Always a Cop

The previous note indicated that coincidence is a dangerous tool in the hands of an author. So it was in the case of “Always a Cop.” Paul Wagner used it to get his story started and it was almost enough to make me quit reading his book. However, I picked it up again and got very much interested in the characters he developed. The story is a two-fold mystery that piques the interest of three retired policemen. 

Wagner describes the men to a “T” and with all their frailties and foibles they set about trying to find the bad guys responsible for the unrelated crimes. Beauregard or Beau is the main protagonist and he has to be one of the biggest advocates for Viagra as he is on call for many of the women he contacts both in his boarding house and when he rides his bicycle around town.

His partner, Finncannon, suffers from Alzheimer’s as he sits in his retirement home. Beau visits him and at times they reminisce. With the disappearance of a high priority girl whose father is a legislator, the game is afoot and the old cops get involved.

One of the minor characters in Beau’s past life comes with the tale of his granddaughter who has disappeared and he would like Beau’s help in finding her.

The third member of the “cop squad” is Matso, a Japanese-American  golfer that knows no bounds to his love of the game. He is tasked with going to Mexico to run down either info or pictures of the girl who has gone missing. His adventures are almost comic relief to the story.

As the story progresses and the clues are examined by all the old cops and Beau’s daughter who is also a detective, some unusual twists occur including Beau being knocked off his bicycle and subsequently suffering temporary amnesia.

The story takes on a global nature as one particular clue, an uncut diamond, links the various young girl murders around the world.

In what a reader expects, the two crimes are solved and Beau finds that he is asked to find another person setting us up for a continuation of the old cop story.

Though not a page turner, the time spent reading this novel will fill those hours when ennui sets in.