Grootka

by Jon A. Jackson

Book Overview

A retired and grouchy cop returns to Detroit's twisted dark alleys to prove to the bureaucratic rookies that a corpse he found is linked to a murder case from the 1960s. Reprint. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440211514
• ISBN13: 9780440211518
• Release Date: July 1992
• Publisher: Dell Publishing Company
• Length: 337 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A quiet slice of noir

Grootka is a marvelous yarn -- a well-told tale twisting and turning through the dark streets of Detroit as well through the murky soul of the title character. Dark and brooding, it tells the story of a retired Detroit cop whose accomplishments during his tenure on the force have given him near mythic standing. Imagine, if you can, Luca Brasi packing a badge.Detective Sgt. "Fang" Mulheisen takes a backseat througout much of this novel, his powerful intellect grinding away at the clues Grootka feeds him while Mul slugs away at the apparently unrelated murders of a Grootka acquaintance plus a wealthy elderly socialite. All this while balancing the career-threatening antics of Grootka against his own personal code.The novel opens with Grootka finding a body while riding with the abandoned car ("Ay Ban") man for old times sake. Grootka recognizes the body, and identifies it as "Books" Meldrim, a former snitch, with whom he shares a decades old dark secret. During the investigation of the body in the trunk, Grootka tells Mul of a sensational murder from the 1950s, and how Books joined him in "solving" it in a typically violent Grootka fashion.Jackson blends local history and the sights and sounds of Detroit into this cunningly effective procedural. Grootka is a lost soul seeking to save himself, and in his attempt at salvation, threatens Mul's career, and life. It's a tough, fast-paced novel peopled with interesting characters and leavened with a smattering of local history and gentle social commentary. Like all Jackson books, you put *Grootka* down satisfied, and perhaps feeling a little smarter, thinking you have learned something about people and history while absorbed in its pages.

Tough and Funny

This is what comes of not reading a series "in order." I recently read Jackson's fine "A Man With an Ax." An important part of the story was reminiscences on long-dead Detective Grootka, the toughest, meanest rogue cop in living memory of the Detroit police force. I was so taken with Grootka; I was delighted to find the author had devoted a book to him.Young detective "Fang" Mulheisen, over-loaded with cases, seeks some help from now-retired Grootka because the victim, "Books" Meldrim, was well known to the old man. Grootka insists the present murder is tied to an old dead case that happened some twenty years ago. Mulheisen is under fierce pressure to abandon inquiries into the old case and take care of his present workload. Grootka dusts off his blue suit and red tie (that has not been unknotted for 20 years), straps on his .45 and goes to work. Rogue, unorthodox, and brutal, Grootka prowls the mean streets again. The book is fast-paced, complex, and beautifully plotted. There is poignancy in Grootka's stubborn unwillingness to give any quarter to his advancing age. Not a wasted word! "Grootka" is available used at a reasonable price. So do add this one to your collection of Fang Mulheisen stories. Recommended.

For the most distinguished of taste, artful, haunting.

This twin cities' detective runs across a crotchety old mentor (Sterling Hayden) who solved the murder of a child from the 70's, or did he?. The plotting is first rate. The prose are poetry and the humor is at times much funnier than Elmore Leonard. This is a fantastic fourth addition to a classic series.