Aftershock

Lt. Hastings #6

by Collin Wilcox

For the sake of his lover, Hastings risks his career and chases a stalker.

For the past few weeks, Lieutenant Frank Hastings’s girlfriend has sensed that she was being watched. They are on their way home from a too-chic party when Hastings spots something moving in the bushes — a shadowy figure who appears to have a gun. He should call for backup; he should stay in the car. But to protect Ann, this detective is willing to risk everything. After a chase, Hastings apprehends the lurker, but what he thought was a gun turns out to be a shotgun mike. Is someone recording Ann?

Shut out of the case because it concerns his girlfriend, Hastings focuses on the murder of Flora Esterbrook Gaines — a seventy-year-old woman found murdered in her garage. Greed is the obvious motive, but finding a suspect proves tricky. Hastings divides his energy in a desperate attempt to uphold the law while at the same time protecting his beloved.

182 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Aka Carter Wick

Collin Wilcox was an American mystery writer.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, his first book was The Black Door (1967), featuring a sleuth possessing extrasensory perception. His major series of novels was about Lieutenant Frank Hastings of the San Francisco Police Department. Titles in the Hastings series included Hire a Hangman, Dead Aim, Hiding Place, Long Way Down and Stalking Horse. Two of his last books, Full Circle and Find Her a Grave, featured a new hero-sleuth, Alan Bernhardt, an eccentric theater director. Wilcox also published under the pseudonym "Carter Wick".

Wilcox's most famous series-detective was the television character Sam McCloud, a New Mexico deputy solving New York crime. The "urban cowboy" was played by Dennis Weaver in the 1970-1977 TV series McCloud. Wilcox wrote three novelizations based on scripts from the series: McCloud (1973), The New Mexican Connection (1974), and The Park Avenue Executioner (1975).

Reviews

[LJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Sentence: For the past several blocks, sensing that the silence suited our mood, we’d made no effort to make conversation.

Lt. Frank Hastings has problems. His newest case is the murder of a wealthy 70-year-old woman. Found bludgeoned in the garage of her San Francisco, Sea Cliff district home, it appears greed is the motive. But who is the killer? In his personal life, Hasting’s girlfriend, Ann Haywood, begins feeling watched. Events escalate and Hastings knows the identity of the stalker, but has been ordered to stay away as it relates to a pending case.

It is very interesting to look at 1975 as it was written in 1975. Some men still wore hats, people smoked, there were no cell phones but there were police call boxes. There was still blatant sexism and racism, though less so in previous decades. And police procedures have changed significantly.

One of the most interesting this is to see what was considered rich back then. Frank is amazed at someone paying $1,000 a month in rent, which is much less than I pay now. However, I lived in San Francisco in 1975, paid $300 in rent and could only afford that with a roommate.

The plot is a basic police procedural. For the murder, it is classic investigative techniques of questioning the witnesses and following the evidence. With the stalker, it is much more confrontational with an element of violence and the ending was very exciting.

There are 18 books in the Frank Hastings series, ending with Wilcox death in 1996, and I’m having a wonderful time reading through them in order. Just an interesting point, he also wrote the books upon which the television series “McCloud” was based.

AFTERSHOCK (Pol. Proc-Lt. Frank Hastings-San Francisco-Cont/1975) – G+
Wilcox, Collin – 6th in Frank Hastings series
Random House, ©1975, US Hardcover

[James S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clumsy writing.