FFB: KILLER’S WEDGE (1959) by Ed McBain

The Killer's Wedge is McBain riffing on the locked room mystery in several ways.... and commenting on them in a way that we would call Meta these days. The two plot lines involve a dead man in a locked room who looks to have killed himself and a group of 87th Precinct Bulls trapped in a squad room while a woman waits to kill Det. Steve Carella with a .38 Special and a jar of Soup (nitro). The action takes place over the course of 1 day, mostly the afternoon, and it tense and driving.  


Carella wrestles with the suicide squeal, the rest of the squad wrestle with how to escape the trap they have been placed in.  It's a fast, punchy read that shows what a limited story in a small setting can be and still keep the larger story of the 87th Precinct moving along. McBain knew how to keep the pages turning and his readers waiting for the next installment. As with earlier installments in the series the book a product of the market of the time, 160 pages of sparse proses telling two simple stories and at the same time fleshing out the world of the 87th Precinct... well worth checking out, and I hear tell that Amazon is going to start reprinting the series in the near future for anyone that wants to check it out.


another look at the book can be found HERE. Patti Abbott advises that this weeks links are going to be collected by  Brian Lindenmuth at SPINETINGLER 

Junk in '57

The Pusher by Ed McBain

A Novel of the 87^th Precinct

 

       This was the third of the 87^th Precinct books, and it’s maybe the most out of date. It follows the investigation of the death of a junkie. It’s slight, it’s on the short side and it’s maybe the best example of the world that was. The topic of Narcotics, drugs, Pushing, what people do to get their junk and the effects of the Big H, is so 1950s, really one of the reasons that I am planning to read all of the books in order is that I was to see how the changing world of crime is covered in the form of the novel. I look forward to seeing the covering of Drugs in the ‘60s book and the 80s books.  This was also the last of the initial three books that were to be published as the trial run for the series, and it stands up well as one of the early setting the scene books in the series. Up next in the series…. The Con Man. 

The Mugger by Ed McBain

An 87^th Precinct Novel

The Mugger is the second of the novels about the detectives of the 87^th Precinct, and one of the original three that were written in 1956. The plot of the book is pretty simple, as the title suggests our officer and cops are seeking a mugger who have been targeting women in the precinct. It’s a short novel; it serves not only to act as an insight to the world of the 87^th Precinct, but also to continue the set up of our squad room, giving patrolman Bert Kling his back-story, and really his first case. The book also serves to introduce the Meyer Meyer as one of the jokers of the squad. Over all it’s really a fast read, and it’s not really all that much of a stand out… with the exception of the Hepcat talk of a Beatnik informant, which is a reminder of how cool that patter could be…and how complex it could be as well. I also really liked the look into the idea of teen clubs, which I have only really read about, and I know the importance they held for the development of a lot of the 60’s garage rock that started to emerge around 10 years down the road from the year that this book was written.

 

 If you are looking to read and follow the whole 87^th Precinct series this book is a required read, however if you really just want the highlights, I’d start with one of the more acclaimed entries from the 70s and 80s… however my plan and goal over the next couple of years is to read all of them in order, and so for me this was an essential part of the story.

Cop Hater by Ed McBain

This was a solid, police procedural... which may have been the first of the genre... the story is simple enough, a cop killer is on the loose and the Detectives of the 87th Precinct are at a loss to find out who is killing their own. The book also acts as a starting insight to the world of the 87th Precinct and to introduce the cops and the city that would last a full 57 books over 49 years. It's worth reading simply to see where and how this series started.. I read a couple of the books in the series when I was younger, and I am planning on following them, to try and read all of them, see how they track the crime genre though the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's....

Post Motrem

I have returned Robert Bloch's Shooting Star/ Spiderweb to the Library... it just wasn't holding my attention at the moment... sure there were some solid moments, but Shooting Star just wasn't making it... so I am going to put it on my list of books that I will have to come back to...

I have instead started to read... Cop Hater by Ed McBain.... it's the first of the 87th Precinct book... I read a couple of the back in the day, but as I have been in a pulp mood as of late figured that I would try some of the early ones and try to work my way though the series over the next how ever long...