Customer Reviews (6)

The Best 87th Precinct Novel Of Them All
This is came from the public library resell store market major collection central general.
So, that is library stickers and marks and official making normally include.
Unabridged, six 1-hour audio cassettes, read by Jonathan Marosz are in plastic case.
But, the case has been seen cracked tapped and latest dirt.
But, the tapes are still playable and well sound, when I test and listen from the three different cassette players.
[from the experience]

"THE BEST 87TH PRECINCT NOVEL OF THEM ALL." (Stephen King)
[from the back cover of case]

McBain At His Best With This One!
If you are a fan of the 87th Precinct potboilers by Ed McBain, then this is a MUST READ for you.The police procedural has never been done better by anyone.Period.This story has Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes confronted with a double murder scenario right off the bat on Page 1.They must try and make sense of a couple of very brutal murders, the musings of a psychic/medium who seems to be eerily prescient with her psychic "takes" on the proceedings, and a number of sidebar issues that include a major blizzard which has been blanketing the city at Christmastime.

This is one of those wonderful 189 or so page mysteries that you can truly read in one sitting and come away saying to yourself, "What a great way to spend the afternoon."

The writing is taut, parsed-down and authentic.The characters are bitingly realisitic and well-drawn throughout.

If you have never read an 87th Precinct novel (and there are over 40!), then this one comes about mid-way in the series and is a good place to start!!

Excellent story, charcters and crackerjack writing, I highly reccommend GHOSTS for your mystery reading short-list.

Rarely a book makes the hair stand up on my neck
Ghosts only fault was that it was too short.Most of McBain's is too short for me.He is excellent at evoking the feelings a cop has in certain situations for the reader.You aren't being entertained you actually become part of the 87th's squad.

Ghosts shows insight into Steve's personality.It is never blatently described instead it is like watching something happen to a friend and partner.

The scene with the house and the ghosts sent chills up my spine.Sitting here typing I am feeling the same chills.It was an intensely uncomfortable scene well written to bring those feelings to life for the reader.You were not reading a story about Ghosts instead you were walking thru the house with Steve and it was happening to you and your partner.I am extremely hard to do this too.I usually laugh at Steven King and the rest.I wasn't laughing here.The impact in that short scene was perfect.The writing transported you there.

Now perhaps I have a different view because I have worked in law enforcement but if you really want to know what it is like, take a look.

Ghosts
I have recently become a world traveller mainly on business, and feel that on long haul flights an injection of an 87th precinct mystery is just what is needed. I have read many of Ed McBain's novels and find that I am almost part of the story, However I found in this novel (ghosts) the story ended far to quickly, and was left a little disappointed.....

A Typical 87th Precinct Mystery
Like most of the books in McBain's 87th Precinct series, Ghosts tells aninteresting story and provides a very fast read. However, also typical ofMcBain"s mysteries is the fact that the police detectives he regularlyhas "star" in his books are secondary to his plots and, thus, areonly superficially developed. Having read many of the books in this series,I don't feel that I know his characters in any, or at least much, moredepth than after the first 87th Precinct book I read. You must be willingto accept the fact that you're not going to get much more than a good storyfrom McBain in this series. This usually has been enough for me. But to behonest, having read the books in the series by Dennis Lehane, MichaelConnelly and Harlan Coben, where you not only get very good and excitingmysteries but well-developed characters, McBain's 87th Precinct series hasbeen steadily losing its appeal to me. ... Read more

Product Description

Evan Hunter is known for his powerful novels and screenplays. Ed McBain is known for portraying the soul of the cop. They have distinct narrative voices, but both are bestselling storytellers who have received worldwide acclaim. Now, in Candyland, they join for the first time to write a single story -- a powerful novel of obsession.

Benjamin Thorpe is married, a father, a successful Los Angeles architect -- and a man obsessed. Alone in New York City on business, he spends the empty hours of the night in a compulsive search for female companionship. His dizzying descent leads to an early morning confrontation in a midtown bordello and a searing self-revelation. Part I of Candyland is a fever-pitched search for identity, seen through Benjamin's obsessed eyes and told in classic Evan Hunter style.

Part II opens in Ed McBain territory. Three detectives are discussing a homicide. The victim is a young prostitute whose path crossed Benjamin Thorpe's the night before. Emma Boyle of the Special Victims Unit is assigned to the case. As the foggy events of the previous night come into sharper focus, Thorpe becomes an ever more possible suspect. The detailed police investigation and excruciating suspense are classic Ed McBain.

Shocking, bold, and compulsively readable, Candyland is a groundbreaking literary event.Amazon.com Review
Two of the best mystery writers in America team up in this interesting Law and Order-type experiment. In the first half of the book, a sexually voracious architect prowls the dark corners of New York looking for some action before he heads back to his frigid L.A. wife. In the second half, a prostitute's grisly rape-murder engages the attention of the guys (and girl) in blue. What's the connection between the murdered woman and the obsession-ridden architect? A string of coincidences that make the reader expect a surprise ending, of course. But it doesn't happen, which makes one wonder why the two authors (who happen to be the same person) bothered with the gimmick. Still, both Ed McBain (author of the 87th Precinct novels) and Evan Hunter (his more literary and much sexier incarnation) are old pros, so the pacing, character development, and thorough knowledge of police procedure and human nature that mark this tidy little mystery make it a pleasant enough diversion. A new McBain or Hunter is always cause for celebration, and Candyland, which is a lot grittier than most police procedurals, will titillate their many fans until either (or both) comes through with a new thriller. The distinct narrative voices of the multitalented writer are on view here; although the writing styles aren't different enough to make it more than a parlor trick, the result is still twice as good as most of the season's new offerings. --Jane Adams ... Read more

Customer Reviews (31)

The Power is in the Subtlety
I dig crime scenes and mysteries, but tend toward ones like PD James and Elizabeth George, though I confess to a yen for Elmore Leonard.I happened to spot Blackboard Jungle and then perused his other books, picking this one.

I was very into the story, not only for the story line, but for the crafting of it as well.Part 1 wasn't better or worse than part 2 - it was very different, as it was intended to be.There was a severe contrast in focus, viewpoint, and theme - and the different styles of each half reflected that.

Part 1 was up close and personal, the insight into the character was virtually first person.Ben's rationalizations and excuses for his thoughts and behavior are the essence of exceptional writing.Nowhere is this more evident than at the XS Salon.Compare his thoughts upon arrival when he's choosing his girl to his thoughts and subsequently what happens just prior to his departure.

Part 2, by contrast, is more spread out, more surface level.There's focus on Emma, but it doesn't have the same intensity as part one's focus on Ben - and that's not a criticism.Ben is the focus of part one.Everything else is around him.He's there.He's the one whose head we're priveleged to be inside of.Part 2, the focus is the killer. Everything else is around him and he's NOT there.We don't know who he is, much less what he's thinking.So even the insight into Emma doesn't begin to match the depth we get of Ben, and that's as it should be.

I totally dug the ending, especially the very last page.It swooped everything up together in a nice, mind blowing, something-to-think-about loop.Kind of like comparing your Mobil Speed Pass, constantly required SSN, and discussions of chips with our healthcare data on it to Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.It's only a small step from here.....to there.....and often a much, much smaller one than people think it is.

Depends on your point of view
Evan Hunter/Ed McBain pulled off quite a stunt with this book. Keeping a single point of view going for for an entire book is difficult, making your `voice' as an author consistent is also difficult. Hunter/McBain manages to switch from one point of view to the other in this really remarkable book, and to switch 'voices' as well.

The first half of `Candyland' was so engrossing that I read it in a single night. The second half wasn't quite so enthralling, but still a good police procedural and up to McBain's high standard.

The only reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is the ending of the book. I just didn't buy it and it was not set up well enough to really go over. But that is a quibble, this is a really fun book and an example of a highly skilled writer taking big chances.

Sex addiction: a truth our society refuses to face.
I found this book to be well written, particularly the first partwhere the sex addict, a normal and very succesfull architect, is depicted so accurately, so hauntingly as he goes about feeding his addiction. Sexualized America is an unalloyed positive to the sophisticated filmakers who give us the shallow Joy of Sex type t.v. show Sex and the City. Las Vegas has an ad campaign that sells its city as a place for sex and irresponsibiltiy. Sexual relations are less important than wearing attractive (and expensive) shoes. Candyland takes sexual relations between people seriously. When sex is decoupled from normal love and affection, really bad things can and do happen. In this novel, sex breaks up marriages, turns a person immersed in this world into a sexual deviant, depicts prostitution realistically (not graphically) and shows that the sex addict lives on the edge of an abyss--that he may fall into at any time. The female vice cop, the prostitutes, the sex addict, the drug-abusing whore with the heart of gold (comes across as real in this novel),the man driven crazy because of sexual rejection gives a refreshing look at a phenomenen that too man Americans accept or ignore. I think everyone should ponder carefully the implications in this novel and especially the non-preachy, much-needed words of advice given at the end ofthis novel. The world of sex is grimy. This book is a good antidote to the idiocies of Pretty Woman that basically tell us that being a whore is just a fine and dandy job. The incidents, the characters, their thoughts and feelings take the sensitive reader out himself into the varied lives and worlds of people who deserve our censure, but at the same time deserve our love and compassion.

