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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Silver Falls Library | MYS MCBAIN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | McBain, E. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
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 (3)
Kirkus Review
McBain's new 87th Precinct installment, less ambitiously multi-plotted than some recent entries, has just two very different narratives, delivered in alternating chunks. Plot One, picking up where Widows (1991) left off, is the trial of the psychopath-punk who killed Detective Steve Carella's old baker-father in a brutal holdup. Although not completely convincing in some of its courtroom details, and a bit crude in its attempt to echo recent news events involving racial tension, this is solid, plain, streetwise McBain--familiar but effective in dramatizing law-and-order issues. Plot Two is a sex-triangle melodrama, initially intriguing but ultimately irritating and artificial in the made-for-cable-TV (not HBO) manner. Someone is trying to kill rich, beautiful Emma Bowles. Is it her stockbroker- husband? And can she trust the handsome private eye her husband has hired to ``protect'' her? The outcome, which involves sleazy, illicit romance and a contrived twist, is neither surprising nor satisfying. In sum: so-so McBain, with too much attempted glitz and not enough old-fashioned personality and legwork. (Book-of-the-Month Dual Selection for April)
Booklist Review
It's easy to tear through an Ed McBain 87th Precinct novel, completely caught up and reluctant to set the book down, without ever crediting the author for being a superb storyteller. But he is, and Kiss, his 44th police procedural set in an imaginary city of very mean streets, is McBain in top form. Detective Steven Carella must investigate the attempted murder of beautiful Emma Bowles while his father's murderer is tried in the city's courts. Emma's wealthy, handsome stockbroker husband imports a bodyguard for her from Chicago, who stays on the job even after the man who twice tried to kill Emma is found shot and hung. Carella and partner Meyer Meyer know something's not right, and doggedly keep investigating. Stoically, Carella also sits in court wondering if his father's killer will be convicted. McBain fans will understand the use of words like dogged and stoic. New readers need to know there's no Dirty Harry action, no car chases, no explosions. Instead, there's solidly researched police procedure, regulations, and culture. There's great dialogue and unexpected plotting. Best of all, there's McBain's artful artlessness. In Kiss, there's scarcely an errant word to remind readers that he is a master. (Reviewed Dec. 1, 1991)0688102204Thomas Gaughan
Library Journal Review
McBain forgot more about police procedurals than most writers will ever know, and the 87th precinct books are like the Holy Grail. In Kiss, the 87th's two most recognizable detectives, Carella and Meyer, are called in to investigate the attempted murder of beautiful, wealthy blond Emma Bowles. Has her husband hired a hit man? And if so, did he also hire the assassin who killed that hit man? Meanwhile, Carella suffers through the trial of his father's murderers. The two plots are advanced without disrupting the other in a balancing act worthy of the Flying Wallendas (OK, maybe not Karl). In the 87th, interesting crimes are cleverly done, and characters are sketched so deftly that readers inevitably want more, which is good because there are 54 (!) books in the series. Cop Hater dates from 1956, and during the intervening years, the writing grew more finessed, though always featuring gruesome acts of violence. The detective's work and personal lives form a tapestry, with McBain zooming in on it at different places in each book. So while Carella is the main hero, there are about a dozen series regulars; readers gradually get to know each. Frenetically paced, these books are always over too quickly. I read the final one, Fiddlers, very slowly as I knew it would be the last (McBain, aka Evan Hunter, died in 2005).-Douglas Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Middletown (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.