87th Precinct Mystery

2 primary works • 45 total works

Fuzz

by Ed McBain

Published 7 August 1970

The 87th Precinct is up against the Deaf Man, master criminal, and Detective Carella's own Moriarty. With the murders of two prominent citizens to his credit, the Deaf Man is about to reveal his pice de resistance of extortion and homicide. Fuzz was the basis of a major motion picture starring Burt Reynolds, Raquel Welch and Yul Brynner.

Fiddlers

by Ed McBain

Published 29 August 2005

It started with the blind violinist - shot twice through the head at point-blank range in the alley outside his dingy restaurant. But it's only when the omelette lady gets shot with the same gun in the same way twenty-four hours later that the police really start to take notice. But Steve Carella and the boys at the 87th Precinct always seem to be one step behind the killer, for while the gun is the same, none of the victims seem to be related in any way. And why is the killer heard to introduce himself as 'Chuck' before pumping bullets into their bodies? Fiddlers is Ed McBain at his best - a twisting, turning puzzle book where nothing is as it seems and the pace never lets up. It once again proves McBain to be one of the true greats of modern crime writing.

Widows

by Ed McBain

Published 25 February 1991

Give the Boys a Great Big Hand

by Ed McBain

Published 2 September 1975

All over town, phones were ringing. Shopkeepers and merchants were being threatened by anonymous cranks. And the threats were getting more and more serious. When the angry victims started yelling to the local cops for help, Steve Carella and the boys of the 87th Precinct didn't know what to make of the whole thing. Were they facing a plague of harmless pranksters - or the danger of a city-wide wave of violence? All they had to go on were the constant attention of "the deaf man" and the knowledge that if they didn't catch their cold-blooded callers before the end of the month, the prophecies of murder and mayhem might prove all too true.

The Empty Hours

by Ed McBain

Published 4 January 1977

She was young, wealthy - and dead. Strangled to death in a slum apartment. All they had to go on was her name and some cancelled cheques. As Steve Carella said, 'Those cheques are the diary of her life. We'll find the answer there.' But how was he to know that they would reveal something much stranger than murder? On Passover the rabbi bled to death. Someone had brutally stabbed him and painted a J on the synagogue wall. Everyone knew who the killer was - it had to be Finch, the Jew-hater. Or did it...? The snow was pure white except where Cotton Hawes stared down at the bright red pool of blood spreading away from the dead girl's body. Hawes was supposed to be on a skiing holiday, but he couldn't just stand by and watch the local cops make a mess of the case. He had to catch the ski-slope slayer before he killed again.

The Pusher

by Ed McBain

Published 25 June 1970

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.

Shotgun

by Ed McBain

Published 1 August 1970

A psycho has butchered a nice young couple and he's loose somewhere in the 87th Precinct. He has a name, an address and an identity. Walter Damascus is a third-rate lothario who likes his women well off, well built and dead, along with their husbands. Sooner or later he will surface.

Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man

by Ed McBain

Published 5 February 1974

Fat Ollie's Book

by Ed McBain

Published 24 December 2002

Irritating though he was, Lester Henderson had it all when he strode up to rehearse his keynote address in the darkness of a downtown theatre. Widely tipped to be the next mayor and possessing a nice line in catalogue-casual daywear, Henderson stood four-square facing his glorious future. But five shots later and his lifeblood was seeping away. He had been gunned down by persons unknown from stage-right...At that point he became Ollie Weeks' problem. But this savage crime is suddenly overshadowed by a deed even more repugnant. Ollie's life work is his novel. Honed by countless rejection letters, it is finally ready to be released to the general populace. But then the one and only manuscript disappears, leaving Ollie to head off in pursuit of the thief. A thief who is convinced that Ollie's work contains the secret location of a hoard of hidden diamonds...

