Persecució

by Richard Unekis, Marta Martín (Translator)

The Chase Unekis, Richard

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

Reviews

[Chris Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew straight off the bat that this was going to be a good book, even considering the cheesy car chase movie Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry was the movie for the book. You couldn’t really put it down after they robbed the grocery store and were in the pursuit... I could say more but it’d spoil the book a little bit.

[Nick Guzan · Rating 3 out of 5]

good quick read if sometimes a little overly technical about the minutiae of police dragnet techniques for its brief length. also very surprising that this became the movie that it did

would def read again, ideal for a hot summer Friday afternoon

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the third time I have read this short, green-spine Penguin Crime book. It is set in the chequer-board of roads in the cornfields of Michigan. A pair of professional criminals hold up a supermarket and get away in a car. Police Supt. Franklin, an ex-Navy strategist, tries to use theoretical methods to do with game theory and probability rather than traditional policing methods to catch them. [Spoiler alert} By making the criminals THINK they are being chased, they go too fast, and draw attention to themselves.
What I would have liked is a map so one could follow the movement of the cars, or preferably a series of maps, as the book has much of the pleasure of a board game. But as it is one gets the overall idea.
Unekis wrote this book in three months. It was published in 1962 and my copy dates from 1967. It is now out of print. I have not seen the film that other reviewers refer to, and on the basis of their comments I don't think I want to, but I do think it could make a good film.

[Mark H · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair amount of the movie Dirty Mary Crazy Larry is taken from this book, but certainly not the character of Mary, who isn’t in the book at all!
Unekis does a great job of describing car chase action, but there’s barely any characterisation.

[Vicent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una novel·la que enganxa pel tema i pel ritme frenètic, però molt mal escrita i més mal traduïda. En aquest cas, l'autor i la traductora fan molt bona parella. Si algú tria aquesta novel·la amb l'esperança de llegir una prosa bella, que no la comenci.

[Artie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Source book for Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. More cerebral but quite satisfying.

[Carles · Rating 2 out of 5]

M’ha agradat el començament, l’escena de la casa, la personalitat gelada i insensible de l’atracador.
Al mateix temps se’ns retrata el policia analític, convençut que els nous temps demanden mètodes de cerca basats en les matemàtiques.
Aquest plantejament, aquesta confrontació, em feia presagiar un desenvolupament molt interessant.
Posteriorment, quan el relat es centra en la persecució, se’m ha fet monòton.