Two platypuses walk into a bar . . . A couple of platypi . . . Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner . . . Platypus Number One, Detective Corey O’Malley and his partner, Rookie Detective Rick Zengo . . . Platypus Police Squad Headquarters, 7:40 A.M.

Obviously, I’m not sure how to start this post about the second book in the series, The Platypus Police Squad. First of all, I’m not sure why the detectives are platypuses, except that platypuses–and ostriches and mongooses, by the way–are sort of funny. Supposed to be sort of funny. Detective Corey O’Malley, the older, more experienced, somewhat jaded and cynical of this detective pair is supposed to be humorous, too. And his freshman, newbie partner Detective Rick Zengo has a funny name.

However, the platypuses could just as well have been flamingos or alpacas or armadillos or even humans as far as the story goes. Well, “platypus” and “police” do both start with “p”, so the title has alliteration going for it. The book reads like an episode of the old TV series Dragnet, stretched to a couple hundred pages, with O’Malley as Sergeant Joe Friday and Zengo as his sidekick, Bill Gannon. And the only funny parts are the illustrations of . . . hard-boiled platypus detectives.

I really don’t think even kids who have never encountered Dragnet or its successors, police procedural dramas, are going to be riveted by this pedestrian and predictable story. I wanted to like it, but nothing drew me in and nothing made me want to stay once I got there. It wasn’t bad, just, dare I say, boring. Now, if I mosey over to Amazon and find out that this series is a bestseller with thousands of positive reviews and kid fans, just call me jaded. And cynical.

All we want are the facts, m’am. Just the facts.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.