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Summary
Summary
In the New York Times bestselling author's gripping new novel, the detectives of the 87th Precinct must scramble to foil the Deaf Man's ingeniously meticulous scheme and stop him from committing the perfect crime.
Author Notes
Ed McBain is a pen name for Evan Hunter who was born in 1926 in East Harlem, New York on October 15, 1926. Hunter was born with the name Salvatore Albert Lombino, and he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952. During World War II, Hunter joined the Navy and served aboard a destroyer in the Pacific. He graduated from Hunter College, were he majored in English and psychology, with minors in dramatics and education.
He was a prolific writer who also wrote under the names of Ed McBain, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon, and Richard Marsten. His first major success came in 1954 with the publication of The Blackboard Jungle, which was later adapted as a film. He published the first three books in the 87th Precinct series in 1956 under the name of Ed McBain. He also wrote juvenile books, plays, television scripts, and stories and articles for magazines. He won the Mystery Writers of America Award in 1957 and the Grand Master Award in 1986 for lifetime achievement. He died of laryngeal cancer on July 6, 2005 at the age of 78.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Recovered from his wounds, the Deaf Man is bent on revenge and determined to rub the collective face of the 87th in the dust of his brilliance in McBain's latest zany romp. After striking first at the woman who betrayed him, the Deaf Man turns to taunting the 87th with cryptic hand-delivered messages (quotes from Shakespeare or anagrams) that are interpreted or misinterpreted with hilarious results. The saga of Fat Ollie's book, which began in Fat Ollie's Book (2003) and continued in The Frumious Bandersnatch (2004), resumes and promises to have a long life of its own. There are a lot of soap opera flourishes to the personal relationships of the 87th crew, and McBain milks them for humor and pathos. Steve Carella faces paying for the double wedding of his mother and his sister. Bert Kling knows his beautiful surgeon girlfriend is cheating on him. Cotton Hawes and his glamorous TV news girlfriend, Honey Blair, are under attack, but which one is the real target? It's vintage McBain, complete with pitch-perfect dialogue, subplots that thrust various precinct cops into the spotlight, a pace that encourages the reader to forget about dinner or a good night's rest, and a plot that teases and tantalizes from start to finish. Agent, Jane Gelfman. (Aug. 4) FYI: The Deaf Man, a villain introduced in The Heckler (1960), has also appeared in Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (1972), Eight Black Horses (1985) and Mischief (1993). MWA Grand Master McBain was the first American to receive the British CWA's Diamond Dagger Award. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Like a long-dormant volcano, the Deaf Man, left for dead at the end of Mischief (1993), is back to make more trouble for the officers of the 87th Precinct. Once he dispatches the accomplice who double-crossed him in a brisk opening chapter, the Deaf Man wastes no time in getting down to business. Holing up with prostitute Melissa Summers, who doubles as his gofer, he directs a barrage of cryptic notes at the 87th. The first one--"WHO'S IT, ETC.? A DARN SOFT GIRL/O, THERE'S A HOT HINT!"--is followed by others at the rate of three installments a day. Steve Carella, preoccupied with the upcoming double wedding of his mother and his sister (whose fiancÉ is Henry Lowell, the DA who let the killer of Carella's father walk), is too distracted to crack the Deaf Man's code. So is Bert Kling, who wonders why Deputy Chief Sharyn Cooke is stepping out on him, and Cotton Hawes, who's seriously annoyed by the sniper who keeps shooting at him. Even most of the readers given many more hints about the Deaf Man's plans won't be able to figure out what he's up to. Only the combined efforts of the world's best-loved detective team (The Frumious Bandersnatch, 2004, etc.) will crack the case. If you can buy the premise that a master criminal would spend a whole week taunting the cops about an upcoming score, you can't do better than McBain. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The Deaf Man is not a dead man. The brilliant criminal, double-crossed by his female partner in Mischief (1993) and left for dead, is back to make life miserable for the detectives of the 87th Precinct. The cops' frustration begins with the murder of the Deaf Man's former accomplice, a crime that leads the investigating officers down a dead end. But then come the notes, hand delivered to the precinct by a parade of junkies, prostitutes, and panhandlers, and containing combinations of Shakespearean quotes, encrypted anagrams, and palindromes. The Deaf Man is providing clues to the crime he is going to commit, if only the detectives are clever enough to decipher their meaning. As Steve Carella, Cotton Hawes, and Fat Ollie Weeks--who also has a lead on his missing novel (see Fat Ollie's Book, 2003)--struggle with the Deaf Man's missives, the Deaf Man himself is dealing with the fallout from his own nearly fatal flaw: underestimating his new female partner. Melissa Summers may be a hooker, but she's no victim and is slowly hatching her own plan as the Deaf Man executes his. McBain has written the series since the mid-1950s yet his key players keep evolving--there are always character-driven subplots woven carefully into the crime story--and the setting is always contemporary. McBain remains the quintessential Grand Master of the genre. If his name's on it, read it. --Wes Lukowsky Copyright 2004 Booklist
Library Journal Review
The Deaf Man, nemesis of the 87th Precinct, returns in the 53d novel in McBain's long-running series. After shooting the Deaf Man and stealing $30 million from him, Gloria Stanford must face the consequences. The day after she is killed, Steve Carella begins to receive notes full of Shakespearean references and anagrams that point to the Deaf Man's next crime. While decoding the notes keeps the detectives busy, Bert's bad experiences with women cloud his relationship with Sharyn Cooke, Cotton is almost killed by a sniper, Ollie continues to emerge as a caring human being, and Carella must plan the double wedding of his mother and his sister. Having set the standard for police procedurals since this series's inception in 1956, McBain here combines many story lines involving the detectives in an exceptionally well-plotted encounter with the criminal genius who always underestimates the intelligence of the cops he taunts and the women he uses. For most mystery and crime fiction collections. McBain lives in Weston, CT. [See Mystery Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/04.] Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.