Doll [Import] [Paperback]

Ed McBain (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Book; New Ed edition (1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140029788
• ISBN-13: 978-0140029789
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't Put It Down!, March 4, 2000

By 

Dalia Soto - See all my reviews

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

Doll was the first book I've read so far and a short one. I'm experimenting with unread authors and McBain is one of them that I've really enjoyed. Although, I knew who was the killer, but the characters made the book exciting and the fast-paced action was overwhelming. I wasn't too keen on the drug use, but considering the time that this book was written--at the height of hardcore drug use, one couldn't expect a cleaner book.

I strongly recommend McBain. I had to buy several books the same day I bought 'Doll' because McBain was rated "top" comparing to those we already know about. My curiosity paid off.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Reliable and professional entry in long running series, July 18, 2003

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

This case for the detectives of the eighty-seventh precinct is more "concentrated "than usual as it centres on one case ,rather than having the multi-focus plot that is a feature of many series books.
It is a case of murder,the slaying by multiple stab wounds of the model "Tinka Sachs"in her luxury apartment while her terrified five year old daughter "Anna"is playing with "Charlotte" her favourite doll.Steve Carella the lead detective request the help of Bert Kiling still deeply traumatised over the death of his girl friend some five years earlier.
Carella discovers the identity of the killer but before he can divulge this and make an arrest he is attacked ,knocked unconscious and chained naked to a radiator kept alive by his abductor only so he can reveal how he came by the knowledge of the guilty party .
The key lies in the doll and before Kling can bring the case to a conclusion we are taken into the motives behind the killing (drug related)and are witness to the way the resolution of the case helps Kling in thre healing process.
Its tautly told and totally professional .Good police and forensic analysis scenes -as ever in the series;and McBain is always good on the strsses and strains that police work imposes on its practitioners.
As an example of detection its a bit thin-I found the plot device around the doll a little implausible-but a solid workmanlike book that maintains the high standards of this reliable series

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the City, August 17, 2000

By 

Larry Eischen - See all my reviews

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

In a previous book in this excellent procedural series, Detective Bert Kling lost his girl to a gunman. In this entry, he still is dealing with his grief and his attitude has him close to being transferred. In an effort to help his friend, Steve Carella volunteers to work with Kling on the case of a murdered model. Because of friction, Carella is taken (presumed dead) by a mystery woman who begins to hook him on heroin. This is a fine entry in the series, but I prefer those that focus on several cases and feature more of the 'gang'. But, hey, any McBain is hands down better than any procedural by anyone else!