Extra Kill

Lieutenant Luis Mendoza #3

by Dell Shannon

Lieutenant Luis Mendoza is tasked with solving a double murder, shrouded in strange rites. Acting on one of his famous hunches, he is drawn into the world behind the glitter of Hollywood and into the Temple of Mystic Truth. There he finds cultists Martin and Cara Kingman, who turn out to be less than spiritual . . .

Genres: Mystery, Procedural, Crime

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Pseudonym of Elizabeth Linington.

Barbara "Elizabeth" Linington (March 11, 1921 – April 5, 1988) was an American novelist. She was awarded runner-up scrolls for best first mystery novel from the Mystery Writers of America for her 1960 novel, Case Pending, which introduced her most popular series character, LAPD Homicide Lieutenant Luis Mendoza. Her 1961 book, Nightmare, and her 1962 novel, Knave of Hearts, another entry in the Mendoza series, were both nominated for Edgars in the Best Novel category. Regarded as the "Queen of the Procedurals," she was one of the first women to write police procedurals — a male-dominated genre of police-story writing.

Besides crime, Linington also took interest in archaeology, the occult, gemstones, antique weapons and languages. Linington was also a conservative political activist who was an active member of the John Birch Society

Reviews

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the third book of Luis Mendoza's police procedure find the department disturbed by the death of a patrolman. On the surface, it appears it was a random shooting by a group the teens on a robbery spree. Luis later learns that a man is missing who lived in an apartment visited by the patrol unit that evening. He starts an investigation and finds the body of the missing man hurried under the apartment. The inquiry takes him to a religious cult and the movies. The answer will surprise you. I highly recommend this book and series.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed the few I've read of these. They always seem to hinge on some mighty big coincidences, but that just seems part of their charm after reading a few. Mendoza is a great main character, kind of a Holmes type but with a lot of eccentricities that make him more interesting. This time an officer was killed and it looked open and shut. However the partner of the slain officer had other thoughts, just enough to get Mendoza to take a second look. When he does he finds a second body and just knows they are connected, though nobody else thinks so.

Highly recommended, a great character plus an entertaining mystery is a good combination.

[Diane K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorites from this series. Good plot, good characters.

It starts out with a laugh. A rookie patrolman, on his very first solo cruise, spots a fancy sports car driving just slightly over the speed limit, and happily jumps to it. The driver is a rather dapper Hispanic man, who does not attempt to dispute the charge. He's accompanied by a redhead who, for some reason, is having a fit of giggles.

It's not until the end of his shift that he learns what he's done. His horrified visions of a career quashed before it has even begun is eased when he formally meets Lt. Luis Mendoza. Because of this, he is emboldened to come over his superior's head to Mendoza and lay before him his views on the recent tragic shooting of his partner. The rookie has been thinking and thinking, and he just doesn't believe that the juveniles, run down and captured following a store heist, could possibly have had time to do the drive-by shooting at the police cruiser. Mendoza, wanting to be very sure of this case, backtracks and checks every single incident reported by the two officers up to the shooting, but finds nothing of interest. Checking a drunk-and-disorderly call at a small apartment complex, he gets railroaded into checking out an apartment that has just become available, as the former tenant, Brooke Twelvetrees, had just left unexpectedly.

Several days later, in casual conversation at lunch, Mendoza hears the name Twelvetrees again. The man in question had robbed the Temple of Mystic Truth (Mendoza: "What is mystic about the truth?") and vanished. Mendoza is convinced that the two cases are connected, and launches into a very intriguing case.

A fun side issue involves Mendoza's cat, Bast, and her three new kittens. Sheba has been given to Alison, as a Christmas present. Mendoza kept Nefertiti, but ended up also keeping the young tom kitten, who is possessed of a devil, so no one else would want him. El Senor will become a major secondary character, if that makes sense. Mendoza calls him Senor (Mister) for convenience--sometimes he's Mister Mysterious, or Mister Stupid, or Mister Malicious, depending on the circumstances. At one point Mendoza arrives home to find that one of his neighbors has been in to check on the cats and left a succinct little note: "He's learned to open cupboards."

One of the things I love about Dell Shannon is her frequent side commentaries on human nature, and this book has a very extensive one. One of the characters is an aging former actress (only she's not "former", she just taking a little rest between contracts. A little twenty-year rest.) Trying to track her down for routine questioning, Sgt Hackett meets up with her agent, who embarks on a long and fascinating monologue regarding both actors and beautiful people in general, how they act, their attitudes, how they deal with the inevitable passage of time. Interesting to compare this to the present day, over half a century later. I don't think things have changed that much.

Another cool matter is Sgt Hackett's side story, as he meets up with a young woman who might or might not be a suspect in the case. ("Another good man gone wrong....")

