Say Goodnight to the Boys in Blue

McEachin's most original and strangest plot yet unfolds in his fourth novel (after The Heroin Factor), a bizarre tale of murder, mayhem, and poetic justice in a small New Jersey town in 1950. At once a dark satire and a black comedy, this clever thriller has the wacky police force of Elton Head beginning the midnight shift in a town where nothing ever happens. And it's a good thing the town is slow, because the cops are so inept they couldn't catch a cold. Danny Carlsson is a rookie on the force, a walking beat patrolman with conscience and heart who hates his job, stuck on the graveyard shift with the seven laziest, most corrupt colleagues. But on the night of December 19, 1950, everything changes. Danny befriends an old black wino named Soldier Boy, puzzled by the wino's prophecy that Danny will soon ""be the last man standing."" After Soldier Boy is brutally beaten to death by a racist tavern owner, Danny is outraged when his fellow cops let the killer (their pal) go free, citing self-defense as the whitewash for murder. As the winter night wears on, however, peculiar events occur that give Danny an indirect but effective chance to seek both justice and revenge. The other seven policemen reveal themselves to be drunks, liars, philanderers, thieves and criminally stupid, but it's plain bad luck that does them in. The oddball characters are drawn with verve and textured well beyond stereotype. Na ve Danny is also flawed enough that he's not simply Mr. Do-Nice. Then there's a gruff desk sergeant with a bad heart, an alcoholic officer who won't wear his dentures, a cop who sports a white tuxedo and dreams of being a tap dancer and another who wears pajamas and carries a pillow. In this delightfully loony and suspenseful story, everybody gets exactly what they deserve, and Elton Head will never be the same again. (Sept.)