Diva disappeared ...This was supposed to be the night that launched a new pop idol into the firmament. Tamar Valparaiso has it all: young and beautiful with the body and voice of an angel. And just as importantly she is going to hit all the right demographics. With a Mexican father she's going to walk the Hispanic market and her Russian mother ensured that her blonde hair will not be scaring off the Britney fans. So, tonight, she is going to make debut performance of her first single - Bandersnatch - on a luxury motor-launch in the heart of the city. But this is when she becomes Detective Steve Carella's problem. Halfway through her performance - and watched by millions of fans - masked men drag Tamar off the stage and into the bowels of a waiting speedboat. Now the city is in uproar and the responsibility of getting her back safely lies on Carella's shoulders ...

Another 87th precinct novel from 'the undisputed master - and there's nobody who does it better' DAILY MIRROR 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...

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.

Six victims. Same gun. No link. The final 87th Precinct novel from the master... It started with the blind violinist - shot twice through the head at point-blank range in the alley outside his dingy restaurant. But it's only when the omelette lady gets shot with the same gun in the same way twenty-four hours later that the 87th Precinct really starts to sit up and take notice. But Steve Carella and the boys at the Precinct always seem to be one step behind the killer, and are unable to prevent the death toll rising. The trouble is, while the gun is the same, none of the victims seem to be related in any way. And why is the killer heard to introduce himself as 'Chuck' before pumping two bullets into their bodies? FIDDLERS is a brilliantly twisting puzzle of a book where nothing is as it seems and the pace never lets up - Ed McBain at his very best.

Another novel in the greatest of all post-war American crime series. Cassandra Lee Ridley is an ex-airforce pilot who now scrapes a living flying low-level contraband over the border to Mexico. But when she gets offered a $200,000 contract to fly what she assumes are drugs, she takes a deep breath and agrees to do it. The job goes perfectly, the deliveries are made and the money paid to the Mexican drug lords. One problem though. All $1.7 million dollars of the payment are fake, the Mexicans soon want their money - and Cassandra is their first stop and first fatality. When her naked body is thrown to the lions in a zoo in the 87th Precinct, New York, it becomes Detective Steve Carella's problem . . .

The police at the 87th Precinct hate kidnappers. And these kidnappers are stupid, too. They took the wrong boy - the chauffeur's son instead of the son of the rich tycoon, Douglas King. And they want a ransom of $500,000. A lot of money. But it's not too much to pay for a little boy's life, is it?

He'd been a promising piano prodigy, once. Now he was just an addict, scraping to get by, letting his hunger for drugs consume him. But a man's life can always get worse - as Ray Stone discovers when he wakes up beside a beautiful nightclub singer only to find her dead...and 16 ounces of pure heroin missing.

When a wealthy businessman is faced with a kidnapping, the ransom could ruin his biggest deal ever ? unless Detective Steve Carella can find the culprits before the kidnapping turns to murder. McBain has the ability to make every character believable ? which few writers these days can do.? ? Associated Press McBain forces us to think twice about every character we meet?even those we thought we already knew." ? New York Times Book Review

An assistant district attorney launches a one-man crusade against the Mafia in this legal thriller from the bestselling author of the 87th Precinct series. The call comes from Narcotics, Manhattan South. A low-level drug dealer just got caught in a buy-bust, and he's ready to spill his guts. It wouldn't be a priority-especially not four days before Christmas-but the thug just mentioned the Mafia, and that means all hands on deck. It's just what Michael Welles has been waiting for. An assistant district attorney with a burning hatred of organized crime, he'll do anything for a crack at the mob. He's about to get a chance to bring down the whole clan-but his loved ones' lives are at stake. The dealer they arrested is an unlucky gambler whose debts put him smack in the middle of two of New York's most powerful crime families. Following the man's lead, Michael sets up a massive eavesdropping operation intended to trap the ruthless new leader of the local mob-but what he hears on the other end of the wiretap will make him doubt everything he knows about his family, his wife, and himself. From the legendary Ed McBain, who "virtually invented the American police procedural with his gritty 87th Precinct series," Criminal Conversation is as realistic as it gets (The New York Times).

