What do you think?
Rate this book
Lieutenant Luis Mendoza #24
Spring of Violence
Lt. Luis Mendoza and the men of the LAPD are deluged by a series of bizarre and unusual cases. — There is a senseless killing of a pharmacist and his family... the death of a young man that leads to the reopening of an old case... the disappearance of a woman who, it turns out, has a lot more money than people realize. — Spring of Violence is yet another top flight police procedural laced with suspense by one of the most popular mystery writers of all time.
- GenresMystery
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
11 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Dell Shannon
154 books23 followersPseudonym 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
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
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 12, 2023
I do wonder if the designers of paperback book covers ever trouble to actually read the book. This one, for example, is presumably showing Lt. Mendoza, dressed in evening clothes, casually holding a gun on his lap. I doubt very much if Mendoza would be caught dead in evening attire, let alone a bow tie, and we all know that he never carries a gun except in extreme emergencies, and sometimes he tries to avoid it even then.
This is another fun read that's jam-packed with all sorts of stuff. (Mendoza had a hunch that they were in for a spate of strange ones....)
Wanda Larson is getting accustomed to all the new men in her life, and they to her. They're tending to leave their little messes for her to clean up--piles of cigarette butts and ashes, and, in the case of Nick Galeano, candy wrappers. He's trying to quit smoking, not for health reasons, but because the price has gone up again.
The day has barely begun, and the first case comes to meet them, rather than the other way around. A downtrodden young woman, who has put up with all kinds of abuse and humiliation from her husband, but finally drew the line when he threatened to kill their children. Hackett makes a careless comment along the lines of "why didn't she just leave him?" So easy to say. Where was she supposed to go, with all her children? How was she supposed to shelter them, feed them? Even if she wanted to go back east to her family, how would they pay the traveling expenses?
Strange case #2: the theft of some very expensive aquarium fish. This one is special because it launches Piggott on a new hobby. They arrive at the store and Piggott can't concentrate on the case in hand; he's fascinated by all the beautiful little fish. The store owner, a true enthusiast, is more interested in talking fish with Piggott than giving the details of the theft. Prudence has a birthday coming up, and Piggott had been wondering what to get her....
Carey of Missing Persons has frequently been the source of cases for Mendoza, but this one takes nearly the entire book before they confirm that there is a body to be found. Mrs. Borchers, a carping old harridan, vanished four months previously from the home where she rented a room. Some time afterwards, a woman had come and collected her suitcases (found ready packed in her room), so it was assumed that she had moved on somewhere. However, her son has no clue to her whereabouts, and why would an eighty-year-old woman move away without telling anyone? Mendoza is not really interested, until he learns that she was very likely in possession of a huge wad of cash. The answer to this one turns out to be very simple, but not at all what they were expecting.
In the previous book, near the end, a young woman was found raped and murdered in her home, with a nasty little note left behind, an illiterate scrawl of "God bless the parole board." This case had been placed in Pending--but then a man is found stabbed in the back, with another similar note tucked in his pocket. They worry at this one throughout most of the book, until Questioned Documents has a chance to look at the note, and tells them some very interesting things about it....
On the lighter side, there's the Case of the Stolen Tombstone (Seven feet high and 500 pounds!) Also the nice little old lady...bankrobber.
T
There's a sad but funny case (funny strange AND funny ha-ha) about the man who was afraid of vampires. This is the incident that makes me feel that Shannon was getting some of her ideas from actual police files (or maybe an actual police officer?) because I had read of an actual, similar case before reading this book. In the case that I read about, the fearful man took various precautions against vampires, including sleeping with a clove of garlic in his mouth--until the night he choked to death on it.
There's a frightening series of incidents with small boys being run down on their bicycles...and all the witnesses swear that it's being done deliberately. An intelligent and cool-headed young victim manages to give Palliser enough information to track down the driver.
A major case involves the killing of father, mother and daughter in their family pharmacy. Clearly they were killed by a heister, who then ran out without taking anything. But why kill them? And why kill all three?. This one will take Mendoza's crystal ball.
(You know, I'm surprised that no one every thought to give Mendoza a crystal ball--just for fun. And it would have looked so nice on his desk!)
And just to show that even the guys in Homicide make mistakes, they cause the lab to waste a deal of time bringing up prints on a wallet...except that they already know that any prints will be juvenile ones, and hence not on record. Oops. There's also the suspect brought in for questioning, left in an interrogation room...and forgotten.
There's a rather unusual situation when a series of Negro prostitutes end up dead--not beaten by by a client, but poisoned with cyanide.
On the personal side, Piggott and Prudence get more enthralled with their fish, especially when it turns out that one is female and full of eggs. How hard can it be to raise a few (hundred) fishies?
Higgins and Steve Dwyer have made the decision to build a darkroom in the garage, so that Steve can explore his new enthusiasm for photography.
