The Pusher (87th Precinct Mystery) (Penguin crime fiction) (87th Precinct)

by Ed McBain

Two a.m. in the bitter cold of winter: the young Hispanic man's body is found in a tenement basement. The rope around his neck suggests a clear case of suicide - until the autopsy reveals he'd overdosed on heroin. He was a pusher, and now a thousand questions press down on the detectives of the 87th Precinct. Who set up the phony hanging? Whose fingerprints were on the syringe found at the scene? Who was making threatening phone calls, attempting to implicate Lieutenant Byrnes' teenage son? Somebody is pushing the 87th Precinct hard, and Detective Steve Carella and Lieutenant Pete Byrnes have to push back harder - before a frightening and deadly chain tightens its trip.

• ISBN10: 0140019707
• ISBN13: 9780140019704
• Publish Date: 25 June 1970
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 14 August 1996
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 160
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

Good call to read this while snowed in for the weekend. Bitterly cold, right before Christmas, the setting matches up with the story. And a great story it is, too. I can see why the 87th Precinct set the standard for a generation of writers. Some of the best parts didn’t even have to do with the case.

“Some of the people saw through the sham and the electrical glitter and the skinny Santa Clauses with straggly beards lining Hall Avenue. Some of the people felt something other than what the advertising men wanted them to feel. Some of the people felt good, and kind, and happy to be alive.”