The Police Procedural

by George N. Dove

In the late 1940s and early 1950s a new kind of detective story appeared on the scene. This was a story in which the mystery is solved by regular police detectives, usually working in teams and using ordinary police routines. This kind of narrative is customarily called the "police procedural" story. And it is the subject of this book. Though there has been numberless writers of these stories, there has never been a book of criticism before.

280 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Bill Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent reference work for students/enthusiasts of this mystery sub-genre: covers the period from 1945 to around 1980. Dove was an academic who wrote many essays relating to mystery fiction and this book at times reads like a group of lectures or articles that were stitched together to make a book - there are redundant statements - BUT for anyone looking for clear definition of terms, particularly what is and what isn't a police procedural, this is an excellent book. Dove makes his points, defines the characteristics (and their variations) for what distinguishes a police procedural from other types of crime fiction and uses the works of practitioners of the form to illustrate his points. This could have been a dry as dust tome, but Dove manages, chiefly through the writer's works that he uses to illustrate his points to keep the book fairly lively. Writers covered in depth include Hillary Waugh, John Creasey, John Ball, Bill Knox, Dorothy Uhnak, Lawrence Treat, Janwillem van de Wetering, Collin Wilcox, Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo, Ed McBain, Lillian O'Donnell, Maurice Procter, Lesley Egan and Nicolas Freeling. As can be seen from the list of writers, there is no bias regarding nationality, race or gender. There are separate chapters for European, ethnic, women and Black police detectives.
After discussing the defining characteristics of the procedural, Dove makes a considerable effort to acknowledge the variations on the "boilerplate" work of the earliest practitioners, reviewing the changes in societal norms and attitudes occurring after the 1950s. What emerges, as in all conscientious criticism, is both the insistence upon some sort of baseline definition set and then an exploration of the implementation this basic form with its inevitable interpretive variation and augmentation by the writers.
Based upon its table of contents, Gary J. Hausladen’s PLACES FOR DEAD BODIES would appear to pick up where Dove has left off, featuring works by more recent procedural writers like Tony Hillerman and Martin Cruz Smith and including works featuring the “historical” detective series characters back to the Romans. Will have to give it a read.

[AC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. Rather shallow