credited as the first realistic proponent of the British police procedural. On the continent and elsewhere origins are murkier. This novel is a mixed bag. Our lead detective, low in the hierarchy, initially comes across as lazy, pig headed, unimagintive, hidebound, and not especially bright. Not a good start. An officer in the underused police laboratory comes off better and is rewarded with a small romance. The plot's not bad with some clever ideas mixed with mundane writing. There's an overly complex but entertaining conclusion with just enough PG suggestiveness in the story to no doubt justify an appropriately lurid mass market cover when first published. Another worthwhile contribution from the Library of Congress Crime Classics series (the most recent). [3½★]

[AC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyone interested in the history of American crime fiction will, at some point, have to familiarize themselves with this book. It stands more or less at the beginning of what is commonly called the police procedural. As such, it is important. Unfortunately, it is not a terribly brilliant or intrinsically interesting book. As Leroy Lad Panek has it (in *The American Police Novel: A History*, 36f.): “The writing is neither better nor worse than that found in the average detective novel of the period. In most respects, V as in Victim belonged to the library of detective fiction that deserves to be forgotten. Granted, the book had a prominent detective theme — the role of the scientist and scientific evidence versus inept and old fashioned police methods — but that theme went back to the turn of the century with R. Austin Freeman’s Thorndyke stories in Britain and Arthur B. Reeve’s Craig Kennedy stories in America. Treat’s innovation was [simply] in his heroes. They are cops…. Were it not for Taylor and Freeman, V as in Victim would be entirely forgettable as a detective novel. Likewise, were Taylor and Freeman not cops, they, too, would be entirely forgettable. But they are, and in their creationTreat, perhaps unwittingly, invented many of the conventions that would drive the police novel throughout the rest of the twentieth century.”

[Bella Azam · Rating 3 out of 5]

'V' as in Victim by Lawrence Treat was a crime classics focused more on procedural investigative nature of a crime or more accurately crimes as it involved multiple criminal activities from hit-and-run, murder, blackmail and gritty nitty dark horrifying crimes. Written in 1945, following the Golden era of crime mystery novels from the popularized amateur detectives & private investigators Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot to the current era where Treat had come to his novel on the approach of investigative crime by forensic science, procedural interrogation and police works

When a third rank police detective, Mitch Taylor was called to a scene of an accident hit and run, he was involved in a seemingly connected series of crimes from there, a murder of an insurance man, Peter Jarvis. Both Mitch and Jub Freeman, a lab technician met with an actress Andrea Minx who was heard screaming moment before the accident happened and when they went to investigate, things become more complicated

In a way, this read very much of crime fiction with detailed precision of how police works. From filing the case firsthand on scouring the crime scene, calling the lab technician or forensic analayst to examine the scene and the body to interrogation of witnesses and people involved directly or indirectly, pieceing the information you received from different sources to fully understand the whole case and to solve it. As much as I want to like the book, I felt this one was too dull for my liking as its very much dry and factual as I dont gain any sort of connection to the characters in here. When I read murder mystery or crime thriller books, I expected one or another to appeal to me, either the characters appealed to me or the crime itself but neither works for me in here so I'm slightly disappointed in this. Overall, its interesting to read on the police investigation but not a favourite of mine

Thank you Times Reads for the review copy in exchange for an honest review

[Ema · Rating 4 out of 5]

Step back into the golden age of crime fiction with this nostalgic, slow-burn detective novel from 1945. Mitch Taylor, a competent yet restless third-grade detective, feels out of place in his department and dreads the tedious legwork that comes with the job. Beneath his stoic exterior lies a simmering desire for a promotion, though he knows he'll need to make a lasting impression to earn it.

When a hit-and-run incident turns disturbingly deliberate, Mitch finds himself teamed up with Jub Freeman, a meticulous forensic technician at a time when forensic science was barely respected. Their investigation starts with a routine witness interview but soon spirals into a web of mystery involving a distressed woman named Andrea Minx, a missing friend, a dead cat, and—inevitably—murder.

