Happiness Is A Book: Lullaby by Ed McBain

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Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: REACHING FOR THE MOON

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FFB Review: Cop Hater: An 87th Precinct Novel by Ed McBain

Cop Hater: An 87th Precinct Novel by Ed McBain (aka Evan Hunter) is the book that started the 87th Precinct Series. Originally published in 1956, it was republished by Thomas and Mercer in 2012. Back in the fall of 2019, Amazon made several in the series, including this one, free and I took advantage.

 

After an intro from the author explaining how the first book and the series came to be, the read opens with the weather and how the summer heat has its grip on the on “The City.” (I always thought this series was set in New York City, but as explained by the author in his intro, it is not and could be any major fictional city anywhere in the country.) Detective Mike Reardon gets up at 11:00 PM and goes about starting his day as he has the Midnight shift in the detective squad. By 11:41 PM, his walk to work is interrupted as two bullets entered the back of his head and punched out the front.

 

It was 11:56 PM when another citizen found him dead and made a call to the police. It is just after midnight and a new day and still hot as the Homicide Detectives from Homicide North survey the scene outside a boarded-up theater. It is close to 12:30 AM when Detectives Carella and Bush from the 87th Precinct arrive and roll the body over only to realize the murdered man is one of their own. 

 

There were sixteen detectives assigned to the 87th precinct. The murder of Mike Reardon means there are now fifteen. It also means that they have another murder case to solve. That must be done while the other cases keep coming---the robberies, the rapes, the assaults, and all the rest of it—as the work never stops. 

 

So too do the killings of cops as others are also murdered by a “cop hater.” Someone is targeting cops and has to be found and stopped. 

 

While a little dated in spots, after all it was published in 1956, Cop Hater: An 87th Precinct Novel by Ed McBain is a solidly good read. The weather and the city are each their own characters as are the various folks in the tale. A solidly good read that lays the foundation for many books to come. 

 

 

Cop Hater: An 87th Precinct Novel

Ed McBain

https://www.edmcbain.com/

Thomas & Mercer

https://amazonpublishing.amazon.com/thomas-mercer.html

May 2012

ASIN: B007MDDD52

eBook

226 Pages 

 

Per Amazon, I picked this up in October 2019.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2021

FFB Review: The Big Bad City by Ed McBain

Back several weeks ago, Barry Ergang offered his review of The Big Bad City by Ed McBain who was also known under his legally adopted name of Evan Hunter. I realized when I was reading Barry’s FFB review that I had not read this one. As it was available from the Dallas Public Library in hardback, I picked it up and read the majority of it while at UTD waiting for Scott. For the full list of reading suggestions for this first Friday in September 2019, head over to Todd Mason’s Sweet Freedom Blog.

“So if you came here thinking, Gee, there’s going to be a neat little murder takes place in a town house and some blue-haired lady will solve it in her spare time when she isn’t tending her rose garden, then you came to the wrong city at the wrong time of the year. In this city, things were happening all the time, all over the place, and you didn’t have to be a detective to smell evil in the wind. (The Big Bad City, Page 32)

The detectives of the 87^th precinct, let alone the other precincts of New York City have their hands full. That was before a suspect in the precinct cage knifed a fellow suspect before being shot by Detective Carella. That resulted in two teams of paramedics being brought in and the obligatory visit from Internal Affairs Detectives on a mission to determine what the heck happened. It doesn’t help that it is August and the air conditioning in the precinct house is seriously on the fritz.

Then there are the murders.

One murder is the dead young lady found in Grover Park in front of a park bench. One could tell by looking at her throat she had been strangled. Detectives Brown and Carella had been ready to call it a day and go home when their boss, Lieutenant Brynes sent them out on the case. A case that is going to become incredibly complex.

The burglar nicknamed “The Cookie Boy” continues to do his deal of breaking into places and stealing stuff before leaving a container of homemade chocolate chip cookies behind.  Detectives Mayer and Kling have been on that case quite a while. A case that may now involve two murders.

The detectives are not the only ones on the hunt in the city. So too is a man bent on revenge. His target is one of the detectives of the 87^th precinct. Like some of the other two legged predators that travel through New York City, murder is on his mind.

The Big Bad City: A Novel Of The 87^th Precinct is a complicated police procedural with many moving parts. Like others in the series, it is a solidly good read. As noted in the above quote, this is not a read for cozy readers who prefer sanitized language and situations.

The Big Bad City: A Novel Of The 87^th Precinct

Ed McBain

https://www.edmcbain.com

Simon & Schuster

https://simonandschuster.com

January 1999

ISBN# 0-684-85512-7

Hardback (also available in various formats including paperback and digital)

272 Pages

$25.00

My reading copy came from the downtown branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2019

Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: FFB: Fiddlers -- Ed McBain

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Ed Gorman's blog: Guns by Ed McBain Random House, Copyright 1976

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