This column is all about the police in various forms, be it the work of the men of the 87th Precinct, or cops who deal with not only criminals, but guys who wear costumes. What we have are two books from the master of the police procedural, Ed McBain, and two collections from the minds of Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, who both know their way around great crime.
KILLER’S CHOICE by Ed McBain — I don’t care how dated some of the 87th Precinct books might seem. They are still the best procedural novels out there. No one will ever top the way McBain could spin a police investigation. This 1958 entry does show some signs of age — mainly in laws dealing with adultery and divorce — which should not come as a surprise since it’s more than 50 years old. Plus, it was the fifth in the series.
The book has the requisite two cases, with one being the major story, while the second is a sort of backup that keeps other detectives in the precinct in the action. The major case deals with a woman who was gunned down while working at a liquor store. She was shot four times and left for dead, with nothing taken. It proves a bit of a puzzle for Detectives Kling and Meyer, who have a list of suspects that includes an ex-husband and a few boyfriends, but everyone has an airtight alibi.
The second case focuses on a crooked cop’s death. He was thrown through a plate glass window, cutting his jugular vein. Saddled with this case is Detective Carella, who gets teamed up with a new transfer not used to the way things happen in the 87th, which might cause some major problems in the squad.
Each case stands on its own, with no moments of carryover between the two. I love these books and wish I had the whole run, but I’ll make do with picking them up as I come across them. McBain knows how to pace a story and keep readers guessing. My only problem with him is that, like potato chips, you can’t have just one.
BREAD by Ed McBain — This later 87th novel falls in the middle of the long-running series and still reads as fresh as when it came out in 1974. Again, there are moments where it shows its age, mainly dealing with racial terms and drug use of the day.
This book has one central case, but it leads into a few murders, so you know you’re in for a treat. The story starts with citizen Roger Grimm upset that the two cops who were investigating a warehouse fire are on vacation. That leaves Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes to pick up the slack. From all their digging, it looks to be arson, but the main question is why, since Grimm’s warehouse was filled with imported wooden animal toys.
Little progress is made until someone ups the ante by burning down Grimm’s house. Our detectives get a line on who let the arsonist in, but that suspect winds up dead with a bullet in his head. That is only the tip of the iceberg, which leads into a bigger discovery than anyone expected.
Throw in plenty of that 87th Precinct banter and you got yourself 90 minutes of great reading. McBain is cooking with gas in BREAD. Once you feel the case is all set, another layer is uncovered. Once again, you get glimpses into these lives of the 87th men, with Hawes coming into his own from where we first met him in KILLER’S CHOICE.
GOTHAM CENTRAL: BOOK ONE: IN THE LINE OF DUTY / GOTHAM CENTRAL: BOOK TWO: JOKERS AND MADMEN by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka and Michael Lark — I distinctly remember when this comic first came out. My thoughts were pretty much the same with my fellow comic buyers: “Looks like a great idea, but it won’t make it past a full year.” Well, my mistake. The series made it to issue 40, but that’s still longer than anyone expected.
It’s best described by Duane Swierczynski in the introduction to 2009′s BOOK TWO, as taking the idea of Ed McBain’s books and inserting it into comic form, using the city of Gotham as its backdrop, with a cameo or two from its superhero protector. Let me make this perfectly clear: Batman is a secondary character. These stories instead focus on the major case squad of Gotham. They have encounters with the Bat and some of his archenemies: The Joker, Mr. Freeze, The Mad Hatter and The Penguin.
The squad is broken down into night and day shifts, with a wide-ranging group of detectives handling the cases, be it a missing girl who winds up dead, or the unsolved death of a group of high school kids. Just like the McBain books, we also get glimpses of these officers’ private lives, including one that is exposed in a way she wish could have been done on her own terms.
These two books are fantastic crime reading, and show that Brubaker had the goods long before he came up with CRIMINAL. From QUEEN & COUNTRY, I knew Rucka could write some top-notch spy material. He really shines in the world of cops and supervillans.
My only regret is that I did not stick with the series when it first came out, but at least these nice hardcovers do a fine job of collecting the first 20 issues. (BOOK THREE comes out this summer.) Lawrence Block’s intro in 2008′s BOOK ONE feels out of place, with him explaining what most people already know: that Gotham is just a stand-in for New York City. —Bruce Grossman
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF ED BRUBAKER:
• THE SANDMAN PRESENTS: THE DEAD BOY DETECTIVES by Ed Brubaker, Bryan Talbot and Steve Leialoha
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF ED MCBAIN:
• 80 MILLION EYES by Ed McBain
• EVERY LITTLE CROOK AND NANNY by Evan Hunter
• FUZZ by Ed McBain
• THE GUTTER AND THE GRAVE by Ed McBain
• KING’S RANSOM by Ed McBain
• LEARNING TO KILL: STORIES by Ed McBain
• LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE DEAF MAN by Ed McBain
• THE PUSHER by Ed McBain
• SHOTGUN by Ed McBain
• SO LONG AS YOU BOTH SHALL LIVE by Ed McBain
• TRANSGRESSIONS edited by Ed McBain
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF GREG RUCKA:
• 52: VOLUME ONE by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Keith Giffen
• 52: VOLUME TWO by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Keith Giffen
• 52: VOLUME THREE by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Keith Giffen
• 52: VOLUME FOUR by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Keith Giffen
• PATRIOT ACTS by Greg Rucka
• PRIVATE WARS by Greg Rucka
• QUEEN & COUNTRY: DEFINITIVE EDITION — VOLUME 1 by Greg Rucka
• QUEEN & COUNTRY: DEFINITIVE EDITION — VOLUME 2 by Greg Rucka
• WALKING DEAD by Greg Rucka
Related posts:
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Seven Broads for Seven Brothers
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Sinners’ Crossroads
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Detectives & Dragons
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Tools of the Trade
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Police on My Back
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Ever read Top 10 by Alan Moore? It is essentially a police procedure set in a city where everyone is a superhero.
Yes I actually read that monthly. But it became fustrating with delays and then pretty much stopped. Still the issues I did read were great especially with all the refrences to other superheros that were part of the big two.
I love the 87th series. I’ve read them all and am considering starting over and read the series again. My best comment I can give is that each individual book is sooo good I feel like I’ve read 1 book with extremely long chapters.
One of McBain’s great talents, and what keeps the 50 year-old 87th Precinct series from feeling dated, was his masterful characterization. The character of “Fat Ollie” Weeks is a stereotypical fat rascist pig in the early novels, but McBain slowly redeems him in the last dozen books. It’s a shame McBain isn’t around anymore. I would’ve liked to have seen where he would have taken this character.