| Title | : | Killer's Choice (87th Precinct, #5) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0749004525 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780749004521 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 219 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1957 |
Killer's Choice (87th Precinct, #5) Reviews
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This early Ed McBain 87th Precinct entry from 1957 is a fast-flowing, incredibly intriguing read. Fans of the series get to follow Carella, Kling, Meyer Meyer and the boys around fictional Isola — which mirrored New York City — on two distinct cases. The first involves the death of a not-well-liked brother-in-arms who has been shot and killed. While none of the detectives were fond of the slain officer or his heavy-handed approach to policing, all of them understood why he’d adopted those tactics, and in the end, he was one of their own.
This first case introduces readers to a new face in the 87th — the tall, lean but muscular redhead, Cotton Hawes. Created at the insistence of the publisher, who felt Carella — who was married to deaf Teddy in the series — would not appeal to both male and female readers, and therefore could not be the hero. While that theory was invalidated over time, Cotton became a nice addition to the 87th nonetheless. Hawes’s inexperience with “real” crime nearly gets Carella killed right off the bat. Because Carella is not the type to hold a grudge, and Hawes is the type of cop who learns from his mistakes, and tries to redeem himself, in a strange way the edgy incident cements Cotton Hawes into the fold.
The second story-line, which is how the novel opens, is the most intriguing for the reader, and it take up the largest portion of the swiftly-moving narrative. Young Annie Boone, the divorced mother of a five-year-old daughter, lies dead on the floor of the liquor store where she worked. I’ll not get into specific suspects and questioning, but the interviews are mesmerizing because not one picture of Annie Boone emerges, but several. Described by various people — all suspects — in ways diametrically opposed, each of their accounts and perceptions have the ring of truth. From saint to sinner, tea-toddler to drunk, prim and proper to wanton desire, Annie appeared to be very different things to each individual in her life, making it almost impossible to get a bead on her, and therefore, her killer.
My only caveat — and it’s rather minor — with Killer’s Choice was McBain’s choice, which was to describe Annie’s child as a five-year-old. This became occasionally jarring because in order to drive the narrative — and thereby the case — forward, the dialog he puts in Monica’s mouth simply doesn’t ring true for anyone who’s had or been around a five-year-old. Descriptions of the phone call she had with the killer — that’s not a spoiler in any way — came off as artificial, rather than a real conversation between an adult killer and a child of that age. One minute she’s speaking almost like an adult, the next she wants to hang up and go play with her dolly.
While not on the level of some later entries in the 87th Precinct series, Killer’s Choice is still a fun and worthwhile read in McBain’s groundbreaking series of police procedurals, in which his only true rival in the field was the great Elizabeth Linington, known to most knowledgeable mystery readers as Dell Shannon and Lesley Egan. Her groundbreaking Luis Mendoza series, the splendid Ivor Maddox/Sue Carstairs series, and to a slightly lesser degree, her Vic Varallo series, deserve a proper paperback reprint just as McBain received.
Killer’s choice is a quick, fun read in the police procedural genre created and formed to perfection by McBain and Linington, and gets a solid four stars. -
Death knocked a man down. Death stole a man's dignity. A dead man didn't care whether or not his hair was parted. A dead girl didn't worry about whether or not her slip was showing. The postures of death managed to simplify a human being to an angular mound of fleshy rubble. And so looking at what had once been a woman - a woman who smiled prettily, and kissed her lover, and adjusted her stockings, and applied lipstick with utmost feminine care - looking at what had once been warm and alive, Carella felt overwhelming sadness, a sense of tragedy which he could not quite grasp.
When a female liquor store clerk is murdered, the suspects are plentiful...yet they all seem to have airtight alibis. Then, another robbery turns deadly, and the precinct has its hands full once again.
Luckily, Cotton comes to the 87th, Cotton Hawes, that is.. While not exactly a rookie, his former precinct was not quite as crime-ridden, and he's a bit out of his element. (SIX homicides in four years - HA! That's like a week's worth for the 87th!) After a few embarrassing and dangerous mistakes, he proves himself capable, and will likely be a great addition to the team...IF he survives the next few books, anyway.
Detectives DO tend to die on the job a lot in McBain World. -
This is the book in which Ed McBain adds Cotton Hawes to the cast of detectives who populate the 87th Precinct. As Hawes comes on board, a young woman named Annie Boone is shot and killed while working as a clerk in a liquor store. The store is then totally trashed and the owner seems more concerned about the damage to his stock than the death of his employee.