Two Stories, One Murder
"Candyland" is not so much a novel as a concept piece, the idea of two authors, both the same man, writing separate novellas that intersect at a specific event. Evan Hunter wrote "The Blackboard Jungle," the screenplay for Hitchcock's "The Birds," and a slew of serious novels. Ed McBain, Hunter's best-known pseudonym, is the author of the 87th Precinct crime novels. "Candyland" is a McBain crime novel, too, about the murder of a hooker. But it is also a Hunter portrait, of a man suspected of killing her.

Ed McBain novels are especially interesting when they stray from the 87th Precinct. "Downtown," a dark comedy of a man lost in the big bad city a la "After Hours" but with a body count and better jokes, was up there with Elmore Leonard's finest. "The Sentries" was a bizarre Cold War paranoia tale with a remarkably downbeat and unpleasant tone for airport fiction. "Candyland" is a brilliant and clever detour from the fictional environs of the 87th Precinct's Isola to the reality of New York City, and one of his best crime stories yet.

The tone is the same as in the 87th Precinct novels, dark and funny and acutely sensitive to how police officers operate. In the second half of the novel, the criminal investigation part written by "McBain," two detectives have a problem questioning a witness. The guy turns to the woman after they are done:

" `We ought to arrange some signals we can use. If we are going to be working together any amount of time. Like if I touch my nose, for example, it'll mean you're Good Cop, I'm Bad Cop. Or if I call you Em instead of Emma...'

" `I told you I don't like being called Em.'

" `That's just what I'm saying. If I call you Em in front of somebody we're questioning, that'll mean Don't go there. Same as if you call me James. Don't go there, leave it be, shift the topic to something else.'"

The female detective here, Emma Boyle, is an interesting creation. She's not the typical gorgeous McBain dame with a positive mental outlook on life and love, but somewhat squirrelly and resentful. She's had a hard time with her brother officers, and she's having a hard time with her ex-husband, a rich philanderer keeping her child from her on a shabby pretext. She blames him for "raping" her during the last two years of their marriage, because his affair meant their marriage sex took place under false pretenses.

Sex is what it's about for these vice cops, and that's what the initial half of the novel, or the first novella, written by Hunter, is all about, too; a profile of a day in the life of a man with a problem he is unwilling to control. This is Benjamin Thorpe, successful architect who becomes a murder suspect in the second half of the book. Again, the writing here is subtle, detailing in matter-of-fact prose just how far gone this forty-something architect named Benjamin Thorpe has gone in pursuit of orgasms. Some reviewers here say Hunter's descriptions of Thorpe's activities cross the line into porn. It is certainly intense writing, but more cautionary than erotic, more ugly than graphic, designed to make Thorpe's desires read as the sickness-inspired impulses rather than vicariously thrilling to the reader.

Some people claim they knew how this was going to turn out, but I was fooled. Does the dual nature of "Candyland" work? Better than expected. The two-novella conjunction plays off very well, the two-author format even more so. The different approaches of the writer (just-the-facts McBain versus the deeper and more psychological territory of Hunter) dovetail nicely. In the end, you have a story with but one central character, that being Eros Unbound, and what it does to distend the mind and distort the character. It's dark and heavy, but never dull, and the story stays with you after it's over.

Loved the McBain/Hunter Contrast
As a long-time fan of the 87th precinct novels by McBain, I was interested in seeing what the contrast would be like between McBain and Hunter.I really enjoyed this novel; surprisingly, I actually enjoyed the Hunter half at least as much as the McBain section.In fact, this novel led me to other Hunter books that I had been missing out on; I thoroughly enjoyed his "The Moment She Was Gone" novel, as well. ... Read more

Product Description
The men and women of the 87th Precinct have their professional skills tested to the limit when several young women are raped multiple times by the same man and a serial killer who hangs his victims stalks the streets of the city. Read by Len Cariou. Book available. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Only Half an Effort
Unlike most of the 87th series, this one only has two stories involved.The one that relates to the title is very disappointing as both a procedural and a plotted story.It begins with a girl found hanged from a lamppost and another just a few days later and then a third.Because the second one happened in the 83rd, Ollie Weeks joins our intrepid band of detective to search out the murderer.Ollie is there for comic relief and to play to stupid bigoted cop.Of course he ends up leading the guys by the nose and then breaking the case.The interview with the suspect is downright stupid and totally implausible.

Hunter (McBain) must have felt that he needed to flesh out this story at some point so we are treated to discussion of all of the cops getting ready to make love to their wives.Of Teddy Carella going on job interviews and even a mention of 'Evan Hunter' and his novels.There's a little vignette about 'Hill Street Blues' where Ollie complains about a character named 'Charlie Weeks' and an another named 'Furillo'.Last of all we get to 'see' Meyer try wearing a 'rug' and getting nothing but grief from everyone.

The second story deals with a serial rapist who has raped nine woman multiple times (one four times) who is tracked down by Anne Rawles of the Rape Squad with the help of Eileen Burke (Kling's new squeeze).This one IS interesting, especially the dogged determination of Rawles who finds the 'pattern' that makes the arrest of the rapist possible.His reasoning is faulty, but what do you expect from a psychotic rapist?

One good one bad (just like cops).

Zeb Kantrowitz

Ho-hum
Fair-to-middling outing from the usually reliable Ed McBain. A serial rapist and a serial killer are plaguing Isola, and the crew from the 87th is on top of it all. But there's too much emphasis on the "procedural" aspect of the story, and not enough on story-progression. The title "Lightning" has nothing to do with storms or electricity, and you don't learn its significance until abo0ut 265 pages in (and my copy is 312 pages long). For all their strengths, the cops don't have suspects (or even a suspicion) until the last 50 pages or so.

On the other hand, he does manage to sneak in an "Evan Hunter" joke. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (51)

Just Going Through the Motions
No one who writes fifty books in a series can make them all memorable, but this one is just plain lazy work.Without Ollie's book (which may, just may be better than McBain's/Hunter's) taking up enough slack with all of the repeats of previous book stories, this could have been a short story.There is also all of the griping that McBain does about other mystery/police procedural writers, book sellers, agents, etc, that make the subject of the book to be nothing but an add-on.The shooting of the councilman and the involvement of the "junkie cross-dresser", seems so unnecessary that you wonder why Carella and Kling are involved in the book at all.

That Steve Carella keeps talking to himself about being forty, seems more like Hunter complaining that he's seventy.Considering that in the first 87th Precinct novel, Carella was a Korean Vet and Meyer was a WW2 vet, now almost fifty years later, Carella has only aged maybe fifteen years.This is strange-r because he didn't marry his wife for ten years and his kids are only twelve years old, though they were born in the late sixties.Though while everything else has been modernized, we have computers and cell phones the cops haven't aged at all.It's hard to imaging after all this time that Carella is still a Detective Second Class and Kling a third class.With all the times they've been shot and the number of big cases they've solved, you'd think they'd been promoted.

The murder story just doesn't hold ones attention, in fact it wouldn't make a good 'Law & Order' episode.It's been obvious for a while that McBain is bored with the 87th Precinct, but money talks.What is the need for Hunter to used all these terrible jokes, just because he can dump them on Fat Ollie and Parker and we're supposed to expect these guys to be getting away with this bigotry and sexism in the 21st Century?Ed, you should have finished these guys off or at least sent them into retirement, but then they have only served like what, fifteen years?To bad, it used to be a good series and McBain had more respect for his fellow writers.He acts like he invented the idea of police procedurals.Guess he never had time to read Chandler or Simenon.

Zeb Kantrowitz

He said..........She said.........
I listened to this on a tape while I was walking.The word "SAID" must have been said about 500 times throughout the story.........very irritating!!!

funny mystery
Fat Ollie is a detective investigating the assassination of a local politician.He's an equal-opportunity bigot, and his novel, except for the last chapter, has been stolen from his patrol car.Yes, he's written a very short (30+ pages) novel, Report to the Commissioner, and has no backup copy, because he composed it on a typewriter.So there are two crimes being solved here, and how they become intertwined is hilarious.The transvestite prostitute, Emilio/Emmy, who stole the novel, doesn't realize that it's fiction and starts doing some sleuthing of his own to locate the people in the book.There's also a drug deal going down in the middle of it all, with some two-bit crooks who have no idea what they're getting into.Needless to say, this is not a thriller or a serious mystery.Fat Ollie's novel is included in its entirety and provides lots of laughs, especially as its author repeats himself to be sure that he's covered all the bases grammatically.And the protagonist of Ollie's book is a female cop, so that it's almost as if Ollie is channeling a woman in the book.It's a not-too-subtle parallel with the Emilio/Emmy character.

Funny At Times
This was the first Ed McBain novel I read.Although this story was funny at times, I thought that it was just okay. The main character Oliver Wendell Weeks is not very likeable.I havesince read other Ed McBain novels and they were much better . This novel is not a good introduction to Ed McBain but it is entertaining at times.

Thomas Fitzsimmons author of City of Fire loves this book.
This is one of McBain's best; a fast read with interesting characters and plot. Highly recommended.City of Fire ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Probably the Best McBain up to this Point (1975)
"Bread" is the 29th installment of the "87th Precinct" novel series, and maybe the best up to this point.Not only are we given a great story (yes there is only one in this book) but we are also introduced to one of McBain's best characters, Oliver "Fat Ollie" Weeks of the 83rd in the Diamondback district.Ollie is only slightly about Parker in the hygiene department and can match him BO to BO on any day.Ollie though is a good detective, but with the mouth of a bigot who doesn't understand why some people are upset by the way he talks and acts and smells.

