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 buys it. ED MCBAIN'S FIRST 87th PRECINCT NOVEL

This mugger is special. He preys on women, waiting in the darkness…then comes from behind, attacks them, and snatches their purses. He tells them not to scream and as they’re on the ground, reeling with pain and fear, he bows and nonchalantly says, “Clifford thanks you, madam.” But when he puts one victim in the hospital and the next in the morgue, the detectives of the 87th Precinct are not amused and will stop at nothing to bring him to justice. Dashing young patrolman Bert Kling is always there to help a friend. And when a friend’s sister-in-law is the mugger’s murder victim, Bert’s personal reasons to find the maniacal killer soon become a burning obsession…and it could easily get him killed.

Most suicides don't realise the headaches they cause... An 87th Precinct novel

A con man is plying his trade on the streets of Isola: conning a domestic for pocket change, businessmen for thousands, and even ladies in exchange for a little bit of love. You can see the world, meet a lot of nice people, imbibe some unique drinks, and make a ton money…all by conning them for their cash. The question is: How far is he willing to go? When a young woman's body washes up in the Harb River, the answer to that question becomes tragically clear. Now Detective Steve Carella races against time to find him before another con turns deadly. The only clue he has to go on is the mysterious tattoo on the young woman’s hand—but it’s enough. Carella takes to the streets, searching its darkest corners for a man who cons his victims out of their money…and their lives.

4 paperbacks titles from the acclaimed 87th Precinct series by Mcbain!

He appeared to be a decent, upright, honest citizen....And yet appearances can be more than deceiving in the world of blackmail and extortion. The shocking gangland-style murder of known blackmailer Sy Kramer begs the question: which of Kramer's marks had given him his very last payoff? A politician's beautiful wife with a deadly secret? An overly interested ex-con? A wealthy soft-drinks executive? Or the mystery person who had fattened Kramer's wallet by the thousands? The detectives of the 87th Precinct must break the chain that links the dead man's associates and single out a killer—before someone else cashes it in.

"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 them rape her like a lady? Or Lady Jay Astor, the sensual, bawdy songstress, who belted out the porno in extreme 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 chance for "the Lady" if the boys of the 87th didn't guess right.

Her game was death - and her name was Virginia Dodge. She was out to put a bullet through Steve Carella's brain, and she didn't care if she has to kill all the boys in the 87th Precinct to do it. So Virginia, armed with gun and bottle of nitroglycerin, spent a quiet afternoon in the precinct house, terrorizing Lieutenant Byrnes and his detectives with her clever little homemade bomb. They all sat there waiting for Steve Carella. Could all the men of the 87th, prisoners of one crazy broad, be powerless to save Carella from his rendezvous with death...?

The wedding day of Detective Steve Carella’s sister Angela should be the most romantic, special day of her life. But it might turn out to be the worst if her brother can’t figure out which man on the guest list has come to murder the groom. Carella and the men from the 87th Precinct find themselves on the clock as they desperately hunt amongst the name cards and catered dinners for the would-be assailant. Trouble is, the crowd has numerous people with viable the best man who stands to inherit everything the groom owns, the ex-boyfriend with a homicidal crush, and even an ex-GI with a score to settle. But time is ticking, and if they don’t act fast, Angela will become a bride—and a widow—on the same day. Another riveting installment of the 87th Precinct series, 'Til Death is one of bestseller Ed McBain’s finest, an intense, life-and-death nerve-wracker hailed by the Literary Review as “zestful, inventive, and utterly compulsive.”

Half a million dollars – or a boy’s life . . . But what if that boy isn’t your own son? And what if paying the ransom will ruin the biggest deal you ever made? What do you do then? Throw away your future or sacrifice someone else’s child? That was the dilemma facing wealthy Douglas King. Detective Steve Carella of the 87th Precinct can only keep trying to find the kidnappers, and hope that Doug King will decide to give them the payoff. Because if he doesn’t, Carella will have a case of cold-blooded murder on his hands.

The mystery man wore black, and he was a real cut-up king. Why else was he leaving blood-red severed hands all over the city? Was he an everyday maniac with a meat cleaver, or did he have a special grudge against the 87th Precinct? Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes went along with the grudge theory, because the black-cloaked killer didn't leave any clues to go on - the grisly hands even had the fingertips sliced off. And how do you nail a murderer when you can't identity or unearth most of his victims? That's what the boys of the 87th Precinct have to find a killer before he carves up any more corpseless hands!