Annie, a divorced mother of a young daughter, seems to be something of a chameleon. Virtually everyone that the detectives interview has a radically different impression of the woman, and without knowing exactly who she was, it's going to be awfully difficult to catch her killer. Then, as the investigation progresses, Roger Havilland, one of the detectives, is also murdered. This increases the pressure to find the killer or killers and Steve Carella, Meyer Meyer, Bert Kling and Hawes, the new addition to the team must follow a very slim trail of evidence in their effort to find a solution to the crimes.
This is a quick, fun read, one of the better of the earlier books in the series. It's fun to watch the interaction with Hawes, the new guy, especially as he makes a nearly catastrophic mistake early on in the investigation. Any fan of the 87th Precinct will want to find this one. -
Killer's Choice has a couple of notable landmarks which include the last appearance by hard-as-nails cop, Detective Roger Havilland. He's found in the broken remains of a grocery store window after an apparent hold-up, fatally injured by a shard of glass. Steve Carella follows a lead to track down the killer but is joined by the newly transferred Cotton Hawes. Carella soon discovers that Hawes is having trouble adapting from the more genteel surroundings of his previous posting compared to the mean streets patrolled by the 87th. Trouble that just might get somebody killed.
Meanwhile Detectives Bert Kling and Meyer Meyer have to track down another killer from a suspected hold-up, this time at a liquor store. The detectives soon discover that the victim, a beautiful redhead, seems to have lived a variety of lives depending on who they question. Thematically not as strong as Con Man, the previous entry, but Killer's Choice still right royally entertains with some character driven dialogue that's going to please any fan of the series. Every book seems to add something new. -
COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century North American Crime
BOOK 172 (of 250)
So far, this series brings to me quick breaks between the heavier, darker novelists.
HOOK - 4 stars: "The liquor store reeked," opens the book. A woman is on the floor, dead, surrounded by liquor and broken bottles. McBain places us immediately in the crime and to me, that's a very good hook.
PACE - 2: This story is more of a novella, stretched out with padded, circular conversations.
PLOT - 3: I thought the murderer obvious. This is a by-the-numbers police procedural, absolutely adherent to the genre.
CHARACTERS - 4: In the introduction, McBain talks about the development of a TV series. Detective Steve Carella, married to his deaf-mute wife, Teddy, wouldn't work according to the producers. So McBain brings in the single, handsome Cotton Hawes. Plus, we have the mysterious Annie Boone: a drunk or non-drinker, an intellectual but a bore, and more. I think Steve and Teddy are the real stars, although Cotton is interesting.
PLACE - 2: This short work skimps on atmosphere.
SUMMARY - 3.0. I liked this better than the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the series. -
I'm pleased to have found McBain's 87th Precinct series for a number of reasons. Reading these books is like a breath of fresh air in between some of the other heavier books in the genre. McBain keeps things simple though not simplistic, down-to-earth, and with only enough details to give the reader a good picture of what's going on.
His use of humor in the detectives' interactions with one another also lends itself to lightening up the atmosphere just enough to make it pleasurable.
Sometimes when those psychological thrillers or action-packed dramas have you feeling heavy-headed, take a trip to the 87th Precinct. Good cop series. -
finished this one this morning, 5:27 a.m. if it matters and it doesn't. i really liked it. 4-stars.
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Weakest of the 87th Precinct books to date. Murder of a young girl and then the death of one of thier own. Very readable but entirely predictable.
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And so I continue with my reading in order of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series. I've barely started. This is the fifth of the books in the series which stretches all the way from the 1950s to 2005 and numbers more than fifty. At this point, I'm still in the 1950s and these early books now qualify as historical mysteries.
I continue to be struck by McBain's crisp, to-the-point, just-the-facts prose and just how much information and atmosphere he's able to convey with only a few choice, spare words. The man could write!
In this book, he introduces a new character, a new detective for the 87th, one interestingly named Cotton Hawes. He transferred in from another precinct which didn't see much crime and virtually no murders. He has no experience investigating murders and it shows on the first case that he's sent out on, but he's smart and diligent and a quick learner. He's teamed up with Steve Carella, a good man from whom to learn the skills needed for investigating murders.
This time out the 87th has two murders to investigate. The first one is a woman who managed a liquor store. Her name is Annie Boone and she was shot dead in the store that she managed, and much of the store's stock was knocked off the shelves and landed, broken, on the floor, like Annie's body.
