On the Grind, A Shane Scully Novelfiber optic by Stephen J. Cannell; 2008; 306 pages; St Martins Press, New York, NY; 978-0-312-36628-5; 4/2/09-4/2/09

Shane Scully is thrown off the force for committing a felony and blackmailing someone.  He is thrown out of his house for having an affair with a movie star.  He is scum of his son, who has put him on a pedestal.  Shane Scully has gone bad.  He lands on the Park Haven PD, the most corrupt city government and police force seen since Assault on Precinct 13.  Their is a cafeteria full of graft and opportunities for kickbacks in the small town.

The problem with this book and having as familiar a character as Shane Scully and his family.  Is that as soon as Shane was thrown off the force and Alexa kicked him out I suspected he was being given cover for going deep undercover.  I was right, but the author had almost convinced me I was wrong with the opening part of a chapter.  Once it was established that Shane was indeed deep undercover it became a fairly typical episode in the life of Shane Scully, he wants out but must stay to fight the good fight, he has to figure out how to look bad while staying good, has to convince his wife and superiors to leave him in just one more day.  That is not to say that it was not exciting and a fun read it was, but now the Scully novels are starting to look like one of Mr. Cannells’ TV shows, you know exactly what BA is going to do and none of our favorite characters are going to die.  It was a fun quick read.  RRR