Flower power and bogus money

It is the mid 1970s. The setting is Santa Monica, California. Rees is an ex-con with REALLY bad luck - and longtime experienced police detective Al Krug is ready to believe all kinds of bad things about him. Krug's partner, Casey Kellog, is young and a bit more open minded but the race is on to find out who is murdering people left and right, and who is printing bogus money.

This book was originally copyrighted in 1975 and, even though 40 years old, holds its age well. There are a few anachronisms but police work is police work, even from that long ago.

The characters were well described. The timeframe - in the wild 70s - was shown in all its shabby glory.

This was a twisty, turny police procedural and it was fun finding the clues...as the characters found them.

NOTE: I received this book from Brash Books through Net Galley in exchange for my honest review.

Susannah Screaming is the second time we are treated to drama and intrigue with police detectives Casey Kellog and Al Krug.
This time Kellog and Krug (although that sounds like the name of a law firm!) is involved a hit and run, murders and counterfeit money. The hit and run is particularly gruesome (I will leave you to read it yourself, but let me just say it's clear the victim was supposed to be very, very dead.
What happens in the morgue is so absurd, you can't miss it.
Would you believe this book originally saw the light of day almost 40 years ago?! It doesn't feel dated at all. Detectives are the same, no matter what decade they hail from.
What is Susannah Screaming about? About a very enjoyable detective romp with action and shock upon shock!

Synopsis/blurb….

THE SECOND BLOCKBUSTER THRILLER IN THE KRUG & KELLOG SERIES…WHICH BECAME THE HIT TV SHOW “THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO”

It’s the turbulent 1970s, a time of social upheaval. University-educated ex-surfer Casey Kellog is the youngest homicide detective on the force. He’s teamed up with Al Krug, an older, tougher, street-wise cop resistant to change. Their latest case involves a vicious hit-and-run death: a driver in a Mercedes chases a motorcyclist, hits him, and then backs up over him again, making certain that he’s road kill. The investigation takes a bizarre turn when the victim is undressed in the morgue and the two cops discover that his corpse is plastic-wrapped in twenty-dollar bills…

There’s a lot to like in this re-published 1975 book from Carolyn Weston…….length, pace, plot, characters and setting.

We have a cop team - Krug – older, suspicious, cynical, jaded….and Kellog - younger, fresh, idealistic, more open but not naive. As Weston’s books spawned the TV series – The Streets of San Francisco – it was easy for me to picture a fresh-faced Michael Douglas and a grizzled, schnozzle-faced Karl Malden, whilst reading. The TV series ran from 1972 until 1977, petering out after Douglas left the show in 1976.

We have a vehicular homicide and a witness. Our witness is a new kid in town – Paul Rees. Suspicion quickly falls on him as he is a parolee with a few secrets he would rather not disclose to the cops. His initial half-truths, evasiveness and outright lies, soon have him as public enemy number 1 in Detective Krug’s eyes. Our dead male has a large amount of counterfeit cash cling-filmed to his torso. Krug is adamant that Rees is part of a gang of forgers that the FBI have been chasing for a while and not as he claims an innocent witness.

Rees meets the other witness to the homicide, an attractive woman – Susannah Roche for a coffee and a subsequent date involving a meal before she spends a few hours in his motel room. Susannah shortly after returning to her apartment plunges from her 10th floor window to her death.

Roche’s death so soon after sex with Rees reinforces Krug’s conviction that Rees is involved. Kellog is less convinced. Our second half of the book sees Rees becoming increasingly panicked as the police seem to be focusing on him. He starts trying to unpick the net that seems to be closing in on him. With the gang leader eliminating partners for a larger cut of the pie, Rees with his parolee status is the ideal fall guy.

Great action, great characters, great dialogue, an interesting puzzle, a fast pace and not over-long. Pretty much a perfect read at 220-odd pages.

5 from 5

Carolyn Weston’s 1972 book Poor, Poor Ophelia was the first Casey Kellog book and inspired the pilot which eventually morphed into The Streets of San Francisco. There was a third book in the series – Rouse the Demon (1976). Brash Books have re-published the first two and Demon will appear shortly.

My thanks to them for putting this one up on Net Galley.

Brash Books website is here. There a wee bit on author Carolyn Weston here.

This is one of a series that inspired the mid 1970s TV show "Streets of San Francisco." If you missed the show, or haven't seen it is re-runs, it is completely of its time; the biases, trendy language and generational contretemps are fully exploited. The book has all the same flavor and flourish. The pairing of a seasoned cop with a college-educated younger one provides as much tension for the story as the actual crime. This was always meant to be a fast, light story with colorful characters and a mystery that is almost solved until the next curveball comes at the reader. If you like your mysteries steeped in a different time period, in this case 1970s Los Angeles - fully realized, this one has it all.

