The Empty Hours [Mass Market Paperback]

Ed McBain (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket Books; First Edition edition (1963)
• ASIN: B000IOHXLC
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,707,843 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

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Empty Hours, June 19, 2003

By 

Ricky N. "Ricky C. Nelson" (Commerce, GA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Empty Hours (Hardcover)

"The Empty Hours" by Ed McBain is a mystery that contains 3 short novels of the 87th Precinct. In "The Empty Hours" Steve Carella and Meyer Meyer investigate the death of Claudia Davis, a wealthy young woman found dead in a slum apartment. In "J" rabbi Jacob Solomon is stabbed to death in an alley behind the synagogue on Passover. Carella and Meyer investigate. In "Storm: Cotton Hawes helps local police investigate the death of ski instructor Helga Nilson who was stabbed to death with a ski pole. All 3 of these early 87th Precinct novels are excellent. Ed McBain is the master of the police procedural.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE EMPTY HOURS WILL FILL A FEW FOR YOU!!!!!!, May 26, 2002

By 

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

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Empty Hours (Paperback)

As I ordered this book I did not know it is really three stores in one book until I received it. As McBain books are, to me, the three are good. The first one is "The Empty Hours" about a young wealthy woman who is found dead. Who is she and is she who you think she is? Why was she killed? Carella and friends run down clues until they find out. You will be surprised. The second one is simply "J". A Rabbi is found killed. Who would want to kill a Rabbi? There is a Jew-hater, was it him? Meyer Meyer leds the search to find the killer and finds something out about himself while doing. Again a surprise. The last one is "Storm". This one features Cotton Hawes and his sweetie going to a ski resort and an instructor ending up dead. Cotton is afraid the local police will mess up the investigation and trys to get involved. The locals resent him being there. He still gets involved and the killer is finally found. As three are three stories in one book they are all pretty short so it make for each one to ba a quick read. McBain will hold your attention and you won't want to put the book down.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Empty Hours, June 19, 2003

By 

Ricky N. "Ricky C. Nelson" (Commerce, GA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Empty Hours (Hardcover)

"The Empty Hours" by Ed McBain is a mystery that contains 3 short novels of the 87th Precinct. In "The Empty Hours" Steve Carella and Meyer Meyer investigate the death of Claudia Davis, a wealthy young woman found dead in a slum apartment. In "J" rabbi Jacob Solomon is stabbed to death in an alley behind the synagogue on Passover. Carella and Meyer investigate. In "Storm: Cotton Hawes helps local police investigate the death of ski instructor Helga Nilson who was stabbed to death with a ski pole. All 3 of these early 87th Precinct novels are excellent. Ed McBain is the master of the police procedural.