Annie was the divorced mother of a five-year-old daughter. She and her daughter lived with her mother and she was on friendly terms with her ex-husband. The preliminary investigation of a family link to her murder turns up nothing. The detectives must cast their net farther afield.
When they do, they discover a woman of many contradictions. Her friends and associates had very different perspectives and opinions about the dead woman's character. She seems to have been many different women, but which one of them provoked a murderer?
Meantime, the second murder occurs and this one strikes closer to home. Detective Roger Havilland was out patrolling the streets when he came across a man sitting on the sidewalk and went over to see if he was all right. The man jumped up and pushed Havilland through a plate glass window. A shard of glass punctured his jugular vein and his windpipe. He was dead almost by the time he hit the ground.
Havilland had been notorious for his free fists when it came to dealing with suspects and prisoners. He was brutal, but, in many ways, had been a good cop. A man of contradictions. His fellow officers determine to find his killer and make sure he is punished. It is in the search for his killer that the inexperienced Hawes makes his almost fatal mistake in his debut as a murder investigator - a mistake that is nearly fatal not just for him but for Carella as well.
The Annie Booth case offers a large cast of possible suspects which the detectives must sort through until they isolate the real murderer. In the Havilland case, they have a good idea who the killer is after their initial inquiries are made, but now they must find him.
McBain takes us through the step-by-step procedures as the dogged investigators pursue the solutions to these crimes. It's a mesmerizing process and a quick read, made quicker by the fact that it's very hard to put the book down. Yes, the man could write! -
I’m getting used to McBain’s plot structures. Long, peripherally important scenes feature suspects, witnesses, spouses. We never get too much of any one character or even of the regular cast. When the regulars appear, its usually for something important. So we have two crimes being solved in one novel, with the regulars interweaving in the solving process, but with other characters in supporting roles, in subplots that keep the dynamics of the novel moving all the time.
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Cocci di bottiglie
Altra indagine corale di quelli dell'87°, in cui sono le loro personalità e interazioni la parte più interessante.
Vite da sbirri. -
Another good read by Ed McBain. It's got two investigations going simultaneously, as is usual. One the murder of a liquor store manager who seems like a different person to everyone the detectives interview, the other the murder of one of their own.
McBain's writing is crisp and to the point. The dialog is excellent and the characters are fleshed out nicely, especially so over the course of multiple books.
I was disappointed not to get to the bottom of vic#1's multiple personalities and I thought the ending was too abrupt. On the whole though this is a good read. -
Cotton Hawes is introduced in this solid 87th Precinct novel. He begins as a rather arrogant, self-satisfied screw-up. Enjoy finding out how this happens and if/how he redeems himself.
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It seems like by this fifth book in the 87th Precinct series, McBain had really given up on any attempt to write mysteries with substance and integrity. There is so much masculine posturing and idle filler, with men expounding on the virtues of a cold beer and the like, one can't help but feel as though the writer was just trying to churn out pages to make money. For example, there is a huge controversy at the heart of this book over a sequence wherein a detective knocks on the door of a suspect's residence instead of kicking it down. Everyone calls the guy a dummy and makes fun of him and talks about it with their families over dinner, etc. And yet... knocking on a door is standard legal procedure. Kicking down a door at the very least requires a warrant (which the characters in question did not have) and really ought only to be done if police know that a suspect whom they have a lot of evidence against is at the given location. In other words, all of the fuss is pure fantasy ridiculousness, and it feels like McBain writes as so much macho posturing filler because it eats up pages rather than because it fuels plot or characters.
Even at the high point of this series (around book 3) the books were extremely pulpy, dripping with misogyny and racism and toxic masculinity. They were rescued by rich prose, interesting plotting, and occasionally dimensional character development. With the last two entries in the series though, it has tanked hard, and I'd be hard pressed to imagine that McBain rights the ship in the books to come. I'd say, based on this novel, the 87th Precinct is a series to avoid. -
Book #5. The introduction to this one was particularly interesting. It opens a small window into what was the world of he pulp writer and the way the publishers used to think
The book itself is good, not too long and with a decent story at its core but there were a couple of moments where I disengaged. It may have been the author trying out new styles but suddenly mid book there was comment in the narration as to why an action was a mistake. I was not so keen on that as for a moment my disbelief was not longer suspended. Also a couple of the conversations felt like they went on too long. Was this because the author did not believe in the story? Was there some filler in a plot too light? I don't know, all I do know is that this was not the best of the series.
