Ed McBain

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...

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 walking her dog. These are the seemingly random targets, all 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' victims have something more...

Ed McBain concocts a brilliant and intricate thriller about a master criminal who haunts the city with cryptic passages from Shakespeare, directing the detectives of the 87th Precinct to a future crime -- if only they can figure out what he means. The 87th Precinct gets a visit from one of the city's most accomplished criminals -- a thief known as the Deaf Man. Because he might be deaf. Or he might not. So little is known about the man who is harassing...

25 crime stories published between 1952-1957 written by Ed McBain under various pseudonyms

After Jessica Leeds- wife of a prestigious, wealthy Florida landowner- is brutally raped, three Vietnamese immigrants are charged with the crime. After the trial results in their acquittal, Jessica's husband Stephen vows vengeance. Then, the three immigrants are found savagely murdered. When all of the evidence ties Stephen Leeds to the grisly killings, Jessica turns to Florida lawyer Matthew Hope. He takes the case- ...

A long shadow looms above the wife of filmmaker Carlton Markham. Then a hand clamps over her mouth, and a blade sinks into her back. Blood splatters on the film reel case beside her, and a young life is cut short. Lawyer Matthew Hope gets a call from Markham, who's been arrested for his wife's murder, but he says he didn't do it. Witnesses fly forward to proclaim his guilt, but Markham's not giving up on his innocence that easily. And when Hope digs...

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...

A con man taking an old woman's money, a cheater tricking businessmen out of thousands, and a lady-killer. If the cops know every game he plays, why are dead bodies still being found on the shore?

During the heat of an Indian summer, a quadruple homicide that includes among its victimes the fiancee of an 87th Precinct detective sets off a desperate, vendetta-like hunt for the killer.