Susannah Screaming by Carolyn Weston is a 2015 Brash Books Publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What a wonderful caper style mystery set in San Francisco in the 1970's featuring Al Krug and Casey Kellogg.

When Rees decides to do his laundry at a rather unusual time of the morning he witnesses a hit and run car crash. Badly shaken, he calls the police, who discovers there is another witness, a young woman named Susannah. The veteran officer, Krug takes an immediate dislike to Rees, pegs him as con-man and therefore somehow involved, while Casey, relatively new to the force, tries to take a less cynical view of things.

When you read this book, you will need to stay focused on the plot, because this is not just a run of the mill police procedural, but is instead a case dealing with a very well thought out counterfeit ring, so there are lots of sudden shifts and changes, and twist and turns, which gives the story a caper style atmosphere.

I loved the era the story was written in, and the story is top notch. Despite the out of date lingo, ( the Fuzz! LOL! ) the story itself stands the test of time wonderfully. I was challenged, engaged, engrossed, and thoroughly entertained. Krug is crusty, cynical and can read people quite well, but his jaded attitude can hinder him at times, while Casey has a more open mind and is able to look at the situation with a more unbiased eye, but he is also misses some ques, his partner picks up due to his experience. This is what makes them a great team and I loved the banter between them.

For those of you too young to remember, this book series was the basis for the popular cop show “The Streets of San Francisco” which starred Karl Malden and Michael Douglas and aired from 1972-1977.

Overall this is a solid crime drama and I enjoyed spending my Saturday afternoon with Krug and Kellogg. 4 stars

Non stop action starting with a hit and run and a compromised bystander whose life gradually becomes worse. Illustrates some prejudice in the police system but also a dogged determination to catch the perpetrators. Everything works out in the end.

The book from which the TV programme and film ‘Streets of San Francisco’ was derived

I find it interesting that really apart from the occasional mention of triplicate copies and typewriters, how easily this book translates into a modern story. Well crafted stories can stand the test of time, and this is well crafted.

It is a police procedural set, obviously, in San Francisco, around the 1960s with the Haight Ashbury area just setting up shop and parties that take place in strangely decorated homes with funny cigarettes and a distinct lack of forensics - apart from fingerprints and maybe saliva.

We have the now, common, police partners with different personalities and reactions to crime and criminal behaviours.

We have corruption, bullying and some drugs and guns of course, this being the USA. And little understanding of the hippy scene with its tolerances for what was then considered deviant behaviours by the police and other members of society. Much of it centred around the art and music world. And those wannabes who wanted to be part of this hip world but just a little too old and thus considered as not quite one of the scene.

As a well written story I must give it four and if it had been written today I would have given it more for getting the atmosphere of those times right! However, as it was actually written in this era it certainly echoed the sentiments and is worth reading as somewhat of a classic police procedural that set the target for those that followed.

I received this book via NetGalley to give an honest review.
I do enjoy murder mysteries trying to figure out who done the crime is always fun to read. This story started off kind of slow even with the hit and run happening pretty quickly. I think the only character I kind of liked was Rees. He is an ex-con and he gets pulled into a web of deceit pretty quickly. Himself along with another person are the witness to the hit and run. Rees seems to be telling the truth on what he saw, but the other witness seems to be holding something back. She comes across as a shady character and it is not because she is a so called "actress". Two cops are investigating the hit and run death but one cop Krug who has been on the force for a long time believes Rees is not telling the whole truth, he is guilty of something. Krug's partner Casey is pretty fresh behind the ears but doesn't believe Rees is really involved with anything to do with the murder or the counterfeit money that has come into play. It is really a race against time to figure out what is going on who is murdering people and what exactly is Rees's role in it all. Is he just an ex-con that picked the wrong time and place to be, or is he in the loop with other criminals? There is some action through out the story nothing to much I think the best action was with the chasing of the U-haul truck with Casey in pursuit. I dislike books that use the r word it is something that should not be said and that even goes when describing a child, this helped drop my rating down even though it was only used once I think the author could have picked a better way to describe said child. With this book being set in the 70's some way the words were told and used I had to get use to like teenybopper, and groovy you don't hear these words now a days so when they are in a book you have to remember the time period.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1338743879

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/review/R1NOCPJHG8AMK0/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1ZUU4Z9AOYKKG/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/books/39117512/Susannah-Screaming-(The-Krug-and-Kellog-Thriller-Series-Book-2)/reviews/4828671

Booklikes: http://anauling.booklikes.com/post/1205797/post

I enjoyed that this work was police procedural but not so much that it was a bore. The plot worked well and the characters were likeable (or not likeable in some instances but that was on purpose, lol). I love the first chapter, it really got me interested in reading the rest which is what you want!