Kop [Hardcover]

This novel follows Juno, a cop who could be located in Chicago, New Orleans, or New York, but happens to live on another world in another time. The dynamics feel familiar, but the new setting adds another level of interest an intrigue to this story. You could imagine Juno being played by Bogart -- a tough, flawed, but ultimately worthy hero.

I love the dialogue in this novel. The language, pace, and rhythm of the conversation feels realistic. The story moves along at a rapid pace, but still takes the time to get to know the characters. Most of all, Hammond seems to have some real insight into the way people think and react to various situations. There is a streak of optimism in his writing, even though the situations his characters find themselves in is pretty challenging. In that way, the book is uplifting.

I enjoy good crime novels, and I like good science fiction. This is a winner on both counts!

When I was growing up, I had two literary genre loves. I cut my teeth on the hard-boiled private eye fiction produced by Gold Medal, pulled to those books by the evocative covers drawn by Robert McGinnis (who could pass up scantily-clad women holding pistols?). I still pick up novels published by Hard Case Crime because McGinnis is still out there drawing some of those covers.

I also loved the world of science fiction. But I was torn, as most of us were in those days, between two polarities. Robert A. Heinlein wrote hard-edged science fiction that mostly came true over the next sixty years. Andre Norton wrote a more fanciful type of science fiction that didn't mire itself in emerging technology or social stratification that could come about because of it. She just imagined wild and fun places to plunk her heroes down in and give them villains to defeat.

There was nothing like a hard-fisted private eye on the trail of a strong villain when rendered in the muscular prose of someone like Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. Also, there was nothing like sitting back envisioning future worlds built and peopled by gifted science fiction writers.

I would read books in one field, then switch over to books from the other field. During those days, it seemed like the two literary genres would never meet. At least not successfully.

After reading the description of KOP, Warren Hammond's first novel, I knew I had to try it out. It had all the earmarks of the fiction I love to read in both fields.

The main character is Juno Mozambe, a corrupt cop that still has enough humanity about him to win over readers who are familiar with film noir. Juno could have stepped from one of those books or movies that came out when that top of tale was in its heyday. He's a very complete character by those standards, and Hammond plays him fairly all the way down the line. In fact, that character could have been lifted from the book and thrown into Prohibition-era Chicago, Mafia-infested New York, or San Francisco's Chinatown Tong stories and fit perfectly.

Juno has worked his way up through KOP (Koba Office of Police) by supporting and defending Paul Chang, who is the police chief. Chang taught Juno everything there was about corruption. Juno became a bag man for the police department, going to drug dealers and cathouses to collect bribe money.

But there's currently a power struggle going on inside the upper echelons of the Koba society. This is usually the meat of any film noir story that involves political office, crime syndicates, and evolving economic problems.

Hammond brought Juno to life well. Within ten or fifteen pages, I felt I'd known the character all my life. He could've been one of the characters Humphrey Bogart would have played in the movies. But the reader isn't bogged down with Juno's backstory all it one time. Rather, that story seems to be sipped through very thin straw. Readers are only given enough about Juno to keep them interested and let them know the stakes that he's playing for as the story develops.

The corruption is there. The political favors are there. The organized crime guys are there. This book doesn't miss a beat when it comes to that tough guy image. It even pairs Juno with a young female rookie cop with something to prove to the world ala Dirty Harry.

Maggie Orzo is a young woman descended from the wealthiest families on Koba. She's young and idealistic, but Juno also finds out that she will pursue her own ambitions and passions, which include being one of the best and highest-ranking policeman in the department. I think she's a very impressive character and I can't wait to see how Hammond treats her in the sequel coming out sometime next year. It's supposed to be called Ex-KOP.

Hammond's world, Koba, came to life for me in this book as well. I tried to imagine what it would be like to have a world constantly on the verge of being swallowed up by the jungle that fought to reclaim all the civilized areas every day. On Koba, there's only five hours of sunlight followed by a twenty-two hours of night. The predominant life form on the planet tends to be reptilian and tropical. Hammond's descriptions of an everyday life that includes street cleaners using flame throwers to torch creeping vegetation, stratified canopy life among the trees, and the Koba River that flows through everything anchored me to this world. By the time I'd finished reading the book, I felt like I'd actually gone to an alien world and spent hard time there.

The economic disparity between the haves and the have-nots addresses today's world, but also any Third World nations struggling to simply survive. Past successes of the culture live on in the city, but the desperation of those who've never had that taste of success is palpable. These are the common threads that run through every culture in the world today, and that have ever existed. Hammond obviously loves writing about the ideology of economics and class struggle.

Although experienced readers probably won't find anything new in this novel, it's still an amazing read. I picked it up, turned through a few pages, and was walking a beat on alien turf with a damaged and paranoid police detective that I at first abhorred and later came to love and respect. KOP went down as smoothly as a cool drink on a hot, summer day, and it was filled with enough twists and turns to keep me on my toes throughout.

As stated, Hammond already has a second book in the series in the works. Personally, I can't wait. Although the first book finished up all the plots that the author had shaken out, there are still yet a number of problems and character actions to work out. Not to mention, Hammond built the world big. There should be a lot more stories here to tell. I just hope he gets to tell them all.

Comparisons to authors like Dashiell Hammett and a fantastic cover by artist Chris McGrath were the initial things that made Warren Hammond's debut novel, KOP, catch my attention. It seemed to be just the kind of novel that I wanted to lose myself in, something with action and intrigue. Buying this book was money well spent.

Warren Hammond has entered the fiction scene with a stunning debut novel. Juno Mozambe, a dirty street cop who is getting too old to be the successful enforcer that he used to be, reluctantly takes on a murder investigation, and a new partner, at the request of former partner, now head of KOP, Paul Chang. The setting for this novel is the year 2787 on a colonial planet named Lagarto. Lagarto was a once rich planet attracting colonists from earth willing to make the 16 year journey for the promise of guaranteed wealth. Unfortunately the smuggling off-world of Lagarto's chief export crashed the economy and for decades the planet has decayed into a world populated by a few rich and many poor. Into this world crime and corruption flourished.

Despite those minor science fiction elements, KOP is gritty, hard-boiled crime noir at its best. Juno is your true anti-hero. He is a character that reminded me of Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue. Credit Hammond for being able to write a character who is likeable despite his surplus of flaws. As Juno gets sucked in to the evergrowing complexities of the murder case, the reader is treated to flashbacks to a time when Juno and his partner Paul Chang were mere beat cops and allows us to see their rise to power to the point of taking over KOP and making it the corrupt police institution that it currently is. These flashbacks serve to create some interesting background history but are done in such a way that they also tie into what is currently going on in the book and in no way detract from the story. In fact, the flashback scenes are some of the most interesting and intense in the novel.

KOP is a tale filled with mystery, suspense, and a fair share of brutality. The world in which Juno Mozambe circulates is not a safe one, not a happy one. Bad things happen and because of his enforcer history the bad things sometimes happen because of Juno. Despite this, KOP is also a story about redemption, or possible redemption, and the struggle for individuals to attempt to make a difference in a world of deceit and corruption.

I found Warren Hammond's writing to be fast-paced and his characters strongly written. The story flows very well and has just the right tenor of suspense that you want to keep turning the pages. Hammond has a sequel, Ex-KOP, that has already been written and is set for release in February 2008. Having enjoyed the dichotomy of Juno Mozabme and his new partner, Maggie Orzo, I am really looking forward to the continuation of their story and of the events that began in this first tale. If you like crime tales of any kind, KOP is well worth the time.