The story starts with an arson investigation, then leads to another arson and then two murders and the beating of a woman.Involved are a group of business partners who add new meaning to the expression 'cya'. They are so busy double dealing and trying to screw each other that even they lose track of who's doing what to who.It's a great story and much more realistic and believable then the "Deaf Man" stories.I'm looking forward to more of "Fat Ollie".

Zeb Kantrowitz

sizzling
McBain captures the tense relationships of city life in "Bread." The heroes and the villians are equally memorable characters. McBain provides it all: humor, suspense, and action all in perfectly writtenprose. ... Read more

Product Description
A peaceful Christmas Eve turns riotous when the members of the 87th Precinct bring in a kid who has stolen a sheep from the zoo to give to his sister, a pawnshop robber with a bag of gold, and a pregnant woman who promptly gives birth behind the filing cabinets. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Short and Fun
While "And All Through the House" contains typical Ed McBain dialogue and plot absurdities, it is actually an illustrated short story in a self-contained book.I think other readers may have expected a full-length novel with several different story lines, but this story is strictly about a few hours in the detective's squad room on Christmas Eve.I would also not classify this as a children's story because although the language is not as salty as a typical McBain novel, it's salty enough.Additionally, it was originally published in "Playboy Magazine," so you should expect it to have been written for an adult audience, like his other 87th Precinct works. Again, it's just a short story for the typical 87th Precinct fan, that happens to be illustrated.Judging it on those standards, it's pretty good.McBain always knew how to spice up a normal conversation with sparkling dialogue, and how to make an absurd situation almost serious, before turning it absurd again.The illustrations are good and don't distract from the story.

McBain for starters.
If You like crime stories and you want to give a fine story-book to youngsters, for starting to read more of the sort, nothing better than this McBain treasure.And it comes as a 3D and with drawings.
Watch out!!! One most probably will get hooked!!!!!

And All Through The House by Ed McBain
It has been said so many times before by far better persons than I, but Ed McBain is the hands down best writer of the police procedural."And All Through The House" continues the terrific 87th Precinct series with the entire story taking place in the squadroom on Christmas Eve.Reading this book is like visiting with old friends.The writing is conversational yet always electric and always Ed McBain.Packaged in an attractive slipcover and sprinkled with line drawings throughout, it is a perfect book to cozy up with by the fire.Long live McBain and the 87th Precinct!

And All Thru the House
Should be advertised as a book for children.Not expected of McBain. Only 40 pages most of which are drawings!What a disappointment as have read and enjoyed nearly everything McBain/Hunter has written. If had bought new would request refund. ... Read more

Product Description
The brutal rape of the wife of a wealthy landowner leads to the arrest of three recent Vietnamese immigrants. When they are found murdered and viciously mutilated, the situation reveals itself to be far more complex and explosive than first imagined. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Not Among McBain's Best But Mildly Entertaining Nonetheless
Three Vietnamese men are found stabbed and ritualistically mutilated after death in the town of Calusa, Florida--and they share a common history.They were recently arrested and tried for the vicious rape of Jessica Leeds, whose outraged husband, Stephen, swore revenge upon them when they were found not guilty in a court of law.Stephen's wallet is found at the scene of the crime and two witnesses come forward to identify him as the man seen arriving and leaving the scene of the crime.It is, says assistant district attorney Patricia Denning, an open and shut case.

Most famous for his "87th Precinct" novels, author Ed McBain is also the creator of a series of novels commonly known as "The Fairy Tale Books," which draw their titles from loose parallels with children's stories--in this instance the three murdered, eye-gouged victims--and feature defense attorney Matthew Hope.Published in 1990, THREE BLIND MICE is the ninth in the series, and in many respects it is indicative of McBain's stylish prose and way with character.

It is not, however, indicative of McBain's best turn of plot.Although it is never implausible, neither is it--in the best traditions of both mystery and detective novels--realistically inevitable; details tend to overcrowd each other, subplot complications distract from the primary course of events, and although the conclusion is clever enough it lacks any sense of real surprise.Even so, fans of McBain will find it mildly entertaining, as will virtually any reader in seach of a quick read for a rainy afternoon.Mildly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Matthew Nearly Hopeless In Weak Story
What is it about Ed McBain and romance? It can turn him from Mickey Spillane to Maurice Chevalier in a matter of two or three pages. Here we are treated to a pair of romances, one involving Florida defense attorney Matthew Hope and a Vietnamese interpreter, the other involving a private investigator and a woman who works at the Calusa Tax Collector's office. There's also a murder, of three restaurant employees who raped a woman and then beat the rap.

The Matthew Hope books, which seem to have been brought to a close by McBain in 1998 with the release of "The Last Best Hope," was an excursion on the other side of the criminal justice system by McBain, writer of the "87th Precinct" series of police procedurals. It was a detour in tone, in tempo, in setting, and in character, but for some reason, the Hope novels I read never seemed to benefit from this fresh approach. Unlike the "87th Precinct" books he was writing concurrently, McBain seemed to plot these ones by the numbers, with little interest in what made people tick, until it came to a romantic situation. Then his focus would bore in on cute meets, long walks on the beach, and post-coital cuddles of quiet satisfaction. Often he throws in lovers of different ethnic backgrounds, showing what a liberated guy he is and all that. Meanwhile the killer continues to kill and the reader gets frustrated. Love makes the world go round, but it is more likely to make a good mystery go down the drain.

The mystery here, published in 1990, is one of McBain's weakest. It's not terribly clever in its set-up, and an attempt to set up a red herring is transparent. Hope seems unable to see things about his client, the jailed husband of the raped woman awaiting trial for the murders, and those closest to him which any mystery-versed reader will pick up on fast. At one point, when finally confronting the killer, he does so in a stupid, self-exposing way, without backup, despite the fact he knows someone else doing the same thing ended up losing his life.

The romances, picked up suddenly in the middle of the narrative, aren't resolved in any way. About the only thing unique is that one of the romances doesn't wind its way into the bedroom, as the couple want to take things slow for a while. The woman, it turns out, is a virgin, which makes her quite an exotic female in the McBain canon.

But this book is not for McBain virgins, or you may lose interest in reading his other, and for the most part, much better books. Then you really would be losing out on something.

Try it, you will like it.
This is the first McBain book I have ever bothered to read even though I have been aware of McBain for years. I really enjoyed this novel and look forward to reading the other 12 Matthew Hope novels. Why McBain stopped writing Mathew Hope novels after 1998, I don't know, but it would be nice if he started up again.
Read this one, then enjoy watching the TV movie based on it.

Hope takes on a hopeless case in the sunshine state.
Ed McBain's "Matthew Hope" series is one of the more entertaining and engaging mystery series set in that most murderous of states - Florida!Well, not actually perhaps, but if one reads the vast number of murderous tomes and series set in the sunshine state one might get that impression.Like John D. MacDonald, Carl Hiassen, James Hall, Lawrence Shamus, Dave Barry, Tim Dorsey, and others MacBain makes good usage of his setting.Lead character and protagonist attorney/P.I. Matthew Hope's adventures aren't as madcap and humorous as those of some of the other authors mentioned above, but he is definitely hard boiled and suspenseful.

In this novel Hope is engaged to defend Stephen Leeds, a man accused of murdering three Vietnamese immigrants who have just recently been acquited of raping Leeds' wife Jessie.When the men are found murdered and mutilated shortly after Stephen had publicly threatened to kill them, everyone assumes that he is guilty.Evidence found at the scene seems to clinch the matter, but Hope takes on the case and begins to investigate, along with his assistants.As is usual in a MacBain novel, you learn quite a lot about the various characters along the way, making them and their motives believable.I recommend all of the Matthew Hope series.While this one isn't his best, it is still a good pager turner.Recommended.

Four Stars. ... Read more

Product Description
In Lullaby, McBain expertly probes the personal and professional lives of the men and women of the 87th Precinct as New Year's Eve brings an unusual deluge of crime and emotional trauma. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Starts Well, But Ultimately Disappointing
This is my first McBain book, and it was fun to start (although "fun" is a difficult word re a baby killing).I liked how the characters were well-drawn, and I also admired his dialogue, which, to my ears, seemed more realistic and less cliched than so many other writers of this genre.But there are three stories going on here (double murder, major drug deal, woman detective deciding on quitting), and I thought that at some point they would merge.However, they do not.I was getting bored with the two "lesser" stories, and it didn't take too long to figure out who committed the murder (or even why).The most shockingly disappointing moment was in the climax, when there's a confession just blurted out by a suspect who, for some unknown reason, never requested legal counsel.It seemed that at that point McBain, or editors, or whoever, decided that the page length was at the "stopping point," and just wanted to wrap things up.So I started the book with relatively high hopes, but was led to a major let-down.

That being said, would I ever read another McBain book?Sure.His writing really moves things forward, his allusions are witty, and, as stated above, I enjoyed the characterizations and dialogue.For those reasons, I'm willing to give him another chance, and I'm hoping that the next one (whichever one I pick whenever I have the time) will give me greater satisfaction from beginning to end.

Three stories, none that good
Actually there are only two procedures in this book, the other 'story' is Eileen Brennan's continuing problems with being a cop.Brennan is involved only to the point of her spending time speaking to/at/with a Police shrink.It's almost like McBain through this in to fill out the book (nah, he wouldn't do that).

The first of the procedurals has to do with a double murder on New Year's Eve.A sixteen year old babysitter is found stabbed in the chest and the baby she was watching was smothered with a pillow.This one is only worthwhile for the anger of the cops of the murder of the baby and the dogged running down of any lead that might help to discover who the killer was.About half-way through the story, anyone who has ever read a procedural should be able to pick out the murderer and the reason.

