I picked this up because it's a while since I've read any US detective fiction. It's a long time since I saw the Steve McQueen movie and all I really remember is the car chase. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the novel had originally been published under a completely different title - one that satisfies my Morrissey obsessions to boot.
It's not only the title that changed in transition from page to screen. New York became San Francisco and the Irish cop hero Lieutenant Clancy became the far more Hollywood Frank Bullitt, a name so hard it spits nails in your eyes even before you picture Steve McQueen in the role. Actually, the hero of the novel is a little more cerebral. He's not really a tough guy and the only real battles he fights are against the politicians and bureaucrats who seek to make his job far more difficult than it ought to be. (More power to him!) He's a thinker who puzzles his way through a complex cover up despite some tricky red herrings and genuinely surprising plot twists. Mute Witness delivers exactly what you want from a crime novel and at under 200 pages doesn't outstay its welcome either. It's faster than most car chases...