A nanny will go to any length to save a kidnapped Mafia prince in this madcap mobster farce by the bestselling author of the 87th Precinct series. Her name is Nanny, and she's the most cutthroat woman in New York. Prim, slender, and dangerously English, she's responsible for the care of Lewis Ganucci, a spoiled brat whose father just happens to control the city's largest crime syndicate. Working on Mr. Ganucci's sprawling Westchester estate is a dream . . . until Lewis disappears. Mr. Ganucci is vacationing in Capri, and Nanny sees no reason to inform him that she lost his boy. The kidnappers want $50,000, and if she can scrape it together before the boss gets back, she has a shot at staying alive. She recruits a mid-level enforcer, Benny Napkins, to help her get the cash and save the boss's son, kicking off a chain of events so outrageous and delightful that Nanny will die laughing-if she doesn't get whacked first. An uproarious story of kidnapping, extortion, and cold-blooded murder, this is Ed McBain at his best. If you love Damon Runyon or a great Robert De Niro comedy, you'll enjoy this entertaining romp about a mobster on a rampage.

All at once, Fat Ollie Weeks had a truly brilliant idea...

But as any "real" writer could tell you, that's how inspiration strikes -- with the sudden force of a violent crime. Known more for his foul mouth and short temper than his way with words, Detective Weeks has written a novel. But just as Isola is rocked by the murder of a mayoral candidate, the only copy of Ollie's manuscript is stolen -- and an all-too-real adventure begins as a thief follows Ollie's fictional blueprint to find a $2 million cache of nonexistent diamonds. Now, the 87th Precinct races to bring poetic justice to a cold-blooded assassin -- and someone's about to add another chapter to the colorful career of Ollie Weeks, a cop who's never played by the book....

Volume 13 Number 4 of The Mystery Fancier, Fall 1992, contains: "An Interview with Ed Mcbain," by Robert E. Skinner, "Science and Technology in the Writings of Frederick Irving Anderson," by Ben Fisher, "Father Brown's Final Adventure," by Joe R. Christopher, "The Exit of Father Brown," by Ola Strom, "The Short Stop," by Marvin Lachman, "Crime Novelists as Writers of Children's Fiction VIII, Doroth L. Sayers," by William A. S. Sarjeant, "The Greatest Misogynist of Them All," by Maryell Cleary, "The Backward Reviewer," by William F. Deeck, "It's About Crime," by Marvin Lachman.

"[McBain] departs still at the top of his game and, like every great entertainer, leaving us both satisfied and hungry for more."--"San Diego Tribune
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Ed McBain's last 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 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 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 Detective Steve Carella and his colleagues must find out what--or whom--the victims had in common before another body is found. With trademark wit and sizzling dialogue, McBain examines the dreams we chase in the darkening hours before the fiddlers have fled.
"Vintage 87th Precinct: the dialogue crisp, the pace swift, the humor wry, and every character--even the minor ones--superbly drawn."--"Associated Press
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"A fast and engrossing book . . . McBain is the true king of American dialogue."--"The Atlantic Monthly
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The author of more than one hundred books, Ed McBain (1926-2005) held the Mystery Writers of America's prestigious Grand Master Award and was the first American to receive the Diamond Dagger, the British Crime Writers' Association's highest award.

Lainie Commins, a freelance designer of children's toys, hires attorney Matthew Hope for a lawsuit against her old employers, Brett and Etta Toland. At stake are the lucrative rights to Gladly, a teddy bear with crossed eyes and corrective lenses. It's a straightforward case -- until Brett Toland is shot in the throat aboard his luxury yacht and Lainie becomes the chief suspect. From elegant canals to sunbaked ghettos, McBain has done for Florida's Gulf Coast what he did for the 87th Precinct -- created a teeming world where justice is elusive and where the saints and sinners are often one and the same.

In its brief existence, THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES has established itself as a peerless suspense anthology. Compiled by the best-selling mystery novelist Ed McBain, this year's edition boasts nineteen outstanding tales by such masters as John Updike, Lawrence Block, Jeffery Deaver, and Joyce Carol Oates as well as stories by rising stars such as Edgar Award winners Tom Franklin and Thomas H. Cook. The 1999 volume is a spectacular showcase for the high quality and broad diversity of the year’s finest suspense, crime, and mystery writing. "Keller's Last Refuge" by Lawrence Block, "Safe" by Gary A. Braunbeck, "Fatherhood" by Thomas H. Cook, "Wrong Time, Wrong Place" by Jeffery Deaver, "Netmail" by Brendan DuBois, "Redneck" by Loren D. Estleman, "And Maybe the Horse Will Learn to Sing" by Gregory Fallis, "Poachers" by Tom Franklin, "Hitting Rufus" by Victor Gischler, "Out There in the Darkness" by Ed Gorman, "Survival" by Joseph Hansen, "A Death on the Ho Chi Minh Trail" by David K. Harford, "An Innocent Bystander" by Gary Krist, "The Jailhouse Lawyer" by Phillip M. Margolin, "Secret, Silent" by Joyce Carol Oates, "In Flanders Fields" by Peter Robinson, "Dry Whiskey" by David B. Silva, "Sacrifice" by L. L. Thrasher, "Bech Noir" by John Updike