The second relates to Burt Kling stopping three blacks from beating a Puerto Rican to death with baseball bats.First the PR tells Kling to take a hike, but later promises that he can make Kling a big hero by breaking up a big delivery (100 kilos) of cocaine.This story is positively ugh.Silly, dumb and worthless, even the procedural is sloppy and amateur.

As to the recording, everyone on this tap is overly dramatized.Meyer and Carella have New York accents you can cut with a knife.The PR sounds like he escaped from "Westside Story", the Jamaicans are cartoons, and the 'Chinese' sound like Japanese in a bad World War 2 "B" movie.Carion sounds like he's auditioning to do voice-overs on Anime.
Not one of McBain's better outings.

Zeb Kantrowitz
zbestblogaround.blogspot.com

A Good book, my first in the series. Will it keep me reading?
Lullaby is an 87th Precinct book by Ed McBain, one of way too many to count in the series, and also the first I've read. It came out in the mid 80s. I love McBain as an author and have read most of his later works so I wanted to know if this is a series I could enjoy. It is probably impossible to go back and read the series in order, so I picked up one at random and started reading it. Would I be lost? Would it matter that I had no idea about the characters or their backgrounds?

In Lullaby, a little baby and her 17 year old baby sitter are murdered on New Years Eve. There's also a major drug deal going down. And, a cop who was raped is traumatized over the shooting of a criminal and wants to quit the force. These three story lines encompass the entire book. This is a true police procedural. We get to know the characters a little, but not too much.

I really don't know what to think. The plot moved along briskly and the police moved closer to solving the baby and sitter murder. The drug deal and gangs seemed confusing at times, and the cop that wanted to quit was probably tied to another novel. I guess I thought all the story lines might be tied together at the end, and they weren't. Each separate story was like a TV show, when I was expecting a major motion picture. I'll probably read more in this series and you should too if you like these types of novels. I'll just know I should expect to be entertained, not overhwelmed.

A Lullaby To Keep You Awake
Ed McBain's 87th Precinct has been the wellspring for many terrific books, and this is one of his finest. A baby and her sitter are found murdered inside a swanky apartment, and it's up to Dets. Carella and Meyer to solve the crime.

The first page introduces the murder scene, and from there on the plot twists and suspicious characters accumulate with bullet-train velocity. The detectives find out another B&E (breaking and entering) occurred in another apartment in this building, and chase the burglar believed responsible, while a lapis pendant found at the scene is overlooked for the moment but will assume greater significance.

By the 1980s, people were overlooking the 87th Precinct a little, while McBain himself pumped out one great book after another, finding something a little different to bring out about the precinct territory and the nature of hard crime each time. It's been said McBain writes not "whodunits" but "whydunits," and "Lullaby" is a classic "whydunit," but it also works as a standard police procedural.

There's a second plot that introduces a new group of bad guys, members of a Jamaican drug "posse" who tangle with Det. Kling after he interrupts three of them in the middle of a hit on a Hispanic rival. The storyline actually takes us through a parade of ethnic nationalities, each representing a major force in the underworld, in a way that allows McBain full vent for his political incorrect dialogue and humor as he throws them up against each other. When it's all over, and only one group is left standing, the boss decides it's "all a matter of which is the oldest culture."

This second story is fun, but it's less integrated thematically and in plot with the other story than is typical for McBain, it moves a bit baroquely and the conflict with Kling is not resolved in a satisfying manner. The first story is the main one, and it moves with force and deftness, but the reveal of the killer striking about 30 pages short of the end read like a mistake to me. Otherwise, it keeps you guessing, as much about motive as identity (who would kill an infant?), and that is a huge part of the story's success.

Until then, it works almost as well as a psychological thriller as it does a murder mystery. In order to solve the crime, the detectives have to get inside the mind of someone who killed a child. Even for hardened investigators, this is not an easy place to be. The theme of lost innocence, prefigured by the title, is everywhere in this story, in such details as the lapis pendant, a fugitive who seeks shelter and companionship from his former babysitter, and an old man dying in Washington State.

It's hard to say any book that features a dead baby is funny, and certainly McBain handles this sensitive subject with grace and finesse. But the mourning tone does not detract from enjoying the book as a satisfying crime drama, and as a prime representation of a crime fiction master at his best.

Always captivating
Another good Ed McBain mystery.After reading a few of these, a person becomes well acquainted with the detectives in the precinct and they almost seem like friends.Thank goodness they always catch their man!This has the usual false suspects, parade of criminal types, and the surprising if logical guilty person uncovered by good police work and a lot of luck.I enjoy reading Ed McBain and this was a very good one.It's fun to see if one can figure out the solution before the detectives do.I failed. ... Read more

Product Description
Three fast-moving, best-selling police thrillers--Tricks, Ice, and 8 Black Horses--from among the more than thirty in his career, explain the unfailing popularity of this best-selling author. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I like the police work of the Eight-Seven, and its officers!
The Eight-Seven does its work so well that I particularly want to know all of the titles that tell about the "Deaf Man." ... Read more

Product Description
Florida criminal attorney Matthew Hope defends Mary Barton, a retired schoolteacher accused of mutilating and killing three girls and then burying them in her garden. 50,000 first printing. Mystery Guild Main. Lit Guild & Doubleday Alt. Tour. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Not 87th Precinct Books
In my opinion, the book is nothing more than an exposition of machismo self-indulgence
and self-consciousness that rides (or mounts) on the back of a mediocre courtroom
drama.

It's a relic.

Not to be confused with Patterson's "Mary, Mary"
I've forced myself to read many books because I've started in, found it to be questionable, read a few reviews and decided to go back and give it another try. Usually I've been well rewarded. This time, however, I just couldn't get past the obvious writing from the lower regions.

Come on, did you really think I'd believe that an attorney would be hopping into bed with the DA knowing damn well it'd put the hot case in jeopardy? Far more suitable for Hustler. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but I found this to be so incredibly far-fetched I ditched it and picked up a great little ditty: "Pornified."

Old book ... but a book is a BOOK � & I read a good read�
Based on the hardcover 1992 edition...

This book is this reader's first exposure to author Ed McBain... even though an older writing, tucked amongst all the books owned by this "biblioholic", it begged to be read regardless of its age!
"MARY, MARY" is Mary Barton -- a teacher by occupation; a outstanding flower & plant gardener by hobby, as witnessed by neighbors of the glory of flora in Mary's yard.Mary Barton is accused of killing three young girls, whose bodies are found buried within her floral domain.
Defense Attorney Matthew Hope, and assistants - Toots and Warren - believe in Mary's innocence - most of the time... With a few credible and non-credible witnesses for defense and prosecution alike, the court game of winning the jury's favor is played to the hilt. Witness, neighbor Charlotte Carmody swears that she saw Mary Barton digging at night, burying bodies in her floral paradise garden.A denim dress and a pair of sneakers come into play and question as to the validity of ownership.Meanwhile, a former student of Ms. Barton's - Melanie Lowndes, from England, comes forward to pay the defense expenses, and to support the "gentility" of Mary, testifying that Mary loves children and would never commit murder.
Although this reader at first did not favor the flavor of the rapid-fire, gunshot writing style, I would do the author an injustice by negating the author's book "MARY, MARY" as a bad read -- IT IS A GOOD READ!
Albeit a sound-story premise, I found it awkward to "digest" the author's method of sliding in non-premise scenery and activity, personal and otherwise, as an interruption to the flow of the story.
After getting used to the "he said", "she said"; and the clipped-style format,I found myself being absorbed into the story, and imaged placement in the jury box and court observers section.Readers will find that author McBain allows for lengthier, vivid descriptions of script in court processes as informative & entertaining, inclusive of the judge's actions, the pro and con attorneys arguments, and the orders to the jury of their duties to reaching a viable verdict.
Any reader knows that an ending is not an ending--- until the story actually ends!
I recommend this author and look forward to reading additional Ed McBain writings.

Fascinating Courtroom drama
Mary, Mary is a fascinating courtroom drama....except for the ending.The ending is contrived and just plain silly.But then, if one must run out of gas, I suppose it is better to do it near the end rather than the beginning.

Something of a letdown.
This novel is a fascinating read. But, in comparison to "Three Blind Mice" it is anticlimatic. And one is left wondering exactly why Mary's twin sister decided to show up at Matthew's house and attack his daughter after the verdict was announced when all she had to do was disappear. ... Read more

Product Description
Steve Carella, Cotton Hawes, and the boys of the 87th Precinct know where, when, and how George Lasser died, but they don't have a clue as to who had "given him the ax." And when the mad marauder strikes again, it's time to take the ax to the grindstone. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

MCBAIN HAS DONE BETTER!!!!!
I am trying to read these in order so this is the 18th one I have read. I think I gave all the others a five. A body is found with an axe sticking out of the mans head. Who would kill an 86 year old man? Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes are the main ones working on this case. They do the usual of asking questions but turn up nothing. Could it have been the man's son, who has not been out of their house in years, the man's wife, who is crazy as a loon? How about Allie the Shark Spedino, who is brought in for questioning? Then a cop is killed, that makes a big difference in the case. Cotton and Carella cannot turn up anything to solve the mystery, then, and this is why I gave it a four, the murderer is handed to them on a platter. I like the 87th Precinct series very much and will continue to read them, however, wish this could have been solved by them and not handed to them. A quick read, will hold your attention, and if you are into McBain you will like it enough to read it.

