What do you think?
Rate this book
Killer Cop
James Rhodes, an honest Los Angeles cop, finds his vacation in the nearby mountains complicated by extra baggage in the form of a bloody, half-dead body in the back of his van. An exciting Nazel mystery.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
1 person is currently reading
12 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 1, 2024
Joe Nazel sticks it to both racist whites and blacks in this, the third in a series of books centred around black LAPD officer James Rhodes. Killer Cop being preceded by Black Cop (1974), Doomsday Squad (1975), and followed by Killing Ground (1976). Hoping to escape the daily grind of hostility from the black community and bigotry from his white boss, Rhodes plans a vacation in the great outdoors. Peace and tranquility elude Rhodes though, as his isolated cabin getaway comes under attack from a black militant group. Attempts to raise the alarm only results in Rhodes being accused of murder by a redneck sheriff. Thereafter Rhodes goes on the run back to LA, where in order to clear his name he has to get involved in the internal battles within the militant group who tried to kill him.
Nazel improves on the pacing issues of 1974's The Black Exorcist, in fact Killer Cop is tense and electrifying throughout, picking up the ball early on and barely stopping for breath. Only the ending disappoints, feeling both underwritten and underwhelming. Still, Killer Cop is so cinematic that it's baffling Nazel's work never received the big screen treatment. His only connection to the movies being novelising other people's movies. Lee Frost's The Black Gestapo in 1975, and Foxtrap, a none too great 1986 vehicle for Fred Williamson, who come to think about it would have made an excellent Rhodes.
Many of The Black Exorcist's key themes resurface here. Men searching for spiritual answers, race relations in America, and a distain for the more militant aspects of black activism in the 1970s. Which in Nazel's eyes did little for the black community and only succeeded in driving scared whites to the local gun shop. Not that Killer Cop is what you'd call an anti-firearms text. On the contrary, Nazel fetishises gun ownership to a blatantly sexual degree. After being reunited with his .357 magnum, Rhodes 'could not help but feel complete...he was a whole man again' while holding the trigger is compared to 'a man fondling a woman's nipple'. There is no doubt about it, you have to be an alpha to survive in Joe Nazel's world, but Rhodes is no cold blooded killer. Resenting the idea of having to hurt or kill white policemen, since as a fellow cop he still regards them as 'his people'. While he also resents the idea of having to do the same to the black militants as on racial grounds he regards them as 'his people' too. The unreasonable bigotry Rhodes faces from the redneck sheriff is repeated later in the book, when Quincy -the leader of the militant group- futilely tries to stiffle the aggressive, anti-white sentiment within the ranks "Quincy wanted to explain to them what Martin Luther King was about, to get into Malcolm X's philosophies and educate them to what they should really be about". Ultimately both white and black racism is a source of head bashing frustration for Nazel, and his good guy characters, in Killer Cop.
The finest, most suspenseful part of the book however has to be the cabin siege. Nazel takes you behind the eyes of Rhodes, capturing the frazzled nerves of a man finding himself in the shadow of death, honing his survival skills and trying to outwit the enemy. The authenticity of which makes sense when you realise that Nazel himself was a Vietnam Veteran, and essentially was reliving personal trauma here for the purposes of pulp entertainment. Thank you for your service Sir, both on and off the page.
Nazel improves on the pacing issues of 1974's The Black Exorcist, in fact Killer Cop is tense and electrifying throughout, picking up the ball early on and barely stopping for breath. Only the ending disappoints, feeling both underwritten and underwhelming. Still, Killer Cop is so cinematic that it's baffling Nazel's work never received the big screen treatment. His only connection to the movies being novelising other people's movies. Lee Frost's The Black Gestapo in 1975, and Foxtrap, a none too great 1986 vehicle for Fred Williamson, who come to think about it would have made an excellent Rhodes.
Many of The Black Exorcist's key themes resurface here. Men searching for spiritual answers, race relations in America, and a distain for the more militant aspects of black activism in the 1970s. Which in Nazel's eyes did little for the black community and only succeeded in driving scared whites to the local gun shop. Not that Killer Cop is what you'd call an anti-firearms text. On the contrary, Nazel fetishises gun ownership to a blatantly sexual degree. After being reunited with his .357 magnum, Rhodes 'could not help but feel complete...he was a whole man again' while holding the trigger is compared to 'a man fondling a woman's nipple'. There is no doubt about it, you have to be an alpha to survive in Joe Nazel's world, but Rhodes is no cold blooded killer. Resenting the idea of having to hurt or kill white policemen, since as a fellow cop he still regards them as 'his people'. While he also resents the idea of having to do the same to the black militants as on racial grounds he regards them as 'his people' too. The unreasonable bigotry Rhodes faces from the redneck sheriff is repeated later in the book, when Quincy -the leader of the militant group- futilely tries to stiffle the aggressive, anti-white sentiment within the ranks "Quincy wanted to explain to them what Martin Luther King was about, to get into Malcolm X's philosophies and educate them to what they should really be about". Ultimately both white and black racism is a source of head bashing frustration for Nazel, and his good guy characters, in Killer Cop.
The finest, most suspenseful part of the book however has to be the cabin siege. Nazel takes you behind the eyes of Rhodes, capturing the frazzled nerves of a man finding himself in the shadow of death, honing his survival skills and trying to outwit the enemy. The authenticity of which makes sense when you realise that Nazel himself was a Vietnam Veteran, and essentially was reliving personal trauma here for the purposes of pulp entertainment. Thank you for your service Sir, both on and off the page.
Displaying 1 of 1 review