"There are crazy people all over, you know that, don't you?" Spring was intoxicating the city air, but the harassing anonymous telephone calls planting seeds of fear around town were no April Fool's joke. Crank calls and crackpot threats reported to the 87th Precinct by a respected businessman were not exactly top priority for detectives Carella and Meyer—until a brutal homicide hits the papers. Connections are getting made fast and furious, and there's a buzz in the air about the Deaf Man, a brilliant criminal mastermind. Now, the 87th Precinct is buying time to reveal the voice on the other end of the line—as the level of danger rises from a whisper to a scream....

Kill me if you can - that was Pepe Miranda's challenge. Murderer, two-bit hero of the street gangs, he was holed up somewhere in the 87th Precinct, making the cops look like fools and cheered on by every neighbourhood punk. It was not a challenge Lieutenant Pete Byrnes and the detectives in the squad room could leave alone. Not in the sticky, July heat of the city with the gangs just waiting to explode into violence ...

A New York Times Bestselling AuthorThe first thing Detectives Steve Carella and Bert Kling saw was four bodies soaked in blood. Then Kling realized that one of those crumpled on the bookshop floor was Claire Townsend, his fiancie! And that's when the bookstore massacre stopped being just another murder case to the boys of the 87th Precinct. For Bert Kling was one of their own, and no one could get away with blasting a policeman's girl.

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.

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.

Ten Plus One (87th Precinct Mystery) by Ed McBain

Eighty-six-year-old George Lasser was the superintendent of a building in the 87th Precinct until just recently. Unfortunately his tenure ended in the building’s basement with a sharp, heavy blade of an ax in his head…There are no witnesses, no suspects, and no clues. The wife and son? They’re both a little off-kilter, but they have alibis. Just when Carella and Hawes are about to put the case on the shelf, the killer strikes again. Now the detectives are hot on the trail of a man crazy enough to murder with an ax.One of the 87th Precinct series’ finest installments, Ax is a sharp, intense crime thriller that is classic Ed McBain. The New York Times hails it as “the best of today’s police stories—lively, inventive, convincing, suspenseful, and wholly satisfactory.”

Outside the 87th Precinct a stranger stands in the falling snow. A big man with big hands, Roger hesitates: He knows he should go in and tell a policeman about what happened the night before; about Molly, the homely girl he met in a bar and brought back to his rented room. But then again... The snow falls on the city. Pushers, pimps, and working stiffs come and go. Roger tries to make up his mind. And every second that he hesitates takes him one step farther away from the 87th Precinct station, as another second ticks away on an innocent woman's life...

A blonde woman, a living doll, is found slashed to death. Steve Carella wants Bert Kling on the case, a belligerent cop. When he goes missing, presumed dead, the officers of the 87th Precinct go all out to find the truth.

Stan Gifford was America's most beloved comedian. It showed in the ratings—40 million people watched the ever-smiling comedian crack his jokes. And those same 80 million eyes saw him die on camera. It looked like part of the act, but the joke was on Gifford. Now 87th Precinct detectives Meyer and Carella aren't amused—America might have loved Gifford's on-air personality, but everyone who worked for him had a reason to want him dead.

Twice outfoxed by a brilliant maniac, the men of the 87th attempt to uncover the master criminal known as the Deaf Man who shot the commissioner dead on the steps of Philharmonic Hall. Reprint.

With Walter Damascus, a psychopath who likes his women well-off, well-built, and dead, loose on the city, Detective Carella and the investigating team of the 87th Precinct must work overtime to find him before he can take out his next victim.

Jigsaw keeps readers on the edge of their seats as cops are forced to play a game with a demented killer who delivers clues to his puzzle via dead bodies. Cops rush to solve the mystery before more "pieces of the puzzle" are delivered.