The 88th Precinct.
Shouldn't that have an 'e'?
I remember there was a craze for Ed McBain 87th Precinct paperbacks at my boarding school. I don't know who brought the first one in, maybe from the school library, but soon more and more turned up and were passed around. They became part of the furniture. Just as well, it was a very austere place and there wasn't much furniture. The murder and mayhem of the 87th made a nice change from the cold showers, buggery and beatings we had become accustomed to. We used to discuss the plots now and again. Carella and his wife. Was she deaf? After a term with our housemaster, we began to envy her condition. Also also Meyer Meyer. We liked all the jargon too, such as 'molestation one'. We had by that time discovered all about the term. After a while we found ourselves talking in rather broad Brooklyn accents while dunking biscuits into our teas. We empaphised with the dire incarceration suffered by the criminals. The detectives would not always get their man but unfortunately we didn't have similar luck with the school staff. We were in an isolated place on the map so it was nice to escape to some mythical American city of steaming pavements and cigarette ends. When the lights were turned out in the dorm we could almost imagine ourselves hearing the distant screech of a passing police car siren. Sometimes we did hear it but it was only ever a room mate desperately crying out in his sleep for his mummy. But we lived in hope. This was the first Ed McBain book I ever picked up there and had a suitably gruesome opening. Soon I was hooked, and the cult was born. From what I can remember, this was a short, concisely written and easy to read book, easy to fit in between brutal excursions down the playing fields and prep. Sundays there was little to do except hang around the dorm or form room, and so God's day became official 'Ed' day. Can't remember who did the axe murder at the end of the book. Probably our old housemaster.

Slightly disappointing
Fans read McBain for the thrill of the procedural and the interaction of the boys from the 87th.Here, we get the procedural details and the killer's identity is worthy of Christie, but no fun with Meyer, Byrnes, Brown et al.Even homicide bureau staples Monaghan and Monroe are on vacation.Instead of the usual mix of crimes, we get a straight murder mystery involving only Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes with only one line given to Meyer in the whole book. The rest of the boys are forgotten.The killer is found when Carella is called to the scene and when he sees an axe involved in the new assault realizes "Hey! This is the killer!" A bit of a letdown from McBain.

Minor Entry in the Series
This is one of the shortest --- and one of the weaker --- books in the 87th Precinct series, which McBain has been writing since 1956 and is approaching 50 volumes.Generally McBain succeeds in creating a complexand intriguing mystery with minimal elements; but here he seems a littleshort of ideas.However, fans of the series will enjoy it; it's fast pacedand engrossing, and by now most of us are so enamored of Hawes and Carellathat we're not too particular about the details.Those who haven't triedMcBain before should probably pick up "The Hecker", "The ConMan", or "Killer's Payoff" for a taste of the early 87thPrecinct. ... Read more

Product Description
While the boys at the 87th Precinct search for an elusive cat burglar, Detective Steve Carella searches for the Deaf Man--the killer who sends clues to the police station. Reissue. NYT. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

One of the best
McBain is the definitive author of police procedure. All his writing entail two or three different crime investigations going on at the same time with one crime being the center of attention. Many times to come together at the end.

If you liked Hill Street Blues you will love any McBain novel. He has over fifty in the 87th precint series and each one is a solid if not five star read. Lets Hear it is one of the best.

He uses the same characters in the series which lends itself to broad characters and richer stories.

No other writer like McBain. A style all his own. A true master of the craft.

It's Taubman vs Carella
What's with this guy?Why doesn't he just go do his business in another town and leave the guys of the 87th alone?Why doesn't he leave Steve Carella alone?

As with all of McBain's books there are three stories going on simultaneously.The first is related to a group of burglaries of apartments where the tenants are on vacation.The apartments are ransacked and a kitten is left by the (cat) burglar.None of the apartments' doors have been jimmied or picked, so how does he get in?

The second mystery is a murder.A man is found nailed to the wall in an abandoned building.The only clue, a left sneaker size 12, and the remains of a fire.

The third and main story is that of the "Deaf Man".He mails clues to the 87th and calls them on the phone.The clues point to a robbery at a bank, which the Deaf Man says Steve Carella will help him with.Needless to say that the Deaf Man is to smart for himself and gives Steve one clue too many.Great Fun.

Zeb Kantrowitz

DEAF MAN STRIKES AGAIN!!!!
The deaf man is back. He is sending the 87th precinct clues to his nextcrime. Who can figure them out before the crime is committed?

In the meantime Kling is working on a string of burglaries. Carella is working on finding who killed a man and nailed him to a wall. All things come together at the end but it makes for good reading to get there. The deaf man is a thorn in the side of the 87th. Will he be captured this time? McBain again weaves all the pople into a very good mystery book. It is a quick read and will hold your attention. ... Read more

Product Description
Detective Arthur Brown discovers that the odd-shaped snapshot found clutched in the dead man's hand is a piece of a deadly puzzle worth a suitcase of stolen cash. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Columbo
The 1994 TV movie "Columbo: Undercover" is based on this book. In the movie, Columbo is substituted for several different characters from the book, alternating from scene-to-scene. Sometimes he's the book's Detective Carella, other times he takes over for Detective Brown, who also appears in the movie. As confusing as this may sound, the movie is actually a very faithful adaptation of the book - even the pieces of the photo are identical to the illustrations in the book. Fans of the book should check out the movie (which is available on DVD in the UK, but not yet in the US).

One Piece At A Time
"Jigsaw" is a solid, tightly-wound suspense yarn in the 87th Precinct series that presents an intriguing mystery and unravels it in slow, clever degrees. It also showcases Ed McBain in somewhat lunkish form as he presents the new realities of his fictional burg of Isola at the time of the book's publication in 1970.

It starts with a call to an apartment building. Two men lie dead, each having caused the death of the other. In one stiff's clenched hand is an oddly cut piece of a photograph. Later in the squadroom, an insurance investigator shares the story of a holdup gang who robbed a bank six years ago and, before being killed in a shootout with police, cut up a photograph showing where the haul was secreted. Each gave a piece to a trusted friend or family member known only to him. Now someone wants to put the pieces together, and piece holders are starting to die.

Why did the robbers create such an offbeat plan? McBain sums it up as "the Game Aspect", a form of scheming as endemic to the criminal mind as crime itself. Or maybe McBain alter ego Evan Hunter read a few pirate stories in his youth. Either way, it's enjoyably rendered, especially as we see the puzzle pieces come together in the form of real photographic images printed on the page.

McBain puts Detective Arthur Brown at the forefront of this case. Brown is best-described as the black guy at the 87th Precinct, though Brown himself doesn't like being called that. He has a problem with racial nomenclature. So does McBain, who calls Brown a lot of things through the mouths of various characters and in his own narration that come off offensively today. McBain makes clear Brown's skin color is no big deal, yet it's the only thing about the guy McBain seemed to find interesting, at least in this installment of the series. The result is as frustrating as it is offputting.

A harsher than normal tone predominates here, especially strange since the one case before the 87th Precinct detectives is fairly tame. At one point, the reader is treated to an extended melisma of wanton rape and murder having nothing to do with the main plot. Some attention is also paid to the homosexual community of Isola, with McBain using words I'm sure he regretted a decade or two later. McBain enjoys the chance to be more explicit in his narratives than he could be in the 1960s or 1950s, but like a kid with a new toy, he had yet to figure out how to get the best use from it.

There are good things, too, as there almost always are in McBain books. I really enjoyed "Jigsaw's" stock of supporting players. McBain always did good characters and we get three splendid ones here, beginning with the insurance investigator, Irving Krutch, who flashes an alligator smile and a tendency to refer to himself in the third person. "It helps me to be objective," he explains. Also memorable: a faded prostitute named Dorothea who holds a piece of the puzzle she barely remembers, and a thug named Weinberg who forms an uneasy alliance with Brown while the latter is working undercover.

I enjoyed "Jigsaw" enough to read it in one day, and it's valuable especially to McBain fans like me who enjoy plotting the evolution of the series. But it's a few pieces short of being one of McBain's more memorable stories.

JIGSAW IS A PUZZLE!!!
A man is found dead with a piece of a picture in his hand. This piece is part of a puzzle that shows where money from a robbery, of seven years ago, is located. The piece turns out to be one of eight pieces held by different people. There is also a list of names that have been torn into two pieces. People that hold the pieces are turning up dead. Arthur Brown and Steve Carella try to solve the mystery. They are assisted by Myer Myer and Cotton Hawes. A former insurance investigator is involved. Brown gets beaten up but through it all the 87th comes through. The book is a little slow moving at times, not hardly as good as most of the other McBain book I have read. It will still hold your attention and is well worth the read.

Gripping a real masterpiece
A fine 87Th precinct novel with much suspence and wit.
A true McBain story:easy to read,fine deduction,true procedures and difficult to put down.
Try also the audi:Impossible to put out....
Was -much to my surprise-a plot adapted for a Colombo movie-as was 'As long as you both shall live'.

mcbain is the master
Another outstanding entry in the 87th Precinct police procedurals.This one will keep you up all night. ... Read more

Product Description
Unwilling to accept inconsistent clues that would otherwise indicate suicide, Detective Steve Carella tries to figure out what really happened to an alcoholic artist while his partner tries to ward off a vengeful psychopath. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Nagging the thing called death around the clock
The officers report to a location of a homicide or a suicide.One of the officers is encountering friction with his wife, a model, who doesn't understand the necessities of police work conflict with a social calendar.The writing is sharp and competent.The reader is brought into the story immediately.