Ed McBain's novels of crime and detection have made him the most admired and most imitated popular novelist of our time. The creator of the classic series of cops at work The 87th Precinct novels (Mr. McBain continues to explore the turf that, in the words of the New York Times Book Review, "he owns.") In his new novel, Ed McBain returns to the 87th, where with passion, razor-sharp literary skill, and characters marked by their originality and humanity, he tells a story as complex as a fugue and as elegant as a...Nocturne

Once she had filled the concert halls of Europe with beautiful music. Once her name had been in headlines, her performances heralded in newspapers around the world. Now she lay dead on the cold floor of a cold apartment on the coldest night of the year: a little old woman with a shattered bottle of cheap liquor by her body and two fatal gunshot wounds to her chest. Svetlana Dyalovich, found dead at midnight, was one more homicide in one more endless night in the city.

For detectives Carella and Hawes, no murder is ever routine, and while this one looks at first like a robbery, the evidence doesn't add up. And when Carella and Hawes interview Svetlana's hard-edged, lounge-singing granddaughter -- a woman accompanied by two armed bodyguards -- they start looking for a missing envelope full of money and for a killer who had more than robbery on his mind.

Like a concert grand under the hand of a virtuoso, Nocturne sounds a multitude of moods and notes -- from nightclubs to cockfights, from fish markets to crack deals, as witnesses are interviewed, a stolen gun is traced, and a police lab churns out microscopic evidence that sends the cops back out to the streets. And while the cops of the 87th use their skill and method, a melody of tragedy and chance unfolds. For in Nocturne only some victims are innocent, only some of the victimizers are criminals, and the final chord will resound long after the tale is told.

PRAISE FOR ED MCBAIN AND THE 87th PRECINCT SERIES

"The author delivers the goods: wired action scenes, dialogue that breathes, characters with heart and characters who eat those hearts, and glints of unforgiving humor....Ed McBain owns this turf."
-New York Times Book Review

"Amazing...McBain's telegraphic style gives his story a hard, reportorial surface. Characters are caught in a few memorable strokes; things happen economically. What is surprising in such terse circumstances is how much you have felt, or have been led to understand that the characters were feeling."
-Los Angeles Times

"McBain redefines the American police novel...He can stop you dead in your tracks with a line of dialogue."
-Cleveland Plain Dealer

When a calypso singer and a prostitute are murdered with the same gun, Detectives Carella and Meyer descend into the murky world of sex and sadism to find a killer on the loose. Imagine your favorite Law & Order cast solving fresh mysteries into infinity, with no re-runs, and you have some sense of McBain's grand, ongoing accomplishment.? ? Entertainment Weekly McBain forces us to think twice about every character we meet?even those we thought we already knew.? ? New York Times Book Review

Suspicious deaths signal the arrival of springtime for the men at the 87th Precinct as they work on solving a suspicious double-suicide?and the nuances of love. The 87th Precinct is] one of the great literary accomplishments of the last half-century.? ? Pete Hamill, Newsday McBain has the ability to make every character believable?which few writers these days can do.? ? Associated Press

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.

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.

PRAISE FOR ED MCBAIN
"One of the most prolific and admired writers of crime fiction in the world . . . McBain could not write a bad line. He owned every inch of turf in his world, where the law worked because, for all their flaws, his characters cared about justice, and where the moral order prevailed because good, for all its ambiguities, trumped evil."--"New York Daily News
""One of the greatest American crime writers . . . his tales of the city are timeless."--"The Washington Post
""McBain--if not the father, at least the godfather of the police procedural genre--created a body of work unique in American fiction both in quantity and in quality."--"San Diego Union Tribune
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"McBain has a great approach, great attitude, terrific style, strong plots, excellent dialogue, sense of place, and sense of reality."--"Elmore Leonard
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"Ed McBain is a master. He is a superior stylist, a spinner of artfully designed and sometimes macabre plots."--"Newsweek"