There are 186 patrolmen and a handful of detectives in the 87th Precinct, but it's never quite enough. Because between petty crimes and major felonies, between crimes of hate and crimes of passion, the city never sleeps—and for these cops, a day never ends... The night shift has a murdered go-go dancer, a firebombed black church, a house full of ghosts, and a mother trying to get her twenty-two year-old to come home. The day shift: a naked hippie lying smashed on the concrete, two murderous armed robbers in Halloween masks, and a man beaten senseless by four guys using sawed-off broom handles. Altogether, it's a day in the life. But for a certain cop in the 87th Precinct, it could just be his last...

A criminal lawyer's delight at his wife's murder makes him a prime suspect in the investigation which follows

The criminals who invade the 87th Precinct aren't particularly known for their intelligence. Their crimes are usually brutal, stupid, and rash. But every once in a while, the 87th gets a good bad guy to hunt down. "WITH YOUR ASSISTANCE, I'M GOING TO STEAL $500,000 ON THE LAST DAY OF APRIL." So wrote the Deaf Man, the 87th Precinct's own private nemesis. Carella, Kling, Hawes, and Brown know the Deaf Man is trying to make them look stupid. Unfortunately, they have to deal with crimes already committed—including one that introduces Kling to the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. But the last of April is fast approaching, and the men of the Eight-Seven can't deny that they're dying to find out what the Deaf Man has cooked up this time...

Detectives Steve Carella and Burt Kling of the 87th Precinct set out to end the racial warfare that has resulted in the deaths of six people, one a baby, and find themselves taking on a mysterious criminal mastermind. Reprint.

Investigating the murder of a warehouse watchman, the cops of the 87th Precinct face a disturbing outbreak in cash-related crimes that link a prostitute's death, a warehouse fire, and a slum redevelopment deal. Reprint.

Steve Carella does not fit the picture of a big city detective. Well mannered and the consummate professional, he lacks the rough-hewn edges of the men who devote their lives to fighting crime on the streets. But there is one thing that tears him up…one thing that drives him to the edge of his much darker side. When a madman rapes and kills his first victim in the 87th Precinct but leaves the second alive after a brutal knifing, Carella relentlessly hunts the man down. But the detective is in for a shock when the surviving victim recognizes the assailant in a police lineup... A probing, intimate crime thriller that exposes the deeper recesses of the 87th Precinct’s main character, Blood Relatives is an Ed McBain classic. His mastery of character, dialogue, and place come together in a brooding powerhouse of a novel.

Detective Bert Kling has had some rough luck with women. First his fiancÃe Cindy Townsend was gunned down in an infamous bookstore shooting. Then there was Cindy Forrest, who informed him one day that she was in love with a doctor at work—and was gone. Now he’s finally hit the jackpot. Kling just married the beautiful model Augusta Blair, and they are about to enjoy the first night of their marriage together…until bad luck catches him again. When Kling gets out of the shower, Augusta is gone, leaving behind one shoe—and cotton soaked in chloroform. Even harder than calling Detective Steve Carella with the news is standing on the sidelines while the rest of the men do all the work. But he’ll have to—or he’ll never see her alive again. A spine-tingling race against time as the detectives of the 87th do what they do best, So Long as You Both Shall Live is an extraordinary addition to the series, an Ed McBain masterpiece that marries taut police procedure with the personal stakes of a man who stands to lose everything—again.

They never saw their executioner. Because each victim had this in common: they were blind. Steve Carella, a weary detective very much in love with his deaf wife, is stymied in a hunt that began when a Vietnam veteran, his sight taken in war, was found with his head nearly separated from his body. But as the bizarre killing spree goes on, Carella begins to look into the first victim's dreams. And what he sees is a panorama of war, sexuality, secrets, and torment—and one man's pure, blind rage...

What a lousy way to die. Calypso King George Chadderton, murdered on a wet September street in the 87th precinct. Detectives carella & Meyer shake their heads in the grey drizzle. Cops can do withouth brains spattered on the sidewalk on a wet city night...

A double murder takes place in NYC at Christmas time, and it all occurs starting on page one.

While he investigates a questionable suicide, Detective Bert Kling begins to buckle under from the stresses of his personal life—he is afraid his wife is having an affair and he is being hunted by a psychopathic ex-convict.

Ice coats the streets where the rapist prowls. Ice spills from the pockets of a dead diamond dealer. Ice runs through the heart of a cold-blooded killer and that of the players in a multimillion dollar show-biz scam. And the deep chill of winter, it is the 87th Precinct who must brave the winds of death to save a city frozen with fear. National ads/media. Reissue.

