Axe [Paperback]

Ed McBain (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Penguin; 2631 edition (1969)
• ASIN: B001582QZ8
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Ed McBain was one of the many pen names of the successful and prolific crime fiction author Evan Hunter (1926 - 2005). Born Salvatore Lambino in New York, McBain served aboard a destroyer in the US Navy during World War II and then earned a degree from Hunter College in English and Psychology. After a short stint teaching in a high school, McBain went to work for a literary agency in New York, working with authors such as Arthur C. Clarke and P.G. Wodehouse all the while working on his own writing on nights and weekends. He had his first breakthrough in 1954 with the novel The Blackboard Jungle, which was published under his newly legal name Evan Hunter and based on his time teaching in the Bronx.

Perhaps his most popular work, the 87th Precinct series (released mainly under the name Ed McBain) is one of the longest running crime series ever published, debuting in 1956 with Cop Hater and featuring over fifty novels. The series is set in a fictional locale called Isola and features a wide cast of detectives including the prevalent Detective Steve Carella.

McBain was also known as a screenwriter. Most famously he adapted a short story from Daphne Du Maurier into the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). In addition to writing for the silver screen, he wrote for many television series, including Columbo and the NBC series 87th Precinct (1961-1962), based on his popular novels.

McBain was awarded the Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement in 1986 by the Mystery Writers of America and was the first American to receive the Cartier Diamond Dagger award from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. He passed away in 2005 in his home in Connecticut after a battle with larynx cancer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Minor Entry in the Series, July 13, 1999

By 

Marc Szeftel (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ax (87th Precinct Mystery) (Paperback)

This is one of the shortest --- and one of the weaker --- books in the 87th Precinct series, which McBain has been writing since 1956 and is approaching 50 volumes. Generally McBain succeeds in creating a complex and intriguing mystery with minimal elements; but here he seems a little short of ideas. However, fans of the series will enjoy it; it's fast paced and engrossing, and by now most of us are so enamored of Hawes and Carella that we're not too particular about the details. Those who haven't tried McBain before should probably pick up "The Hecker", "The Con Man", or "Killer's Payoff" for a taste of the early 87th Precinct.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another stellar outing, March 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ax (Hardcover)

This is one of the great books of the 87th. McBain is at his gritty best describing the reprucussions of a brutal ax murder. The finale is shocking and disheartening. Also an interesting one to read because McBain drops refrences to this one in several of his other books.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars MCBAIN HAS DONE BETTER!!!!!, July 25, 2002

By 

Mac Blair "Mac Blair" (Huntingdon, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ax (87th Precinct Mystery) (Paperback)

I am trying to read these in order so this is the 18th one I have read. I think I gave all the others a five. A body is found with an axe sticking out of the mans head. Who would kill an 86 year old man? Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes are the main ones working on this case. They do the usual of asking questions but turn up nothing. Could it have been the man's son, who has not been out of their house in years, the man's wife, who is crazy as a loon? How about Allie the Shark Spedino, who is brought in for questioning? Then a cop is killed, that makes a big difference in the case. Cotton and Carella cannot turn up anything to solve the mystery, then, and this is why I gave it a four, the murderer is handed to them on a platter. I like the 87th Precinct series very much and will continue to read them, however, wish this could have been solved by them and not handed to them. A quick read, will hold your attention, and if you are into McBain you will like it enough to read it.