Something occurred to me when reading this again--there's a reference to the Mendoza twins and their mixture of Weir, McCann, and Mendoza genes. Shouldn't there be another family there? We have never heard a word about Mendoza's parents, only that they were killed in an accident when he was a baby. Are we to assume that his parents were cousins, both named Mendoza?
This is another fun read that's jam-packed with all sorts of stuff. (Mendoza had a hunch that they were in for a spate of strange ones....)
Wanda Larson is getting accustomed to all the new men in her life, and they to her. They're tending to leave their little messes for her to clean up--piles of cigarette butts and ashes, and, in the case of Nick Galeano, candy wrappers. He's trying to quit smoking, not for health reasons, but because the price has gone up again.
The day has barely begun, and the first case comes to meet them, rather than the other way around. A downtrodden young woman, who has put up with all kinds of abuse and humiliation from her husband, but finally drew the line when he threatened to kill their children. Hackett makes a careless comment along the lines of "why didn't she just leave him?" So easy to say. Where was she supposed to go, with all her children? How was she supposed to shelter them, feed them? Even if she wanted to go back east to her family, how would they pay the traveling expenses?
Strange case #2: the theft of some very expensive aquarium fish. This one is special because it launches Piggott on a new hobby. They arrive at the store and Piggott can't concentrate on the case in hand; he's fascinated by all the beautiful little fish. The store owner, a true enthusiast, is more interested in talking fish with Piggott than giving the details of the theft. Prudence has a birthday coming up, and Piggott had been wondering what to get her....
Carey of Missing Persons has frequently been the source of cases for Mendoza, but this one takes nearly the entire book before they confirm that there is a body to be found. Mrs. Borchers, a carping old harridan, vanished four months previously from the home where she rented a room. Some time afterwards, a woman had come and collected her suitcases (found ready packed in her room), so it was assumed that she had moved on somewhere. However, her son has no clue to her whereabouts, and why would an eighty-year-old woman move away without telling anyone? Mendoza is not really interested, until he learns that she was very likely in possession of a huge wad of cash. The answer to this one turns out to be very simple, but not at all what they were expecting.
In the previous book, near the end, a young woman was found raped and murdered in her home, with a nasty little note left behind, an illiterate scrawl of "God bless the parole board." This case had been placed in Pending--but then a man is found stabbed in the back, with another similar note tucked in his pocket. They worry at this one throughout most of the book, until Questioned Documents has a chance to look at the note, and tells them some very interesting things about it....
On the lighter side, there's the Case of the Stolen Tombstone (Seven feet high and 500 pounds!) Also the nice little old lady...bankrobber.
T
There's a sad but funny case (funny strange AND funny ha-ha) about the man who was afraid of vampires. This is the incident that makes me feel that Shannon was getting some of her ideas from actual police files (or maybe an actual police officer?) because I had read of an actual, similar case before reading this book. In the case that I read about, the fearful man took various precautions against vampires, including sleeping with a clove of garlic in his mouth--until the night he choked to death on it.
There's a frightening series of incidents with small boys being run down on their bicycles...and all the witnesses swear that it's being done deliberately. An intelligent and cool-headed young victim manages to give Palliser enough information to track down the driver.
A major case involves the killing of father, mother and daughter in their family pharmacy. Clearly they were killed by a heister, who then ran out without taking anything. But why kill them? And why kill all three?. This one will take Mendoza's crystal ball.
(You know, I'm surprised that no one every thought to give Mendoza a crystal ball--just for fun. And it would have looked so nice on his desk!)
And just to show that even the guys in Homicide make mistakes, they cause the lab to waste a deal of time bringing up prints on a wallet...except that they already know that any prints will be juvenile ones, and hence not on record. Oops. There's also the suspect brought in for questioning, left in an interrogation room...and forgotten.
There's a rather unusual situation when a series of Negro prostitutes end up dead--not beaten by by a client, but poisoned with cyanide.
On the personal side, Piggott and Prudence get more enthralled with their fish, especially when it turns out that one is female and full of eggs. How hard can it be to raise a few (hundred) fishies?
Higgins and Steve Dwyer have made the decision to build a darkroom in the garage, so that Steve can explore his new enthusiasm for photography.
Something occurred to me when reading this again--there's a reference to the Mendoza twins and their mixture of Weir, McCann, and Mendoza genes. Shouldn't there be another family there? We have never heard a word about Mendoza's parents, only that they were killed in an accident when he was a baby. Are we to assume that his parents were cousins, both named Mendoza?
June 14, 2008
This Dell Shannon police procedural is well worth reading. Her LAPD books, starring Luis Mendoza, follow the homicide department over the course of many years. In this book it's learned how Sergeant Matt Piggott ends up with his collection of tropical fish. The best part of these books is that the people in them are people, not stereotypes, and Linnington, writing under her Dell Shannon pseudonym, makes them interesting, even in the small bits of life she includes in her stories.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews