See Them Die

by Ed McBain

The writing's still a bit purple, but finally we see a glimpse of the McBain to come--the McBain that knows what a mystery is and knows how to show it to us rather than tell it to us. The set-up on this book is simple--in the first chapter, McBain tells us that two people are going die this day. From then on, character after character, and situation after situation, is introduced, and everytime you think, "ah-ha! here's the one that's going to die," McBain pulls the rug out and disaster is averted. Or, when someone gets shot and you think, "no, this isn't the person to die, can't be," well, you're wrong. There really isn't a mystery per se here, but there is a quite a bit of tension and surprise. Also, McBain kills off a repeating character in such an unexpected manner, showing you the difference between his series and those of other mystery writers. For other writers, the characters are king. Pick up any Nero Wolfe novel, and you know that Nero, Archie, Fritz, Saul and Inspector Cramer will be there. Not so with McBain. His character is the 87th Precinct, and no matter who the cops and villains are, it is the city and the precinct that will be there.

The Heckler

by Ed McBain

87th Precinct mystery. Steve Carella gets shot again, this time by the "Deaf Man." This is getting a little old, this constant use of Carella as a punching bag or the character around which the "mystery" is structured (like his sister's wedding in an earlier novel). McBain has several interesting characters in the 87th, and he's done Carella to death (literally, almost). What was "fun" here? The scene in which the break goes against the Deaf Man, who has carefully calculated and elongated the odds in his favor for getting away with his burglary. There's still some horrendous overwriting here, although nothing as purple as the last novel. It's amazing, to me, that these novels were bought and published. I know why I read them now, that is, because I've read the 1980s 87th Precinct, and know how good McBain gets, but how ever did he survive long enough with work of this poor caliber? Is there a Young McBain even now creating a series that we will look back at 20+ years hence publishing today? I doubt it. I think the publishing conditions and conventions were much different in the late 50s and early 60s. Today's writer has to be much better with that first novel, and each subsequent one.

Give the Boys a Great Big Hand

Give the Boys a Great Big Hand
by Ed McBain

Typical early 87th Precinct mystery with a horrendous pun for the title (the "Boys" of the 87th find a large cut-off hand in the first chapter). McBain in this period has a horrible tendancy to overwrite (the three page description of the "City" as a woman was excruciatingly purple) and play cute (several times the characters make references to either entertainment or novels, in an early and poor attempt at post-modernism). Introduced in this book is Juan, the Puerto Rican addition to the 87th, as McBain slowly trudges towards diversity, thirty years earlier than Bill Clinton.