Thats not to say it wasn't a good read. It was. My time within the pages of this book flew by and I love a short, self contained tale. It just felt a bit light in the end. -
Killer's Choice by Ed McBain (1958), the fifth 87th Precinct novel, is not great, certainly not nearly as good as #2, The Mugger, but still a pretty good read. Killer's Choice has the now familiar cast of the 87th detectives Carella, Meyer, Kling, etc., plus one is lost (no spoilers) but they gain a new one. The mystery & action portions are good, especially involving Carella, who by now is always getting his butt kicked in these early novels. The book is an easy and quick read, in fact I'd almost say Killer's Choice is a novella not a novel. So, like all the other 87'ths it's worth a read because it is entertaining, you can't go wrong, it's just not as strong as some of the others by Ed McBain...I'd say it's almost a 3.5 so I'll give it a strong 3.0....yeah, 3.0 outta 5.0....
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This was a good book. Nothing crazy, but I am once again impressed by certain parts that seem like they'd add up to something greater.
1. The dialogue is so impressive. Sharp, cutting, realistic, and at times downright funny as hell(remember this was written in 1957, so that's damn impressive to hold up comedically that long)
2. Poetic vignettes such as this : "The drunk named George had not been lying, and the age of miracles was dead."
I'm REALLY looking forward to readin some of the later installments that are longer (80s and 90s especially) -
Published in '57, this crime procedural follows the investigation of a young woman's murder. The victim worked in a liquor store, and everyone the police interview paint a different picture of Annie. We struggle to find if she is bright, or a party girl, a drunkard, or sober. The suspects include her liquor store boss, his wife, Annie's ex, and her current and former boyfriends.
Series favorite Steve Carella, along with Meyer Meyer, and newly engaged cop Bert Kling have a new addition to their precinct - Cotton Hawes. Cotton is not the easiest guy to like, and he's been in a precinct that has few murders compared to the 87th.
Quick, tough noir story with good character development. -
Really enjoyed this one, even though the denouement wasn’t life changing. Just a couple of great character beats and conversations, and tons of economical storytelling. If they leave you wanting more, sometimes that’s not a bad thing.
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McBain is fast becoming one of my favourite writers. Easy to read, brilliant storytelling, lovable characters. Woven in with threads of pure poetic brilliance in the descriptions. Love it.
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It might not be the best of the 87-th precinct novels, but the dialog is snappy, plot is enjoyable, and the atmosphere of the city of Isola (New York in disguise) is strongly felt.
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Я правильно догадалась, кто убийца. Правда, слишком рано...
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The book jumps between two unconnected murders. First, Annie Boone was gunned down while working the counter at a liqueur store. The detectives of the Eight-Seven track down and interview many of her friends, relatives, her ex-husband, and her six-year-old daughter. These many shades of Annie: an intellectual, a dunce, a loving wife, a homewrecker, a lush, a fun social-drinker, a polite and proper girlfriend, a loose and adulterous woman. As the investigation drags on, detectives Meyer Meyer and Bert Kling find little to work on, and a multi-faceted victim. It’s a bit on the slow side, but it’s an interesting concept, and the centerpiece of the book—the title refers to which of the many Annie Boones the killer chose to murder.
On the other hand, Roger Havilland, cynic, racist, and once-decent cop corrupted, gets pushed through a plate-glass window when he displays an uncharacteristic interest in helping a hurt young man. Said young man had just held up a store, and was shot in the shoulder by its owner. Havilland’s replaced by Cotton Hawes, smart and cool but plenty arrogant. In the course of that investigation, he almost gets partner Steve Carella killed; he makes a poor impression since he’s moving into the 87th from the rich and prosperous 30th, and isn’t used to life on the tough streets.
The 87th novels are very character-based, with a large cast of well-defined characters, and we get to see their reactions to the goings-on. The daily jokes and ribbing, Havilland’s funeral; most important, how they all talk about Hawes and his colossal blunder over dinner with their loved ones. That soft touch works really well; it’s easy to tell the characters apart since they have strong personalities, their own traits and histories. It's nice seeing the characters' at-home reactions to the murders and investigation, making it feel more realistic and giving more character depth.
Killer’s Choice is a competent police procedural with flashes of brilliance and some very strong elements. On two other hands, it’s something of a disappointment: the investigation slows down to a crawl of worthless interviews, which no amount of interesting characters can make up for, and several other elements were unconvincing or sloppy. The first half of the book is fantastic, but after that, it dropped down to around average.
