Calypso [Paperback]

Ed McBain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1988

When a calypso singer and a prostitute are greased with the same .38, 87th Precinct cops Carella and Meyer go underground. Their search for the cold-blooded killer takes them into the sleazy underworld of pimps, hookers and pushers--a seamy world of sex and sadism. Reissue.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Stephen King and Nelson DeMille on Ed McBain

I think Evan Hunter, known by that name or as Ed McBain, was one of the most influential writers of the postwar generation. He was the first writer to successfully merge realism with genre fiction, and by so doing I think he may actually have created the kind of popular fiction that drove the best-seller lists and lit up the American imagination in the years 1960 to 2000. Books as disparate as The New Centurions, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Godfather, Black Sunday, and The Shining all owe a debt to Evan Hunter, who taught a whole generation of baby boomers how to write stories that were not only entertaining but that truthfully reflected the times and the culture. He will be remembered for bringing the so-called "police procedural" into the modern age, but he did so much more than that. And he was one hell of a nice man. --Stephen King

Way back in the mid-1970s, when I was a new writer and police series were very big, my editor asked me to do a series called Joe Ryker, NYPD. I had no idea how to write a police detective novel, but the editor handed me a stack of books and said, “These are the 87th Precinct novels by Ed McBain. Read them and you’ll know everything you need to know about police novels.” After I read the first book--which I think was Let’s Hear It for the Deaf Man--I was hooked, and I read every Ed McBain I could get my hands on. Then I sat down and wrote my own detective novel, The Sniper, featuring Joe Ryker. My series never reached the heights of the 87th Precinct series, but by reading those classic masterpieces, I learned all I needed to know about urban crime and how detectives think and act. And I had a hell of a time learning from the master. Years later, when I actually got to meet Ed McBain/Evan Hunter, I told him this story, and he said, “I would have liked it better if my books inspired you to become a detective instead of becoming my competition.” Evan and I became friends, and I was privileged to know him and honored to be in his company. I remain indebted to him for his good advice over the years. But most of all, I thank him for hundreds of hours of great reading. --Nelson DeMille

To read about how Ed McBain influenced other mystery and thriller writers, visit our Perspectives on McBain page.

For a complete selection of 87th Precinct novels available for Kindle (paperbacks coming in February 2012), visit our Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Booklist.

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--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Ed McBain was one of the pen names of successful and prolific crime fiction author Evan Hunter (1926 – 2005). Debuting in 1956, the popular 87th Precinct is one of the longest running crime series ever published, featuring over fifty novels, and is hailed as “one of the great literary accomplishments of the last half-century.” 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.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (September 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380705915
• ISBN-13: 978-0380705917
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,769,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent with an unhappy ending, April 4, 2000

By 

"iceberg127" (Istanbul/TURKEY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Calypso (Paperback)

A really exciting, page turner book, till the end which was very unhappy and rather disturbing. The motive of mentally sick woman, and the crime she committed before she was admitted to the asylum , however imaginary, is very chilling and caused a 'riot' in me. As usual 87th presinct team make the questioning appear very exciting, Stephen Carella and others are brilliant. Buy a second hand copy as soon as you see it. The best amongst the books by McBain I have read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best The 87th Precinct Has To Offer, October 13, 2007

By 

Christopher Gwyn (over there) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Calypso (Paperback)

I have read all of the 87th precinct books up to this point and I think this one is in the top tier. It starts off with the murder of a Calypso musician and his Manager barely survives.A prostitute is then found murdered in a similar fashion and Detectives Carella and Meyer are tracking down leads.Not to give away the story but their investigation leads to a chilling finale. One which I guarantee you will not soon forget. 5 stars.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Strange Music For 87th Series, January 24, 2008

By 

Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Calypso (Paperback)

"Calypso" is definitely an offbeat detour for Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series, pulling the reader away from the traditional environs of Isola and into a pair of unrelated homicides that merge into a race against time. But the story lacks the veracity and vitality of other entries.

A calypso musician and his manager are gunned down by a mysterious assailant in 87th Precinct territory, the musician fatally. Not long after, uptown, a prostitute is also murdered with the same gun. Finding the connection becomes the focus for Dets. Steve Carella and Meyer Meyer.

"There is nothing cops like better than continuity, even if it takes a couple of corpses to provide it," McBain writes.

The most interesting thing about "Calypso" for 87th fans is the chance to see one of the Precinct mysteries stretch well beyond its usual geographic confines to take in the greater metropolis of Isola, which McBain modeled on New York City. In this vein, McBain's description of Isola's layout is amusing, with its five boroughs and a long island unconnected officially to the city itself but serving as a kind of suburb, here called "Sands Spit".

Less entertaining is the story itself. The title is an odd one, without the usual 87th play on words (an orchid with the Latin name "Calypso" becomes a clue, but its a bit of a stretch this time). The humor feels tired, like when a prostitute confuses the words "minyan" and "million". Sleuthing is replaced by an overreliance on sex and violence, a sign of flagging imagination. The ending is abruptly jarring. McBain even makes a crack about "all the pieces in place, just like a phony bleeping mystery novel."

Published in 1979, "Calypso" came out the same year Evan Hunter - who wrote under the McBain pseudonym - saw his non-mysteries "Walk Proud" and "The Chisholms" make it onto movie and television screens, Hunter writing both adaptations. Whether that had anything to do with it, the mystery elements of this story feel undernourished. The identity of the killer is revealed too early and feels both implausible and uninspired.

On the plus side, McBain does keep the story moving even as it goes off the rails. There's the usual assortment of colorful characters; and amusing, welcome cameos by non-precinct stalwarts Monroe, Monoghan, and Fat Ollie Weeks, for whom this is one of his first appearances.

It's just that "Calypso" isn't the kind of 87th Precinct novel I'd give someone asking about those McBain books. It's atypicality is interesting, but a lack of focus makes for an unpleasant and labored read.