The deceased had been an alcoholic.He was in his second marriage.Two years previously his father had committed suicide by gunfire.He had remarked recently that his father had the right idea.His wife had been away from him for a week.

When Halloran left prison after twelve years he went to look up his daughter Moira.The death being investigated becomes less a matter of self-infliction as it is learned that the deceased person had a phobia about swallowing pills.Halloran is part of the action because he has an insane amount of resentment against one of the officers that he intends to discharge.

The officers continue to puzzle out the facts surrounding the death of the alcoholic.It seems his father had left him a substantial number of valuable paintings.The targeted police officer is stalking his wife.He and his wife talk.He is in homicide, nagging that thing called death around the clock.

The author links up all of the strands of the story to a successful conclusion.The pseudonymous writer wrote a number of works in different genres.His professionalism shines through in this effort.The story is satisfyingly complex and is told in a compelling, brisk and terse way.

Passion Plus Murder Equals One Hot Summer In The 87th
1981's "Heat" is a typically energetic 87th Precinct page-turner in which, atypically, the main mystery of the story becomes secondary to a riveting subplot. If not for the fact readers of the McBain crime procedural series have developed a bond with the 87th Precinct detectives, this narrative imbalance might pose more of a problem. Instead, it works well, sneaking up and pulling on your attention like a treacherous undertow.

Bert Kling has a problem. He's married to a beautiful model, only now he is aware there may be more going on in her life than he previously knew. A comment by a drunk girl at a party makes him wonder if she's having an affair, and Kling eventually decides to use his detective skills to find out, despite warnings from his partner, Steve Carella, to talk it out with her instead.

"Carella could have told him that in any marriage there was a line either partner could not safely cross," McBain writes. "Once you stepped over that line, once you said or did something that couldn't possibly be taken back, the marriage was irretrievable."

But Kling has to know, though, and so does the reader. McBain strings you along in two different ways, one by giving us a strong idea right away of what is going on but stirring just enough doubt to muddy the waters, and second and even more successfully, by having Kling compromise his police ethics in search of the truth. Like McBain says, there are lines of privacy in life, and crossing over them can be destructive. But there are prices to be paid for not crossing those lines, too.

There's also a killer hunting Kling, not adequately developed in the short space of the book but leading to some interesting moments, particularly as this begins to intersect with Kling's own investigation of his wife.

The main business of this novel, the investigation by Carella into the apparent suicide of an alcoholic artist, is a well-thought-out crime drama with some arresting incongruities, but it is almost too sedate to keep pace with either of the Kling subplots. If it was a suicide, the guy didn't leave a note, and that, McBain writes, "was like a pastrami sandwich without a pickle." So Carella talks to several people who knew the artist, none of whom are surprised or sorry the man is dead.

This would probably rate a good "Columbo" episode on its own. Again, McBain here introduces the question of whether to believe the worst in people (though for Carella, unlike Kling, it is his job to thoroughly eliminate the possibility of murder.) Since the wife is a key suspect, it also opens up the question of marital loyalty (How well do we know the people who share our lives, really?) in a way similar to the Kling subplot.

McBain was beginning to carve out some exciting new ground for the 87th Precinct, in terms of the lives of the characters and the city they serve, and the 1980s would see many of the best novels in the series, like "Ice," "Poison," "Tricks," and "Lullaby." If "Heat" isn't quite in their category, it still is a standout for its probing treatment of Kling and his marital torments, an overture for the deeper psychodramas to come.

Will Bert Kling Ever Find Love?
This is the usual excellent mystery from McBain, but the murder almosttakes a back seat to Bert Kling stalking his wife when he fears she'scheating on him.To make matters worse, Kling is being stalked by anex-con bent on revenge.Rather than romanticize Kling, McBain shows him ona slippery slope which finally has him perjuring himself to obtain a searchwarrant for the suspected lover's home. The murder is resolved by SteveCarella, but the reader finds himself more wrapped up in the continuingtragedy of Bert Kling.

McBain is in his usual top form with this one.
Ed McBain manages to fill the short space of two-hundred pages (exactly) with a normal 87th Precinct corpse, and the mystery that follows, plus two side stories-how Bert Kling is trying to hold on to his model wife, and how an ex-con psycho is out hunting for him.Try this, you won't be disappointed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

A Hard-boiled Gem from Ed McBain
Of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler once wrote this:

Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse; and with the means at hand, not with hand-wrought duelling pistols, curare, and tropical fish. He put these people down on paper as they are, and he made them talk and think in the language they customarily used for these purposes.

I always took that quote to partially explain the move, by mystery and crime fiction, into the twentieth century. And, by extension, brought it to the American city. Sure, there is the famous foggy London of Sherlock Holmes and there is death there, and danger. But what Hammett, Chandler, and other did was pull a Christopher Columbus on crime fiction: they discovered a new world and then began to exploit it. Their fiction teemed with immigrants and thugs, falling over each other in row houses and tenement apartments of New York or Philly or Boston. It smelled. People drank. People died...and not always naturally. This is America, dammit. Get used to it, toughen up, or get out of here.

By the time Ed McBain began writing fiction, this tradition was decades old. McBain scanned the landscape, saw what was what, judged the speed of the moving traffic, and merged right in, going zero to sixty in seconds. And he never looked back, even when he changed lanes. Everyone else had to swerve to get out of the way of this fast-moving car whose driver knew exactly what he wanted and where he wanted to go.

Originally published in 1958 under the title I'm Cannon--For Hire, I read the republished version from Hard Case Crime entitled The Gutter and the Grave. A quick check at Thrilling Detective reveals that McBain liked the new title. The new title is quite apt. The first sentence of the story finds Matt Cordell basically in the gutter. The last sentence finds Cordell...well, I don't want to ruin the ending.

McBain's prose is, like Hammett's, tough, ornery, and punchy. I use punchy because there are a few fights in the books, both in flashback and in the book's present day. And the beating Cordell takes is brutal. It's brutal by today's standards. I can't imagine the reading public's reaction back in '58.

I listened to the audiobook version. The good folks at BBC Audiobook America provided this one and a great narrator: Richard Ferrone. His voice is gravelly, as if he himself just got off the booze long enough to read this book. It's a wonderful presentation. He also read the posthumously-published (by HCC, natch) novel by Mickey Spillane, Dead Street. I could think of nothing better than to have Ferrone read any old-school PI/noir book in the library. I'd check out every one.
This is the first McBain book I have read. I have his first 87th Precinct, Cop Hater, on my list. This will not be the last. My next McBain step will be to find the collection Learning to Kill, McBain's collection of short fiction that, according to him, helped him become "Ed McBain." I hope there is another Matt Cordell story in there. If not, I'll have to play Book PI and track them down. I want to know more about Matt Cordell. And you should, too.

Just don't blame me if it starts an addiction. I warned you.
([...])

A guilty pleasure, but a good one.
I had not read a real hard-boiled detective novel in years before I stumbled onto this book. This is the real deal in the old pulp tradition, but the absolute best pulp tradition. Originally written in 1958, I do not think that the vast majority of modern writers could come close to recreating the mindset or the backdrop.

This isn't an elegant, intricate sort of mystery- it is more in the spirit of Mickey Spillanes's classic toughguy yarns. There is a difference though. It is more like one of Spillane's heroes had finally gone too far and found out that he wasn't a superman afterall. That is the case with Matt Cordell- we meet him on the Bowery as a pan-handling drunk. He has lost his license, wis wife, his rep, and his self-respect. He is now resigned to life as a philosophical drunk living in flops and on park benches. It is a joy watching him prove to himself and the world that he can solve one more case like a true professional. It is quite believable too, since at one point or another it seems like every single one of the other characters are lying to him.

On a secondary level this book is also a time capsule of 50's Manhattan. Infact, the settings are as engrossing as the plot. If you are getting a few years on you, it is very easy to quickly identify with both Cordell and his world...

The Gutter and the Grave
What a great book. This is my first Ed McBain's book and I'm already looking forward the next one. His style remembers me of Lawrence Block and Matt Cordell is a good pair to Block's Matt Scuder. The dialogs are great and the plot is simple and very well designed.
This book and the Lawrence Block's The Grifter's Game are the best on the Hard Case Crime series.
Don't loose it. you won't regret.

Ed McBain classic a welcome addition to HARD CASE CRIME
Ed McBain is a classic crime writer with a nack for writing books that flow smoothly and keep everyone entertained.This was no exception.A little bit dated with it's hep-cat talk and ends a little too predictabely, it still held up very well.Nice little easy read.

Gutter Gumshoe is Great
There are a few improbabilities in this story, things that, in terms of suspended disbelief, you have to wonder if the author might expect too much from his readership. An ex-detective has been living as a homeless alcoholic for five years after the collapse of his marriage. He takes on a case of theft as a favor to an old acquaintance. This case quickly turns into one of murder. Our hero's mind has not become completely stewed thanks to the demon drink, though. He still possesses remarkable athleticism and stereotypical prowess with the ladies.

And yet, this is a rattling good yarn. Ed McBain was truly a master of his craft. I can't claim to have read many books by him (in fact, the only other book I've read by him is `The Blackboard Jungle' which he wrote as Evan Hunter), but I know good writing when I see it, and I see it here. This novel was originally published in 1958 under one of McBain's other pseudonyms, Curt Cannon, under the title `I'm Cannon - For Hire'.