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Full review found here.) -
I love the boys of the 87th, and I love that Ed McBain wrote 50+ books about those men. I've read them out of order, so "Killer's Choice" was great fun to read because I finally got to see how Cotton Hawes (my favorite of the supporting detectives) joined the squad. The answer? Not in the classiest way. Cotton was kind of stuck up, and you know what? I enjoyed that greatly. McBain didn't do piles of character development, but he knew when to do enough, and by starting out Cotton as a bit snobbish, it makes the Cotton Hawes in later books even better.
What I didn't care for in this book (and the reason for the 3-star rating) is that the murder victim doesn't get properly fleshed out. She's shown to have numerous facets to her personality, but it's never explained where these facets came from. She pool sharks. She drinks too much. She befriends a blind man. She's a loving mother. She's smart as a whip, but maybe she's dumb as a box of rocks. It's an intriguing mishmash of information that never really pans out. I think the reason it never pans out is because this is an early entry into the 87th series, and it's still more procedure than character. The fact that Annie has multiple, strange facets of her personality is there to make the mystery more of a mystery, not to build her into a more complete character. It makes the book fall a bit flat even though there's plenty of good parts to read.
I would recommend this book for people wanting to see the first appearance of Cotton and for a pretty solid murder mystery (it is, of course, what McBain does best), but I don't think it's the greatest novel of the boys of the 87th. -
Before The Bill there was Z Cars, and before Z Cars there was Dixon of Dock Green. Across the Atlantic, before The Wire there was the still-missed Hill Street Blues, and before Hill Street Blues there was Ed McBain's 87th Precinct, print rather than pixels but the genealogy was the same.
If it is still something of a shock to discover that Killer's Choice, the fifth in the 87th Precinct series, was first published more than fifty years ago, there are clues. Not least when a young woman is innocently described as "Dancing, and laughing, and well ... gay." There are four-letter words, too, but none that will disturb the eyebrow of today's reader.
So there is almost a sense of period charm as Carella and Kling and Hawes set about solving the mysterious murder of a young woman whose multiple personality is unveiled chapter by chapter but never explained. A crucial witness in the investigation is a five-year-old girl who cannot tell the time but recounts from memory a telephone conversation that requires nearly five pages to report.
Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain) is never dull but his prolific output under this and half-a-dozen pseudonyms led inevitably to occasional slapdash plotting. The 87th Precinct has better tales in its archive than this. -
Amazon had a deal around Christmas time, twenty 87th Precinct novels for some stupid cheap number like 99 cents, so I bought all twenty of them to parcel out over a period of time. Killer’s Choice is from the late Fifties, and introduces Cotton Hawes, whom no one can stand going in. Carella is married, but he and Teddy have no kids. As usual, there is more than one crime to be solved, and, also as usual, there’s no weird twist. Just solid investigations of realistic events by people any of us might know, who happen to be cops. McBain was still using graphics of forms and paperwork as part of the story at this time. I’ve never read an 87th Precinct novel I couldn’t recommend, some more enthusiastically than others. This rates about a 6.5 on the ten-point McBain scale, which means it’s better than two-thirds of all the other books you’re likely to read this year. What’s amazing about McBain is how his voice and style remained consistent, yet evolved over time. Note: the opening, where McBain describes the struggles with his publisher over the directions the characters were to take, is hilarious.
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Here in this book, you have a murder of a liquor store clerk Anne Booth. The man who owns the liquor store though gives you the impression that he does not seem to care that his employee has been killed. He is more concerned about cleaning up his story and when can he re-open for business. Though this book was written in 1957 there are still people like that character sorry to say.
The author adds a new detective to the squad Hawes. Who actually acts like a new detective or any new guy or gal, does not want to make a mistake but does. For me, this is what gave his books a sense of realism having his characters appear real this really added to the story for me.
When the author has one of the detectives killed this really changes the story and makes everyone want to catch the killer quicker. There is a lot going on but the author does a good job of sorting through everything and making it a good read to go along with the series. Worth the read. -
In book 5 of the 87th Precinct stories we see some personnel changes in the detective squad. This book was originally published in 1957 but the authors new forward (from 1991) explains that these changes were at the publishers request.
Similar format to the others in that there is more than one case occurring within the pages of this short novel. Pulp era detective genre at it's best here. Good old fashioned police work before the time of political correctness or extensive forensic techniques.
I picked up a dozen of these books in a 99 cent sale but those ones start at #7 so I have to borrow a couple from the library to read past the gap. If I can now get #6 I might end up reading a dozen or more of these this year.