The Frumious Bandersnatch

by Ed McBain

Published 23 December 2003

Diva disappeared...This was supposed to be the night that launched a new pop idol into the firmament. Tamar Valparaiso has it all: young and beautiful with the body and voice of an angel. And just as importantly she is going to hit all the right demographics. With a Mexican father she's going to walk the Hispanic market and her Russian mother ensured that her blonde hair will not be scaring off the Britney fans. So, tonight, she is going to make debut performance of her first single on a luxury motor-launch in the heart of the city. But this is when she becomes Detective Steve Carella's problem. Halfway through her performance - and watched by millions of fans - masked men drag Tamar off the stage and into the bowels of a waiting speedboat. Now the city is in uproar and the responsibility of getting her back safely lies on Carella's shoulders..."The Frumious Bandersnatch" once again demonstrates that when it comes to non-stop pace, wit and action, Ed McBain is still the master of the crime world.

Lady Killer

by Ed McBain

Published 3 September 1974

"I WILL KILL THE LADY TONIGHT AT 8. WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?" That's what the letter read. Was she that new hooker in town, the one who let her clients rape her like a lady? Or Lady Jay Astor, the sensual, bawdy songstress, who belted out the porno in extremely good taste? Or Mrs Bannister, a socialite mother who kept the purse strings too tight? Twelve hours to find a crank or stop a killer. And there would be no second chances for 'The Lady' if the boys of the 87th didn't guess right...

The Last Dance

by Ed McBain

Published 17 November 1999

In this city, you can get anything done for a price. If you want someone's eyeglasses smashed, it'll cost you a subway token. You want his fingernails pulled out? His legs broken? You want him hurt so bad he's an invalid his whole life? You want him...killed? Let me talk to someone. It can be done. The hanging death of a nondescript old man in a shabby little apartment in a meager section of the 87th Precinct is nothing much in this city, especially to detectives Carella and Meyer. But everyone has a story, and this old man's story stood to make some people a lot of money. His story takes Carella, Meyer, Brown, and Weeks on a search through Isola's seedy strip clubs and to the bright lights of the theater district. There they discover an upcoming musical with ties to a mysterious drug -- and a killer who stays until the last dance.

Lullaby

by Ed McBain

Published 25 May 1989

The Big Bad City

by Ed McBain

Published 15 December 1998

There's the murdered woman whose outstanding physical characteristic is her breast implants. Which doesn't surprise anyone in a big bad city like Isola - until they find out that she's a nun . . .

There's the nagging problem of The Cookie Boy, a burglar with a taste for chocolate chip cookies.

And there's Detective Steve Carella's own, personal little quandry. The man who murdered Carella's father - and got away with it - is back in Isola. And he's decided that the best way to secure his future freedom is to murder Carella too.

The master of the police procedural is back, with another masterpiece of crime, punishment and brilliantly observed mayhem.

Kiss

by Ed McBain

Published 1 February 1992

Money, Money, Money

by Ed McBain

Published 28 August 2001

Cassandra Lee Ridley is an ex-air force pilot who now scrapes a living flying low-level contraband over the border to Mexico. But, Cassandra has a taste for the better things in life and when she gets offered a $200,000 contract to fly what she assumes are drugs, she takes a deep breath and agrees to do it. The job goes perfectly, the deliveries are made and the money paid to the Mexican drug lords. One problem though. All $1.9 million dollars of the payment are fake - and printed in Teheran, of all places. The Mexicans soon want their money - and Cassandra is their first stop and first fatality. And when her naked body is thrown to the lions in a zoo in the 87th Precinct, New York, it becomes Detective Steve Carella's problem. Soon, the whole world has gone mad, the Mexicans are on the rampage, two beautiful blond girls are killing to their own agenda, a New York drugs dealer gets sucked in - and spat out - and even Arab terrorists make their own play...

The Heckler

by Ed McBain

Published 25 June 1970

Poison

by Ed McBain

Published 1 May 1987

Detective Hal Willis is on a case with two dead men, a beautiful suspect and the risk of becoming her next victim.

Like Love

by Ed McBain

Published 13 August 1976

A classic 87th Precinct novel from "the undisputed master" (The Mirror)

A young girl jumps to her death. A salesman gets blown apart. Two semi-naked bodies are found dead on a bed with all the hallmarks of a love pact...

Spring really was here for the 87th Precinct.

Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes thought the double suicide stank of homicide, but they just couldn't get a break. Fortunately Hawes has something else going on in his life at the moment - something like love.

Kiss Low Price

by Ed McBain

Published 19 February 2002