Our hero, Matt Cordell, tells this story in the first person, and, thanks to McBain's superlative writing, the story comes to life amid New York's steaming hot summer. The dialogue is wonderfully snappy, in the manner of a classic film noir. I had Bogart's voice in my head as I read Cordell's narration. There are also some wonderfully descriptive passages. In particular, there's a scene where Cordell wants to question a musician who's taking part in a late night jam session. McBain's writing is so sharp that you can hear the music as he describes the musicians' actions. You can imagine the smoky, sweaty scene as the players do their stuff in front of their rapt audience. Cordell opines that, "racial prejudice would evaporate if everyone were taught to play an instrument. The sound is the thing and music has its own color."

The whodunit aspect is perhaps not handled as well as it could have been. That said, I didn't guess who the killer was, but the ending felt forced. The story seemed to be flowing in top gear when the author suddenly applies the brakes and wraps things up. Nevertheless, this is highly recommended for sheer entertainment with a few minor reservations in the plausibility department. `The Gutter and the Grave' is another novel from the Hard Case Crime imprint. Also recommended from this particular series is Gil Brewer's `The Vengeful Virgin'.
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Product Description
When a calypso singer and a prostitute are greased with the same .38, 87th Precinct cops Carella and Meyer go underground. Their search for the cold-blooded killer takes them into the sleazy underworld of pimps, hookers and pushers--a seamy world of sex and sadism. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Strange Music For 87th Series
"Calypso" is definitely an offbeat detour for Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series, pulling the reader away from the traditional environs of Isola and into a pair of unrelated homicides that merge into a race against time. But the story lacks the veracity and vitality of other entries.

A calypso musician and his manager are gunned down by a mysterious assailant in 87th Precinct territory, the musician fatally. Not long after, uptown, a prostitute is also murdered with the same gun. Finding the connection becomes the focus for Dets. Steve Carella and Meyer Meyer.

"There is nothing cops like better than continuity, even if it takes a couple of corpses to provide it," McBain writes.

The most interesting thing about "Calypso" for 87th fans is the chance to see one of the Precinct mysteries stretch well beyond its usual geographic confines to take in the greater metropolis of Isola, which McBain modeled on New York City. In this vein, McBain's description of Isola's layout is amusing, with its five boroughs and a long island unconnected officially to the city itself but serving as a kind of suburb, here called "Sands Spit".

Less entertaining is the story itself. The title is an odd one, without the usual 87th play on words (an orchid with the Latin name "Calypso" becomes a clue, but its a bit of a stretch this time). The humor feels tired, like when a prostitute confuses the words "minyan" and "million". Sleuthing is replaced by an overreliance on sex and violence, a sign of flagging imagination. The ending is abruptly jarring. McBain even makes a crack about "all the pieces in place, just like a phony bleeping mystery novel."

Published in 1979, "Calypso" came out the same year Evan Hunter - who wrote under the McBain pseudonym - saw his non-mysteries "Walk Proud" and "The Chisholms" make it onto movie and television screens, Hunter writing both adaptations. Whether that had anything to do with it, the mystery elements of this story feel undernourished. The identity of the killer is revealed too early and feels both implausible and uninspired.

On the plus side, McBain does keep the story moving even as it goes off the rails. There's the usual assortment of colorful characters; and amusing, welcome cameos by non-precinct stalwarts Monroe, Monoghan, and Fat Ollie Weeks, for whom this is one of his first appearances.

It's just that "Calypso" isn't the kind of 87th Precinct novel I'd give someone asking about those McBain books. It's atypicality is interesting, but a lack of focus makes for an unpleasant and labored read.

The Best The 87th Precinct Has To Offer
I have read all of the 87th precinct books up to this point and I think this one is in the top tier. It starts off with the murder of a Calypso musician and his Manager barely survives.A prostitute is then found murdered in a similar fashion and Detectives Carella and Meyer are tracking down leads.Not to give away the story but their investigation leads to a chilling finale. One which I guarantee you will not soon forget. 5 stars.

Agreed
I agree with the other reviewer.This is one of the McBain novels that I still think about 20 years after reading it.I was literally shaking when I finished it.

Excellent with an unhappy ending
A really exciting, page turner book, till the end which was very unhappy and rather disturbing. The motive of mentally sick woman, and the crime she committed before she was admitted to the asylum , however imaginary, isvery chilling and caused a 'riot' in me.As usual 87th presinct team makethe questioning appear very exciting, Stephen Carella and others arebrilliant. Buy a second hand copy as soon as you see it. The best amongstthe books by McBain I have read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

My First Matthew Hope
I am an avid fan of Stuart Kaminsky, John D. MacDonald, Cornell Woolrich, and Jim Thompson.Ed McBain fits in incredibly nicely with this amazing authors.I had read Ed McBain before - "Cop Hater" and his incredibly delightful retelling of the Christmas Story with the officers of the 87th precinct.As Evan Hunter, Ed McBain soars as the author of "The Blackboard Jungle."If you haven't seen the movie, you should.Anyway, I will digress... my point is that Ed McBain is a wonderful writer and not to be missed.
This book features Matthew Hope, a Florida attorney, who is hired by Sarah Whittaker to get her out of an institution for the insane.The novel goes back and forth with Matthew believing that she is sane and perfectly normal, not to mention incredibly attractive, and utterly crazy.He tends to go toward the idea that she is normal, probably because she not only seems to know what is going on, but also because he would love to be involved romantically with her.Did I mention that she's due to inherit over a billion dollars?
The plot twists and turns over the delusions that Sarah is supposed to possess and the discovery of a decomposing body in the swampy areas of the Florida coast.It seems for a long time that the two plots have nothing to do with one another. Or do they?Well, I won't spoil any plot points, but I do want to say that the final explanation is a wonderfully brilliant stream of consciousness (in my opinion, delivered in a much better way than Virginia Wolf) that was so eloquent that it will stay with me for years to come.
I read somewhere that Evan Hunter didn't want to use his real name when writing mysteries because he didn't think the genre was "serious" enough, thus coming up with the pseudonymn Ed McBain.Well, he had nothing to be ashamed of... Matthew Hope is a hero for the ages, all the while maintaining the appeal of Travis McGee and Toby Peters-- real men characters.

Great read...
This is a pretty short novel featuring Matthew Hope as a lawyer who often ends up playing detective (also an older book...1985).In this story, there are two plot lines going on.In the first, Hope is retained by a young lady who's been involuntarily committed to a mental institution.She seems very sane, and blames the situation on her mother who is trying to control a chunk of money she's inherited.In the other plot line (that seems totally unrelated), a pair of detectives find the body of a young lady in a swamp.She was shot in the throat and her tongue was cut out, and she's been there for six to nine months.As the two plots unfold, they start moving towards each other with a twist at the end...Good read.

Masterpiece
Probably the best of the Matthew Hope novels. Excellent plotting and characterizations. The cops, Bloom and Rawles, are wonderful, full dimensional characters. I love Matthew Hope's naivete, he's an unreliable narrator who has a "hope"ful view of humanity, unlike McBain himself, or whatever his name is. This one's great! ... Read more

Product Description
She was young, wealthy - and dead. Strangled to death in a slum apartment. All they had to go on was her name and some cancelled cheques. As Steve Carella said, 'Those cheques are the diary of her life. We'll find the answer there.' But how was he to know that they would reveal something much stranger than murder? On Passover the rabbi bled to death. Someone had brutally stabbed him and painted a J on the synagogue wall. Everyone knew who the killer was - it had to be Finch, the Jew-hater. Or did it...? The snow was pure white except where Cotton Hawes stared down at the bright red pool of blood spreading away from the dead girl's body. Hawes was supposed to be on a skiing holiday, but he couldn't just stand by and watch the local cops make a mess of the case. He had to catch the ski-slope slayer before he killed again. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

"Wherefore is this night unlike all other nights?"
Unlike any of the previous books in the 87th Precinct series, Ed McBain's "The Empty Hours" is a collection of three novellas.The book takes its overall title from the first of these, concerning Detective Steve Carella's investigation of the murder of a young woman a few months after the death of her cousin in a boating accident.The problem with this story is that it contains too many clues which fit together too neatly; it would be an obtuse reader indeed who failed to solve the entire mystery several chapters before the cops of the 87th do so.

The second story, "J", is something rather more special.The murder of a young rabbi outside his synagogue during Passover becomes an unusually personal case for Detective Meyer Meyer.This potentially controversial story is by far the strongest of the book's three segments.

"Storm" is another reasonably predictable story, but is novel in that it features only Detective Cotton Hawes out of McBain's usual ensemble cast.Hawes' ski weekend with an attractive blonde dancer is interrupted by a gruesome murder on the slopes.Although the killer's identity is fairly obvious, this story does succeed in conveying the sickening horror and unfairness of violent death, something to which many mystery readers may usually feel hardened.

"The Empty Hours" may not be McBain at his best, but is still very good indeed.

The Empty Hours
"The Empty Hours" by Ed McBain is a mystery that contains 3 short novels of the 87th Precinct. In "The Empty Hours" Steve Carella and Meyer Meyer investigate the death of Claudia Davis, a wealthy young woman found dead in a slum apartment. In "J" rabbi Jacob Solomon is stabbed to death in an alley behind the synagogue on Passover. Carella and Meyer investigate. In "Storm: Cotton Hawes helps local police investigate the death of ski instructor Helga Nilson who was stabbed to death with a ski pole. All 3 of these early 87th Precinct novels are excellent. Ed McBain is the master of the police procedural.