Lightning strikes with repeated terror as a diabolical hangman murderer leaves one pretty coed after another dangling from the city's lampposts. Lightning rends the night sky with searing acts of violence as a serial rapist returns or the same victims again and again. Lightning blazes through the 87th precinct as the dedicated men and women who wear the gold badge push themselves to the limits of danger...because they know that behind each strike of lightning lies the darkness of a criminal's twisted mind.

It all got terribly confusing when the Deaf Man put in an appearance…. …and the criminal mastermind is making his presence known by the dead bodies that are turning up around Isola. Then there are the notes - with cryptic patterns including eight black horses dancing across a page - that look like they mean nothing. But Detectives Kling, Carella, and Meyer know that with the Deaf Man, the seemingly meaningless always means something. Something bad. And as late fall hurtles toward Christmas, the Deaf Man is counting down the days, luring the cops of the 87th Precinct with a series of taunting clues - all leading toward a horrifying act of revenge orchestrated by a psychopathic killer.

Jerome Edward McKennon was found sprawled on the carpet, the phone clenched in his fist. It was a gruesome poisoning, and the clues lead to gorgeous Marilyn Hollis. When Detective Hal Willis finds himself falling in love with Marilyn, he knows the only hope for their love is to prove her innocence, before passion turns to Poison. HC: Arbor House.

One night. One shift. No rest. Featuring the 87th Precinct’s entire cast of characters, this Halloween takes them into the darkest corners of depravity the city has to offer. And sometimes, surviving is the greatest treat of them all. From a liquor store hold-up ending with a dead owner and four costumed “kids” making off with the money to the pieces of a man showing up around the city, the Day of the Dead is turning the streets into a carnival of violence and murder. Meanwhile, a magician disappears in a stunning final act, and Detective First Class Eileen Burke poses as a hooker to lure in a serial killer. The question is, will the detectives all live to see the dawn of November? Newsweek declares bestselling author Ed McBain “has virtually reinvented the police procedural.” Interweaving rich characters, taut plotting, and sharp dialogue, Tricks is a multi-character masterpiece. Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1477827897

The squadroom at 5:15 on New Year's morning looked much as it did on any other day... But an exceptionally heinous crime was already sending a wave of outrage through even the veteran cops of the 87th Precinct: a wealthy couple, returning home from New Year's festivities, discovered their baby—and the infant's teenage sitter—murdered. Parents themselves, detectives Carella and Meyer resolve to bring in the perpetrator at any cost. Meanwhile, gang warfare is overtaking the city's streets, threatening its very foundation. A sinister song of death and destruction echoes through the 87th, and it isn't "Auld Lang Syne."

A Catholic priest is brutally murdered. A church practicing Satanism is not four blocks away, and the cult sign of Baphomet is found scrawled on the the garden gate. The trail leads to a shadowy Easter Sunday, and the conclusion is breathtaking and ironic.

The beautiful blonde in the penthouse apartment was dead, her face and body laced with slashes from a paring knife—grisly evidence of the terrible things the city can do to pretty young women. What sordid web of money, sex, and greed had ensnared Susan Brauer? The stack of unsigned erotic letters in her possession was the first clue. Then the murder of Susan's lover, a married lawyer in his sixties, leads the cops of the 87th to the women left behind: the lawyer's wife, his ex, his daughters. And for Detective Carella, his own father's senseless death in a bakery holdup sears through the intense summer heat—and sends him on a fevered hunt for the one who made his mother a widow and shrouded his family in grief.

An 87th Precinct novel - Certain that someone is trying to kill her, Emma Bowles turns to another killer for protection, and only a dedicated cop trapped in a defective legal system can save her.

A punk wielding a spray can is no match for a killer armed with a gun—and a deadly aim to knock off the city's graffiti artists. One by one, the young scribblers are found murdered, maliciously coated with paint and blood. Detective Steve Carella can't see the writing on the wall—yet. Meanwhile, the Deaf Man, the 87th Precinct's longtime tormentor, is leading its cops, clue by maddening clue, to uncover a heinous crime that will make the graffiti killer look like an amateur. It's all primed to go down at a raucous rock and rap concert—but who's going to take the rap?

