Ed McBain

It should have been the night that launched a new pop idol. Tamar Valparaiso is young and beautiful, with the body and voice of an angel. The stage is set for her to launch her debut album, Bandersnatch, on a luxury yacht in the heart of the city. But halfway through her performance, masked men drag Tamar off the stage and into a waiting speedboat, while the partygoers look on helplessly. Detective Steve Carella is just showing up for the graveyard...

Ed McBain concocts a brilliant and intricate thriller about a master criminal who haunts the city with cryptic passages from Shakespeare, directing the detectives of the 87th Precinct to a future crime -- if only they can figure out what he means. The 87th Precinct gets a visit from one of the city's most accomplished criminals -- a thief known as the Deaf Man. Because he might be deaf. Or he might not. So little is known about the man who is harassing...

Murders happen every day in the big bad city. They're not such a big deal, you know. Even when the victim is a city councilman as well-known as Lester Henderson. But this is the first time Fat Ollie Weeks of the 88th Precinct has written a novel, ah yes. Called Report to the Commissioner, it follows a cunning detective named Olivia Wesley Watts, who, apart from being female and slim, is rather like Fat Ollie himself. While Ollie's responding to the...

25 crime stories published between 1952-1957 written by Ed McBain under various pseudonyms

After Jessica Leeds- wife of a prestigious, wealthy Florida landowner- is brutally raped, three Vietnamese immigrants are charged with the crime. After the trial results in their acquittal, Jessica's husband Stephen vows vengeance. Then, the three immigrants are found savagely murdered. When all of the evidence ties Stephen Leeds to the grisly killings, Jessica turns to Florida lawyer Matthew Hope. He takes the case- ...

Attorney Matthew Hope had hired Otto Samalson to conduct a simple marital investigation- so how does Samalson end up dead on a deserted highway? Hope's search for an answer takes him into Florida's drug underworld on the trail of a hooker- one who has the style and looks necessary to transform herself into a high-class cocaine-stealing Cinderella. What Hope uncovers is a complicated web of circumstances and a terrifying twist...

It is Christmas in the city, but it isn't the giving season. A retired Gulf War pilot, a careless second-story man, a pair of angry Mexicans, and an equally shady pair of Secret Service agents are in town after a large stash of money, and no one is interested in sharing.The detectives at the 87th are already busy for the holidays. Steve Carella and Fat Ollie Weeks catch the squeal when the lions in the city zoo get an unauthorized feeding of a young...

In this 87th Precinct thriller, Detective Steve Carella must track down a killer who's systematically rubbing out all the city's graffiti artists, leaving each victim mischievously splashed with paint and blood. Foul play takes another form when an old nemesis, the Dead Man, taunts Carella and the eight-seven with riddling clues for solving a crime - or crimes - not yet committed. Given what he's deduced from the prankish perpetrator, Carella strongly...

The author of the 87th Precinct series presents a riotous story of the gamblers, mobsters, and other colorful characters who hang around Aqueduct Racetrack. Andrew Mullaney has the money to get to Aqueduct Racetrack, but nothing to bet once he gets there. It's a tragedy, because today he's got a sure thing: a filly named Jawbone who's guaranteed to win. Desperate, Andrew asks every hood he knows to spot him fifty bucks, tapping chess hustlers, pool...

The lives of two New York toughs spin out of control when a routine burglary spirals into a cop killing in this thriller by the author of the 87th Precinct series. Robbing the cars is Jobbo's idea. Frankie just goes along because it's too hot to do anything else, and he can't resist easy money. They walk along the East River, reaching into open windows and taking whatever they find. Mostly, it's just junk, until Jobbo picks up the .45. It's fully...