Bread [Paperback]

Ed McBain (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (1987)
• ASIN: B001AF05AO
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the Best McBain up to this Point (1975), October 16, 2008

By 

Grey Wolffe "Zeb Kantrowitz" (North Waltham, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bread (Paperback)

"Bread" is the 29th installment of the "87th Precinct" novel series, and maybe the best up to this point. Not only are we given a great story (yes there is only one in this book) but we are also introduced to one of McBain's best characters, Oliver "Fat Ollie" Weeks of the 83rd in the Diamondback district. Ollie is only slightly about Parker in the hygiene department and can match him BO to BO on any day. Ollie though is a good detective, but with the mouth of a bigot who doesn't understand why some people are upset by the way he talks and acts and smells.

The story starts with an arson investigation, then leads to another arson and then two murders and the beating of a woman. Involved are a group of business partners who add new meaning to the expression 'cya'. They are so busy double dealing and trying to screw each other that even they lose track of who's doing what to who. It's a great story and much more realistic and believable then the "Deaf Man" stories. I'm looking forward to more of "Fat Ollie".

Zeb Kantrowitz

12 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sizzling, March 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Bread (87th Precinct Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

McBain captures the tense relationships of city life in "Bread." The heroes and the villians are equally memorable characters. McBain provides it all: humor, suspense, and action all in perfectly written prose.

5.0 out of 5 stars A typical 87th Precinct novel - excellent, January 21, 2012

By 

L. Smith (Upstate New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bread (87th Precinct) (Kindle Edition)

I never tire of reading the 87th Precinct stories and while I have not done so in order, as I just grab one and read it when I get the chance, this one was a little early as it is the introduction to one of my favorite characters, Fat Ollie. Everything I like about these stories is present in this one - a case that seems simple at first (an arson investigation) turns more complicated as each person is interviewed. From arson to gangs to drugs - this book makes those twists and turns very entertaining as you follow another exciting case for the 87th.