This will be one of the last of the series that focuses exclusively on one case. Following the next one, Shannon will have her characters consolidated and will have cases wandering in all directions. Some will be solved in one book, others might carry over into the next, some may end up in Pending. Most of the focus will be on Mendoza, of course, but we will see the other characters grow and change and respond to outside circumstances. And El Senor will pick up a few vices, and his sister Sheba will learn to pounce on unsuspecting passers-by....

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another interesting set of cases! The book begins with a rookie cop giving Lt. Mendoza a ticket for speeding. Later, he is horrified to find out just who he ticketed; but after meeting Mendoza, he decides to bring him a problem which his own boss has pooh-poohed. After breaking up a D&D the rookie and his partner go back on patrol and the rookie's partner is shot and killed. A group of teenagers have been accused. But the rookie has worked at figuring out the timing, and doesn't think it could be the kids. Out of curiousity, Mendoza follows their route to see if he gets any feelings about it. While at the complex where the D&D was, the landlady grabs him and practically forces him to look at an apartment recently vacated by Mr. Twelvetrees. He finally convinces her he's not looking for an apartment and escapes. At lunch, he runs into the men who are looking into a theft at the Temple of Mystic Truth, and they mention that the suspected thief is the cult's treasurer, Twelvetrees. Needless to say, Mendoza pricks up his ears at that, and begins poking around in their case as well. When Mendoza finds Twelvetrees' body and a gun which may be the one that killed the rookie's partner, he decides the two cases are related and spends the rest of the book trying to figure out how and who. The meaning of the title is made clear quite close to the end.



Possible spoiler:


Sgt Art Hackett meets Angel, the neglected and psychologically abused daughter of one of the suspects, and starts to fall for her. Since Hackett has a wife named Angel in the later books I've read, this is probably their first meeting.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shannon deserves more contemporary readers, The plot here is pretty good, leaving the reader to struggle with a number of possible culprits, all of whom have the proverbial motive, means and opportunity (at least at some point in the story). I think the clues are in the text so it would be possible to guess who the culprit is, though I am not positive. (I guessed wrong). The reader also gets a good sense of Los Angeles fifty or so years ago.

Luis Mendoza is a good protagonist. He is quirky, opinionated, and even has some of the annoying arrogance of Hercule Poirot. His conjectures are orderly and the reader gets to try to untangle things with him.

The real strength of this book, and Shannon's work in general, is the depth of characterization. Martin and Mona Kingman, Mona Ferne and Angel Carstairs and even Brooke Twelvetrees (whom we never meet alive) are well-crafted and complex. Even some of the minor characters have presence, including Sgt. Hackett and Ferne's agent, Stanley Horwitz. Only Mendoza's girlfriend, Alison Weir, is two-dimensional, but she also does not play much of a role in what happens.

There are still too many policemen to keep track of. They are more multicultural than one usually finds in detective stories of this era; surnames are Hispanic, Irish, Jewish and more, though there is none of the black and Asian presence on the LAPD that we will see much later in Michael Connelly's books.

[Janet Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

LAPD rookie cop Frank Walsh made history when he stopped a speeder and the man in the car turned out to be Homicide Lieutenant Luis Mendoza.
After the rookie's partner is killed in a supposed drive-by shooting, he remembered how well Mendoza took the ticket. Such an intelligent man needed to be consulted, he decided. Walsh was sure the death was more than fate.
And so what turned out to be a cold-blooded murder came under scrutiny.
A side story of romance begins when Mendoza's Sargent Hackett meets his Angel. The two stories collide into one and this police procedural comes to a satisfying conclusion. Romance and justice merge in this satisfying novel.

[Sep · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ms. Shannon never failed to please. The crimes are complicated or are they connected? An aging movie star might have clues. An aging pair of grifters are running a racket or is it a religion? Hacket falls in love. All the threads are expertly drawn together for a delightful climax.

[Loretta · Rating 3 out of 5]

You need to remember this was a different time.

Smoking features very prominently, as do the attitudes of the 60's.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#3 in the Luis Mendoza series. Mendoza is made aware of the shooting death of a patrol officer by the officer's partner who believes the boys arrested for the shooting could not be guilty. Meanwhile, a con artist has apparently made off with the bank deposit of a marginally legal Temple. One of his flights of intuition has Luis link the two cases. Sgt. Hackett feels sorry for the ugly duckling daughter of an aging actress with ties to the Temple and introduces her to Mendoza's girlfriend Alison, who runs a charm school.

Luis Mendoza series - The elegant Luis Mendoza again links hunches with facts to track down first, a cop killer, and second, the murderer of one Brooke J. Twelvetrees. The psychic gifts of Madame Cara of the Temple of the Mystic Truth, the unpleasant proclivities of Brooke J., the situation between a movie has-been and her daughter, give Mendoza opportunity to pursue every niggling detail and zero in.