- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Orion; New Ed edition (3 July 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752857916
- ISBN-13: 978-0752857916
- Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 1.7 x 17.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 172,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
The heroes of the city's streets are becoming the hunted. When Detective Reardon is found dead, motive is a big question mark. But when his partner becomes victim number two, it looks like open-and-shut grudge killings. That is, until a third detective is killed. Swift, silent and deadly, someone is picking off the 87th Precinct's finest, one by one. The how of the killings is obvious: three .45 shots from the dark add up to three very dead detectives. The why and the who are the Precinct's big headaches now. With one meagre clue, Detective Steve Carella begins his grim search for the killer, a search that takes him into the city's underworld to a notorious brothel, to the apartment of a beautiful and dangerous widow, and finally to a .45 automatic aimed straight at his head ...
About the Author
Ed McBain (1926-2005) was born Salvatore Lambino in New York. He changed his name to Evan Hunter and under that name is known as the author of The Blackboard Jungle and as the writer of the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. The 87th Precinct series numbers over fifty novels. McBain was a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America and was one of three American writers to be awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement.
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From the river bounding the city on the north, you saw only the magnificent skyline. Read the first page
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From the river bounding the city on the north, you saw only the magnificent skyline. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This, this first novel of McBain's 87th Precinct, is the one that set him on the path to greatness. Before I read it, I'd heard vaguely of him, but wasn't exactly rushing to start a series with over 50 entries. Now THAT, is impressive. In the 40 years plus since this series began, McBain has written a huge number of them, enough to make it [probably] the longest police procedural series ever. It also has the unique twist that there is no central character, but a squad-room full of them who are built upon book-by-book.
I read this book rather timorously, I was expecting it to be okay, no fireworks. To some extent, that's true - there are no fireworks, exactly, but it was so incredibly entertaining to read that I've now purchased every single entry that's currently available in Britain, and have started to gobble them up. So far, I highly recommend every single one.
McBain uses everything: forensics, psychology, melodrama, character, etc etc, to move his stories along. They're snappy, fizz with energy and wit, small bites of sarcasm, and are superbly enjoyable. That's as good a thing as can be said about a novel, really. This first entry is a rather simple story concerning a killer who seems out to get the boys of the 87th Precinct, but it clips along at a great pace, introduces us to some brilliant characters who just get better as the series progresses, and makes a brilliant tapestry of police investigation. I loved it. (Obviously, that's why I bought the rest.)
If you've never tried McBain before, this is an ideal place to start now that Orion seems to be reissuing them all, after having been out of print for so long. It's not a series which demands to be read in order, either (at least, I haven't, and I don't feel I'm loosing anything much) - which is a bonus, because attempting to read a 50+ entry series in order would b a rather daunting task.
McBain is certainly the master of this kind of American crime novel. I've never enjoyed a set of police procedural books more (well, apart from those of Henning Mankell). Pick one up today, because you won't regret it.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first book in a series of approximately 55 or so (and still counting!) McBain introduces you to the detectives of the 87th Precinct, particularly Carella, Meyer and Kling who feature heavily in the rest of this wonderful crime series.
The book opens with a cop murdered in cold blood with no clues as to who did it, as the detectives are left reeling over this mindless killing, another is killed, again with no real clues or suspects.
It's not a deep book where there are so many twists and turns that you get confused, but it carries enough weight to keep your interest up - I loved it and have since collected nearly all of the 87th series.
Can't recommend Cop Hater highly enough!
Format:Paperback
This is the first book in Ed McBain's long running police procedural series 87th Precinct. McBain would continue writing the ongoing series for half a century until 2005, the year of his death.
Someone is killing cops with a 45 calibre handgun. Steve Carella and the rest of the precinct have to find the killer before he kills again. Carella and Teddy are unmarried still and between the exhaustive investigation the pair try to snatch enough time together to decide on a date for the wedding.
As with quite a few of his books McBain makes good use of the weather conditions. You can almost feel the heat throughout. The last time I read one of these it was to the other polar extreme, with the city literally freezing in the depth and dark of winter. What really makes 87th Precinct books work though is the to and fro between the cops, the banter, some of it digging into the investigations or just the mix of everyday talk of a bunch of guys doing a day to day job, friendships, rivalries - real dialogue. McBain doesn't let the plot rule him. He takes time to develop characters and aspects of the city that sometimes have little or nothing to do with the central plot line. It's all canvas for big the picture. Don't expect summarised forensic reports either. For example if Carella gets a lab or ballistic report expect to hear it line for line. With this being the first book there's quite a lot of technical and scientific stuff to cover too. Fingerprints - here comes a breakdown of the chemical process that results in finger prints being created. It's just one of those signature elements that makes the series what it is.
Cop Hater isn't going to be the best book in the series but it does serve as a great introduction. The book was adapted for a 1958 movie of the same name starring Robert Loggia in the Carella/Carelli role.
Someone is killing cops with a 45 calibre handgun. Steve Carella and the rest of the precinct have to find the killer before he kills again. Carella and Teddy are unmarried still and between the exhaustive investigation the pair try to snatch enough time together to decide on a date for the wedding.
As with quite a few of his books McBain makes good use of the weather conditions. You can almost feel the heat throughout. The last time I read one of these it was to the other polar extreme, with the city literally freezing in the depth and dark of winter. What really makes 87th Precinct books work though is the to and fro between the cops, the banter, some of it digging into the investigations or just the mix of everyday talk of a bunch of guys doing a day to day job, friendships, rivalries - real dialogue. McBain doesn't let the plot rule him. He takes time to develop characters and aspects of the city that sometimes have little or nothing to do with the central plot line. It's all canvas for big the picture. Don't expect summarised forensic reports either. For example if Carella gets a lab or ballistic report expect to hear it line for line. With this being the first book there's quite a lot of technical and scientific stuff to cover too. Fingerprints - here comes a breakdown of the chemical process that results in finger prints being created. It's just one of those signature elements that makes the series what it is.
Cop Hater isn't going to be the best book in the series but it does serve as a great introduction. The book was adapted for a 1958 movie of the same name starring Robert Loggia in the Carella/Carelli role.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The influential start of a long-running series ...
Ed McBain is the author who really created the police procedural novel, with his series of fifty-five 87th Precinct books written between 1956 and 2005. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Annabel Gaskell
Cop Hater
Well drawn characters, excellent sense of time and place, the fictional city created by Ed McBain really seems to come alive. it was a joy to read. Has dated surprisingly well. Read more
Published on 31 May 2009 by Rich
A great read
A faultless crime novel that's written with wit, style and a knowing insight into police procedure.
Very impressive!
Very impressive!
Published on 17 Aug 2006 by GothicPrincess
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