Here is an irresistibly charming tale, beautifully packaged in a small, illustrated and slipcased gift book. All's quiet at the 87th Precinct on Christmas Eve . . . until Steve Carella's fellow detectives appear with a kid who's stolen a sheep, a robber with a bagful of gold, two guys fighting over a sack of frankincense, and a young couple who give birth to a baby boy at midnight!

In the forty-sixth installment in the best-selling, critically acclaimed series, detective Bert Kling brings the curtain down on a Broadway play about an actress who is slain. Reprint.

In Isola, the hours between midnight and dawn are usually a quiet time. But for the 87th Precinct detectives Carella and Hawes, the murder of an old woman makes the wee hours anything but peaceful—especially when they learn she was one of the greatest concert pianists of the century long vanished. Meanwhile 88th Precinct cop Fat Ollie Weeks has his own early morning he's on the trail of three prep school boys and a crack dealer who spent the evening carving up a hooker.

In this city, you have to pay attention. In this city, things are happening all the time, all over the place, and you don't have to be a detective to smell evil in the wind. Take this week's tabloids: the face of a dead girl is splashed across the front page. She was found sprawled near a park bench not seven blocks from the police station. Detectives Carella and Brown soon discover the girl has a most unusual past. Meanwhile, the late-night news tracks the exploits of The Cookie Boy, a professional thief who leaves his calling card—a box of chocolate chip cookies—at the scene of each score. And while the detectives of the 87th Precinct are investigating these cases, one of them is being stalked by the man who killed his father. Welcome to the Big Bad City.

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.

It is Christmas in the city, but it isn't the giving season. A retired Gulf War pilot, a careless second-story man, a pair of angry Mexicans, and an equally shady pair of Secret Service agents are in town after a large stash of money, and no one is interested in sharing. The detectives at the 87th are already busy for the holidays. Steve Carella and Fat Ollie Weeks catch the squeal when the lions in the city zoo get an unauthorized feeding of a young woman's body. And then there's a trash can stuffed with a book salesman carrying a P-38 Walther and a wad of big bills. The bad bills and the dead book salesman lead to the offices of a respected publisher, Wadsworth and Dodds. This is good news for Fat Ollie, because he's working on a police novel—one written by a real cop—and he's sure it's going to be a bestseller.

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 - gunned down by person or 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's 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 kidnapping was audacious, and there were plenty of witnesses... But no one attending the dazzling launch party for up-and-coming pop idol Tamar Valparaiso knew what they were seeing when, halfway through her performance, masked men whisked the sexy young singer off a luxury yacht and into a waiting speedboat. Now, the evening that was supposed to send Tamar's debut album, "Bandersnatch, " skyrocketing with a million-dollar promotional campaign has instead kicked off a terrifying countdown for Steve Carella and the detectives of the 87th Precinct. Time is their enemy in the race to find Tamar's abductors—before the rising star is extinguished forever.

I'm a Fathead, Men! I Am the Deaf Man! Unscrambling the cryptic messages—anagrams, Detective Carella called them—delivered to the 87th Precinct confirmed that the master criminal who has eluded them time and again is not only alive and well, but may or may not be behind a deadly revenge shooting. For that matter, the Deaf Man may or may not be deaf. But he's getting through loud and clear with clues drawn from Shakespeare's works—taunting hints and maddening riddles pointing to his next plan of attack. It doesn't take a literary scholar to know there's no room for misinterpretation. For when the Deaf Man talks, everybody listens...or somebody gets hurt.

This installment in the 87th Precinct series finds the detectives stumped by a serial killer who doesn't fit the profile. A blind violinist taking a smoke break, a cosmetics sales rep cooking an omelet in her own kitchen, a college professor trudging home from class, a priest contemplating retirement in the rectory garden, an old woman out walking her dog—these are the seemingly random targets shot twice in the face. But most serial killers don't use guns. Most serial killers don't strike five times in two weeks. And most serial killers' prey share something more than being over fifty years of age. Now it falls to Detective Steve Carella and his colleagues in the 87th Precinct to find out what-or whom-the victims had in common before another body is found. With trademark wit and sizzling dialogue, McBain unravels a mystery and examines the dreams we chase in the darkening hours before the fiddlers have fled.