The Long Arm of the Law, ed. Martin Edwards
Okay, okay, all cops are bastards, but in crime fiction they don’t have to be. Of course these stories are mostly in the idealised mode where police just want to help and a lone girl can pop into the police station for protection — the world I thought I was growing up in, in fact.
It’s not a stand-out for me in terms of the stories or the quality thereof, but I was pretty entertained by Christianna Brand’s story with the Great Detective, and with Inspector Cockrill butting in and dismantling the whole story.
As ever, an interesting survey of the genre on this particular topic. And it includes a short story from E.C.R. Lorac, a rarity (though that one didn’t especially stand out to me).
Police procedurals and mysteries are like romance novels: sensible people all agree it’s a fantasy. It’s a nice fantasy. No one gets syphilis or has dentures in Regency romance, and the cops are trying to do the right thing in police mysteries.