Allreaders.com

Message Board

Ed McBain Message Board 1/30/2010 10:03:15 AM
Talk about the novels, new and used books that McBain has written!

Author McBain's Book Reviews

Fat Ollie's Book
Simon & Schuster, Jan 2003, 25.00, 288 pp. ISBN: 0743202708 Known for his dissing every race and religion, Detective Fat Ollie Weeks is proud of his first police procedural, “Report to the Commissioner. However, the 88th Precinct cop finds official business interfering with the more important matters of authorship as he is assigned to investigate the assassination of City Councilman Lester Henderson, the leading candidate for mayor. Ironically ...
Frumious Bandersnatch
Simon & Schuster ISBN: 0743250346 Bison Records' Barney Loomis sets up a special event on a yacht to launch his latest find Tamar Valparaiso to stardom. Tamar lip-synchs her debut CD Bandersnatch aboard the rented River Princess with the media along. All seems well as the vessel sails along the river until Hussein and Arafat abduct the star. The media and the police wonder if perhaps Barney set up the ploy as a publicity stunt, but he insists ...
Fuzz
After an absence of many years, the anonymous madman known as the Deaf Man returns to plague the detectives of the 87th Precinct in general and Steve Carella in particular. What the Deaf Man has in mind is a complex pay-or-die extortion scheme, with politicians from the parks commissioner to the mayor as targets. It's really all a smokescreen for the Deaf Man's real crime, but what could that possibly be? As the Deaf Man brings his plans closer and...
Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear
Attorney Matthew Hope is defending Lainie Commins in a lawsuit against Toyland, Toyland, for stealing her designs for Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear. While waiting for the court to come to a decision, the president of Toyland, Toyland is murdered. Naturally Lainie is the chief suspect, but claims she had nothing to do with it....

McBain booklist

Hark
Simon & Schuster, Aug 2004, 24.95, 293 pp. ISBN: 0743250354 “Sonny Sanson”, an alias the Deaf Man used for this job to mean “I am without sound” has a gun pointed at the heart of his former associate Gloria. He demands she give to him whatever is left from an illegal drug sale. Gloria apologizes for her betrayal of him and cooperates, but Sanson is disinterested. Quoting Macbeth he shoots her twice in the chest before tying her to her bed just...
Ice
This is a cop drama in McBain's 87th Precinct series. It's set in a fictional city in the northeastern US. A killer is on the loose and 2 detectives are out to find out who it is and how the deaths of a drug dealer, a dancer, and a jewelry salesman are linked together. There are various subplots and a full cast of cops working on other assignments. This is my first 87th Precinct book and it doesn't seem like you need to read them in any order, althou...
Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man
It's been a long time since the enigmatic master criminal who calls himself the Deaf Man last harassed the detectives of the 87th Precinct in general and Det. Steve Carella in particular. That's why, when the photographs of George Washington, J. Edgar Hoover, a Zero fighter plane, and other esoteric subjects begin arriving at the 87th, each one sent twice, the detectives don't immediately consider them anything more than the bizarre missives of a crank....
Long Time No See
a tight, compelling mystery involving the deaths of blind people. What begins as a "routine" investigation, leads to one of the strangest journeys for the detectives of the 87th precinct. Full of suspense, mystery, and that spot-on dialogue that Ed Mcbain knows so well....
Mischief
As Detectives Kling and Parker investigate a serial killer who chooses graffitti-artists as his victims, Detective Steve Carella begins receiving calls from and old adversary, the Deaf Man. Soon, portions of a science-fiction novel begin arriving at the 87th, clues to the Deaf Man's next big crime. This novel, more than most McBain books, deals with larger issues than an individual crime, in this case racism, as Detective Parker, a notorious bigot, date...
Money, Money, Money
Nearly fifty years ago Ed McBain created a fictitious city and a police squad in that city, the 87th precinct. The novels about this squad still keep coming and get better all the time. This novel deals with drug trafficking, counterfeit money and terrorism. Crimes that involve big money. The book starts with a young female pilot bringing a cocaine shipment into the US from Mexico and handing over $1,700,000. The money was forged and this resulted in...

Ed McBain list of books

Puss in Boots
This series by Ed McBain stars Matthew Hope, an attorney in Calusa, Florida. This book is early in the series as it states it is Matthew's first criminal case. A woman is killed on her way home from work. She is a film producer and it seems like someone doesn't like the film she is making. However, all clues seem to point to her husband. He insists he didn't do it. Matthew believes him. It begins to look more and more like someone didn't want some...
So Long As You Both Shall Live
It is Bert Kling's wedding night. He steps into the bathroom to take a shower. When he returns his new bride has been kidnapped! Why and where did she go? Augusta didn't know that in her career as a model that she was inflaming this man who became obsessed with her. Now he snatches her, because he feels no one else can have her but him....
The Big Bad City
The Big Bad City by Ed McBain is a mystery novel of the 87 Precinct series. The Big Bad City grabs the readers' interest immediately. The novel takes place in New York, the city that never sleeps. The city has mysteries developing and crimes occurring on a daily basis; the novel well represents New York and its police force. The two detectives, Steve Carella and Arthur Brown deal with their own issues throughout the novel, but Carella is the main detec...
The Heckler
Someone is having fun at Dave Raskin's expense. That person has been harassing him by phone for weeks, threatening him with death if he does not leave his second-story shop by the last day of April. But Dave Raskin, patriotic American, knows what to do. He reports the heckler to Detective Meyer Meyer at the 87th Precinct. Meanwhile, Detective Steve Carella is investigating the discovery of a nude corpse with the unlikely name of John Smith, a man wearin...
Three Blind Mice
Three Vietnamese immigrants in Florida are acquitted of rape. At the trial, the victim's husband threatens to kill them. Two days later, they are found dead, and witnesses and all the evidence points to the husband. Case closed?Matthew Hope, lawyer, investigates what turns a far more sinister and frightening case....