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When I first picked up On the Grind, I kept wondering where I’d seen the author’s name before. Then I read his bio and found out that he’s the creator of several popular television series, including The Rockford Files, The A-Team, and 21 Jump Street. With that in mind, I figured that he had to be a pretty decent writer, and I was right.
Shane Scully’s career as a detective on the LAPD ends badly. Charged with felony misconduct, he has no choice but to resign as quietly as he can. The department gives him a decent deal—a deal he doesn’t really deserve. He’s not charged with a crime to save the department’s reputation, but, in the end, his wife leaves him, and his son won’t even talk to him. Shane’s life is pretty much over. Still, he tries to gain employment at other departments, but after taking one look at POLITE (Police Officers Legal Incident Termination Evaluation), no one will hire him.
Forced to turn to the Haven Park PD, Shane is hired and joins the force of one of the most corrupt police departments in the state. Most of the officers are downright dirty and deadly. Shane has to do some heinous acts to prove his loyalty—and he soon realizes that he might not make it out alive. Can he sink any lower?
At first, I thought that On the Grind was just going to be a ho-hum police
procedural, but then Mr. Cannell came flying out of left field and tackled me with a plot twist that had me sitting up and taking notice. My mouth actually dropped open, and I thought, Oh my…this is gonna be good! So I buckled up for the ride—and, boy, what a ride it turned out to be.
Once the story got going, I couldn’t rush through the pages fast enough to see how it would all come together. In fact, I couldn’t see how Shane Scully was going to clear up the mess he ends up in—and that made me even more eager to get to the ending. I simply couldn’t put On the Grind down until the last page.
Believe me—this is no run-of-the-mill, ho-hum tale. It takes a lot to shock a reaction out of me, and Stephen J. Cannell did just that with On the Grind. It’s clever and thrilling, and it’s a must-read for mystery/crime junkies.