The Empty Hours
"The Empty Hours" by Ed McBain is a mystery that contains 3 short novels of the 87th Precinct. In "The Empty Hours" Steve Carella and Meyer Meyer investigate the death of Claudia Davis, a wealthy young woman found dead in a slum apartment. In "J" rabbi Jacob Solomon is stabbed to death in an alley behind the synagogue on Passover. Carella and Meyer investigate. In "Storm: Cotton Hawes helps local police investigate the death of ski instructor Helga Nilson who was stabbed to death with a ski pole. All 3 of these early 87th Precinct novels are excellent. Ed McBain is the master of the police procedural.

THE EMPTY HOURS WILL FILL A FEW FOR YOU!!!!!!
As I ordered this book I did not know it is really three stores in one book until I received it. As McBain books are, to me, the three are good. The first one is "The Empty Hours" about a young wealthy woman who is found dead. Who is she and is she who you think she is? Why was she killed? Carella and friends run down clues until they find out. You will be surprised. The second one is simply "J". A Rabbi is found killed. Who would want to kill a Rabbi? There is a Jew-hater, was it him? Meyer Meyer leds the search to find the killer and finds something out about himself while doing. Again a surprise. The last one is "Storm". This one features Cotton Hawes and his sweetie going to a ski resort and an instructor ending up dead. Cotton is afraid the local police will mess up the investigation and trys to get involved. The locals resent him being there. He still gets involved and the killer is finally found. As three are three stories in one book they are all pretty short so it make for each one to ba a quick read. McBain will hold your attention and you won't want to put the book down. ... Read more

Product Description
All at once, Fat Ollie Weeks had a truly brilliant idea...

But as any real writer could tell you, that's how inspiration strikes -- with the sudden force of a violent crime. Known more for his foul mouth and short temper than his way with words, Detective Weeks has written a novel. But just as Isola is rocked by the murder of a mayoral candidate, the only copy of Ollie's manuscript is stolen -- and an all-too-real adventure begins as a thief follows Ollie's fictional blueprint to find a $2 million cache of nonexistent diamonds. Now, the 87th Precinct races to bring poetic justice to a cold-blooded assassin -- and someone's about to add another chapter to the colorful career of Ollie Weeks, a cop who's never played by the book....Amazon.com Review
The disreputable, bigoted, dirty-mouthed but oddly likable Ollie Weeks, a walk-on in Ed McBain's popular 87th Precinct series, gets a book of his own here: not just the mystery of who killed a popular mayoral candidate a few days before the election, but the one Ollie, improbably, is writing. Pity the schmuck who lifts Ollie's only copy of his manuscript from his car--not only is its author in desperate need of what he's sure will be his ticket to fame and fortune, but the befuddled miscreant somehow believes that the caper recounted in Ollie's book is a real one, and that he's in possession of a blueprint for the crime that will allow him to cash in on it. This is a fast, funny read from the master--like a valentine to his fans while they wait for his next big one. --Jane Adams ... Read more

Customer Reviews (51)

Just Going Through the Motions
No one who writes fifty books in a series can make them all memorable, but this one is just plain lazy work.Without Ollie's book (which may, just may be better than McBain's/Hunter's) taking up enough slack with all of the repeats of previous book stories, this could have been a short story.There is also all of the griping that McBain does about other mystery/police procedural writers, book sellers, agents, etc, that make the subject of the book to be nothing but an add-on.The shooting of the councilman and the involvement of the "junkie cross-dresser", seems so unnecessary that you wonder why Carella and Kling are involved in the book at all.

That Steve Carella keeps talking to himself about being forty, seems more like Hunter complaining that he's seventy.Considering that in the first 87th Precinct novel, Carella was a Korean Vet and Meyer was a WW2 vet, now almost fifty years later, Carella has only aged maybe fifteen years.This is strange-r because he didn't marry his wife for ten years and his kids are only twelve years old, though they were born in the late sixties.Though while everything else has been modernized, we have computers and cell phones the cops haven't aged at all.It's hard to imaging after all this time that Carella is still a Detective Second Class and Kling a third class.With all the times they've been shot and the number of big cases they've solved, you'd think they'd been promoted.

The murder story just doesn't hold ones attention, in fact it wouldn't make a good 'Law & Order' episode.It's been obvious for a while that McBain is bored with the 87th Precinct, but money talks.What is the need for Hunter to used all these terrible jokes, just because he can dump them on Fat Ollie and Parker and we're supposed to expect these guys to be getting away with this bigotry and sexism in the 21st Century?Ed, you should have finished these guys off or at least sent them into retirement, but then they have only served like what, fifteen years?To bad, it used to be a good series and McBain had more respect for his fellow writers.He acts like he invented the idea of police procedurals.Guess he never had time to read Chandler or Simenon.

Zeb Kantrowitz

He said..........She said.........
I listened to this on a tape while I was walking.The word "SAID" must have been said about 500 times throughout the story.........very irritating!!!

funny mystery
Fat Ollie is a detective investigating the assassination of a local politician.He's an equal-opportunity bigot, and his novel, except for the last chapter, has been stolen from his patrol car.Yes, he's written a very short (30+ pages) novel, Report to the Commissioner, and has no backup copy, because he composed it on a typewriter.So there are two crimes being solved here, and how they become intertwined is hilarious.The transvestite prostitute, Emilio/Emmy, who stole the novel, doesn't realize that it's fiction and starts doing some sleuthing of his own to locate the people in the book.There's also a drug deal going down in the middle of it all, with some two-bit crooks who have no idea what they're getting into.Needless to say, this is not a thriller or a serious mystery.Fat Ollie's novel is included in its entirety and provides lots of laughs, especially as its author repeats himself to be sure that he's covered all the bases grammatically.And the protagonist of Ollie's book is a female cop, so that it's almost as if Ollie is channeling a woman in the book.It's a not-too-subtle parallel with the Emilio/Emmy character.

Funny At Times
This was the first Ed McBain novel I read.Although this story was funny at times, I thought that it was just okay. The main character Oliver Wendell Weeks is not very likeable.I havesince read other Ed McBain novels and they were much better . This novel is not a good introduction to Ed McBain but it is entertaining at times.

Thomas Fitzsimmons author of City of Fire loves this book.
This is one of McBain's best; a fast read with interesting characters and plot. Highly recommended.City of Fire ... Read more

Product Description
Here is the 87th Precinct in all its gritty, glory--rough cops, arrogant criminals and the unrelenting pressure of a city of murder and deceit. An expanded republishing program provides the best of the McBain backlist repackaged. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Competently written.
Ten Plus One by Ed McBain is a competently written police procedural, slightly above average in quality when compared to other books within the same genre.Detectives Steve Carella and Meyer Meyer of the 87th precinct are called upon to find a serial sniper who has been terrorizing the city.McBain has populated this book with an exceptionally large number of diverse characters.Some are believable while others are unidimensional stereotypes lacking authenticity.The plotting is workmanlike with an ample number of false leads designed to misdirect the reader before the identity of the killer is revealed in the final chapter.Above average but falls short of the threshold for a 4 star rating.

One of the best of the bunch
The first "Eighty-Seventh Precinct" novel was written in 1956, "Ten Plus One" is the seventeenth and was written in 1963.I would say that it is probably the best up to this time.The novel is well paced and the idea behind the murders is slowly reveals liked the pealing of an artichoke.McBain slowly leads us to the killer, who based on earlier information should have been one of the group but turns out to be some one else.

We know after the fourth murder that these victims had to have had something in common at sometime in their lives, and McBain brings in that clue in an unusual way.The killer and the reasoning behind the killings is well disguise until the last thirty pages of the book.All in all it is a great job.

Solving the Connection among Victims
This 1963 book is set in an imaginary city that resembles Manhattan. One afternoon a man stepped into the sidewalk then was shot and killed by a sniper. Detective Steve Carella is assigned the job of investigating this crime. The next day there is another sniper killing. A few days later there are more victims, same methods. The search continues, more victims are shot. Then the daughter of one of the victims brings in some old documents that connect the victims to the college they attended over 20 years ago. Finally the sniper is caught. [I guessed at Chapter 16.]

This is a fast-paced interesting story. It points out the effect of a shot from a higher point: the exit wound would be lower than the entrance wound. An important fact for 1963 and afterwards. The story about a college party circa 1940 would be relevant for those times and today. This motivation seems weak, as if created for this story. [Did the author study dramatics in college?] One interesting point was the ease of transporting a rifle around New York city in a taxi. This book provides examples of police procedures in handling suspects.

A great murder novel
I have just discovered Ed Mc Bain and I think he is a great American writer. This book is a masterpiece and one of the best murder novels I ever read (as good as Ellroy's novels). Now I am going to read the whole The 87th Precinct Series by Ed Mc Bain!!!!!!!

TEN PLUS ONE DESERVES A TEN!!!!!
Another good one by Ed McBain. A sniper is killing people wtih a high powered rifle. First three men, then a woman, then four more men. What do they have in common, or are they connected? Steve Carella and Myer Myer are determined to find out. They are finally connected to a play they were all in while in college, many years ago. What about a play would make someone want to kill so many people? As usual Carella and Myer plod along, asking questiond and pushing people untill it all come together. Excellent police work. It is a pleasure to read. It will hold your attention. Is a short book and makes for a quick read. ... Read more