“V as in Victim,” The Library’s Newest Crime Classic

This is a guest post by Zach Klitzman, a writer-editor in the Library’s Publishing Office.

“All we want are the facts, ma’am,” from “Dragnet.”

“Book ’em, Danno,” from “Hawaii Five-O.”

David Caruso flipping on his sunglasses before offering a pithy line in “CSI: Miami.”

These and other cop-show catchphrases have their roots in Lawrence Treat’s 1945 novel “V as in Victim,” the newest Library of Congress Crime Classic.

“V” was the first crime novel to feature ordinary cops and their plain language as the main attraction, launching the subgenre known as police procedurals and earning Treat an important place in American pop culture.

The procedural has since become a standard narrative of American entertainment, from novels to television series to films. Bestselling authors such as Ed McBain, Joseph Wambaugh, Patricia Cornwell and Michael Connelly have become staples in bookstores; “Hill Street Blues” and “Law and Order” are two of the dozens of television series that have influenced the field; “L.A. Confidential,” “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Mystic River” are Academy Award–winning procedurals on film.

Treat, born Lawrence Arthur Goldstone in 1903 in New York City, first became a lawyer. But after his firm broke up in 1928, he moved to Paris and soon got free room and board from a friend in Brittany. With time on his hands, he tried poetry, but found success with what he called “crime mystery picture puzzle books,” selling his first one in 1930. He returned to the U.S. and started writing crime stories, publishing short stories in mystery magazines as well as full-length novels, taking up the pen name of Lawrence Treat.

In his influential “V,” New York City police detective Mitch Taylor and lab technician Jub Freeman are called to the scene of a hit and run. None of the witnesses are particularly helpful — but one says a woman screamed before the accident from the overlooking apartment building.

Investigating the incident leads to a dead cat, a murdered paramour, a heavy drinker in the middle of a divorce and other shady characters. Set in the fall of 1944, the novel features references to World War II, including the rationing taking place at home. The climax takes place against the backdrop of the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944, which hit New York City that September.

In the decades prior to “V,” crime writing focused on amateur but brilliant sleuths like Sherlock Holmes. These stories often portrayed the police as “as unimaginative, ineffectual, boring, or a combination of all three,” writes series editor Leslie S. Klinger in the book’s introduction. Treat, however, believed that real police techniques, including the burgeoning science of forensics, could lead to a satisfying mystery.

Treat followed up “V” with several other procedurals, including “H as in Hunted,” “Q as in Quicksand,” “T as in Trapped” and “F as in Flight.” Two other procedurals from the era appear in the Crime Classics series: “Last Seen Wearing” by Hillary Waugh and “Case Pending” by Dell Shannon.

During a career that spanned 70 years, Treat wrote 17 novels and several hundred short stories, many of which were not police procedurals. A founding member of the Mystery Writers of America, he served the organization in several roles and received its top award, the Edgar, in 1965 for his short story “H as in Homicide” and for the “Mystery Writer’s Handbook” in 1976. He was also given a special Edgar award in 1987 for a television episode in “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” He died in 1998.

Library of Congress Crime Classics are published by Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks, in association with the Library. “V as in Victim” is available in softcover ($15.99) from booksellers worldwide, including the Library of Congress Store.

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