Killer's Payoff (87th Precinct) [Paperback]

This is the sixth book on the 87th precinct I have read. They all have been good and this is no exception. The precinct is trying to find who ever gunned down a man who was walking down the street and why. The usual bunch is here, Steve Carella, Bert Kling, Cotton Hawes, Myer Myer(yes that is right) Hal Willis and newcomer Bob O'Bryan. Danny Gimp, the informer for Steve Carella shows up with information. Through much work the answer is found and one of the above is nearly killed. A fast read, will hold your attention and make you want to read the next one, if you can find it.

#6 in the 87th Precinct series, set in fictional Isola, modeled after New York. Classic "cop fiction" with the boys from the 87th trying to track down the murderer of a blackmailer/extortionist who was mowed down gangland style in the street. First they must track down who he was blackmailing, and then figure out which among them had the means and opportunity to go with their obvious motive for wanting the man dead. Or maybe it wasn't one of Sy's "clients" at all--maybe it was someone from his personal life who wanted him out of the way?

Great police procedural, although a bit dated, as it was written in 1958--the author uses lots of monetary figures which make me laugh--you know, the blackmailer was living in the lap of luxury in a $350/month apartment, stuff like that. LOL I've speculated before on whether McBain realized at the time what a time capsule he was creating? Enjoyable, quick read, interesting to read about the characters that I came to know and love later in the series before they were really fully formed.

Sherlock Holmes aside, I came to mystery novels late (Elizabeth George in my mid 30s), police procedurals soon after (James Ellroy a couple years further on), and Ed McBain's 87th Precinct only recently. I might have added "sadly," but I'm actually delighted at the prospect of dozens of books ahead of me still to be read for the first time, with every indication that they will be hugely enjoyable.

This is the sixth in a series that between 1956 and 2005 grew to 54 novels. Evan Hunter, already a pen name for the man who wrote this landmark series, devised the idea of having a police station be the protagonist of his books, so he could move the action from one police officer or detective to another over time -- an angle that decades later would become standard on TV series like "Hill Street Blues," "NYPD Blue," and the various "Law and Order" spinoffs. He started off excellently with Cop Hater, and each subsequent book expanded the richness and complexity of the landscape. It's set in the fictitious city of Isola, on the Harb River, which very much resembles Manhattan.

As the series unfolds, the 87th Precinct books give the reader a marvelous portrait of the city as well as the operations of a police station and its various occupants. Although he tells you quite a bit about police procedures, at least at that time, and every book reproduces a least one official document, such as an arrest report, a suspect's police record, or a coroner's report, the books don't dwell on the author's evident research and knowledge base. They have excellent forward momentum, function as excellent character portraits of people good and bad, and propel themselves through plenty of sharp, smart dialogue.

Extortion is the central crime in this book, which first appeared in 1958. Sy Kramer, a blackmailer who has been having a string of good luck in the past year, is gunned down on the streets of the city. Detectives of the 87th have to track down whoever the deceased was shaking down to figure out who murdered him. The trail actually leads to a hunting lodge in the New York woods as well as to various downtown offices and fancy homes in the suburbs. Cotton Hawes, the "hero" cop McBain somewhat unwillingly introduced earlier in the series at the behest of his 1950s publisher, and Steve Carella, who nearly died of gunshot wounds a couple books earlier, are at the center of this story.

The 1950s books set in the 87th have dated remarkably little in the subsequent decades. Yes, the narration notes the curves and legs of women characters, but many of them are strong, interesting women, from Carella's deaf and dumb wife Teddy to the slightest walk-ons. Hawes has a brief flirtation and one-night-stand with a college girl waitress when he's on the road to the hunting lodge; it's cute, it's short, and no big deal is made about it in any way.

As I've found with every book so far, Killer's Payoff is skillfully plotted: I was able to guess part of the murder mystery, but not all of it, and McBain has his "hero" make another nearly fatal error closing in on the answers. There's a bit of rough poetry and sardonic metaphor in every McBain novel, which is part of what makes them such a pleasure to read. "There was no shore near Shorecrest Hills, nor was there the crest of a hill or even the suggestion of a hill. The development sat in almost the exact center of the peninsula on land that had once been as flat as a flapper's bosom."