The discovery of Peter Jarvis’s body, found with a fatal head wound and no murder weapon in sight, thrusts Mitch and Jub into a tense hunt for answers. As they chase elusive clues and unravel hidden connections, their contrasting crime-solving styles make for a compelling partnership.

What truly sets this novel apart is its reflective, witty writing, peppered with humor that feels timeless. The author masterfully keeps readers guessing until the very last page, delivering a crime story rich with twists and golden-age charm. If you crave a detective story brimming with wit, suspense, and vintage appeal, this is a must-read. Solid 4 ⭐ for a gripping, nostalgic ride.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

By scholarly accounts the first real police procedural, from 1945, and one that both nods to the past (Treat had written eminently forgettable great-detective stories in the 30s, and this one has the plot complexity and fair-play elements, along with, of course, some "drawling" of dialogue; he also sporadically messes with POV in a fancier way than you'd expect) and looks to the future (you can see the seeds of the 87th-Precinct novels in the cop sociology, the slight dips into their personal lives, the odd detours for fun [here, a perambulation about elevator operators], and, of course, all the grinning). The rigor and logic of the solution, and the pursuit of what turn out to be false clues, are well done; while the detection is solid, what really seems to get his pulse racing is the crime-scene tech. I mean: "They marched back to the laboratory table, set up the glass viewers and spread the prints. Three men hunched over a long green table, peering at diagrammatic pictures as feverishly as if they were choice pornography. Three men, silent except for the swish of paper and their steady, deep breathing." Res ipsa loquitur, your honor.

Legally, the police seem fine entering people's homes without a warrant, and there's the occasional pre-Miranda suggestion that they beat a confession out of a suspect, though honestly this is much less sexist than you might expect, and there are no POC characters, so no icky racist bits. Maybe the most interesting part is revealed in the author bio (the footnotes here are comically straightforward, spelling out period references with an AI-level commitment to being overly informative), which notes that "Treat" was a pseudonym, and that Goldstone was Jewish, putting him in the Ellery Queen passing category. He has a later novel featuring a fugitive Nazi war criminal, so maybe it comes out there? One of the characters is glancingly noted as having changed her name from Marx to Minx, but that's pretty much it. So this is an NYC novel, in 1945, with no ostensibly Jewish characters, and certainly no Jewish police. Somewhat understandable, but odd to note.

[liv]

i read this because i have an interest in the history and format of procedurals and detective stories but this is actually a very particular slice of queer history: what has stayed with me is the probably-unknown-to-the-author depiction of a very clearly trans person who can’t see a life for themself because the avenues through which they could have a life have been not even closed off but hidden from them, and, to cope, they drink and fuck to enter oblivion.

[Bill Silva · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first modern police procedural, according to the introduction to the reprint of the 1940s original…its value is pretty much historical only, in my view (i.e., the plot is weak, the characters unappealing, and the writing execrable).

[arden · Rating 4 out of 5]

cop is a gay ass career choice

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel was one of the first police procedurals written and must have been very interesting for readers of that time. Today, not so much.

[Jim S · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a Library of Congress Crime Classic mostly because of its focus on the use of scientific forensic to solve a crime, e.g. using spectrographic analysis of paint chips from cars to prove that they, in fact, came from the same source.

But is it a good book? I had by problems with it.

The initial crime is very convoluted. A hit-and-run accident points to a woman's scream, but she screamed 10 seconds before the accident and she was screaming about discovering her cat dead which points to here no-show boyfriend who is discovered dead in his apartment.

The cast of characters grows to around 10 people and while some are "quirky" I didn't find any of them particularly well-drawn or memorable which made it hard to keep them straight. And the entire Jarvis family seemed particularly repellent.

The most interesting were the two cops: Mitch Taylor who seems more interested in getting his next promotion then actually fighting crime and Jub Freeman who works in the lab, is deeply into forensics and is a real geek.

To it's credit there is the occasional witty dialog, e.g.:

Did he have any enemies?
Yes.
Who were they?
Everybody who ever met him.

So perhaps it's pioneering crime fiction but I never found it a particularly good book.