The Frumious Bandersnatch: A Novel of the 87th Precinct [Hardcover]

Ed McBain (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mcbain, ed | Publication Date: January 1, 2004

It should have been the night that launched a new pop idol. Tamar Valparaiso is young and beautiful, with the body and voice of an angel, and the stage is set for her to launch her debut album, Bandersnatch, on a luxury yacht in the heart of the city. But halfway through her performance, while the partygoers look on helplessly, masked men drag Tamar off the stage and into a waiting speedboat.

Detective Steve Carella is just showing up for the graveyard shift when news of the kidnapping comes in. Working disjointedly with a Joint Task Force that calls itself "The Squad," Carella and the men and women of the Eight-Seven must find Tamar before time -- or indeed her very life -- runs out.

In this brilliant look at the music industry, Ed McBain once again combines his mastery of the form with the fast-paced dialogue and intricate plotting that have become his signature.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Amazingly, MWA Grand Master McBain remains as fresh and sharp-edged as ever in his 53rd 87th Precinct novel (after 2003's Fat Ollie's Book), which takes on the culture of celebrity. Bison Records' self-styled impresario Barney Loomis runs into a snag in his effort to catapult his newest performer, Tamar Valparaiso, to stardom. As Tamar is lip-synching the provocative video of her first album aboard a rented yacht, two men in Saddam Hussein and Yasir Arafat masks snatch her before a stunned audience. With his usual expert pacing, McBain alternates the action among a number of characters, including the kidnappers and Tamar; series stalwart Steve Carella, who must endure political maneuvering within a Joint Task Force of police bigwigs and FBI agents; and misogynist Ollie Weeks and his new amour, Det. Patricia Gomez. McBain injects enough humor to leaven the underlying tragedy-the fate of a vulnerable, talented young woman. Although it's soon obvious who's behind Tamar's kidnapping, we don't read McBain for surprising denouements but for his true-to-life dialogue, skill at defining characters and effortless transitions. The Lewis Carroll theme provides an extra level of enjoyment.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Tamar Valparaiso, would-be hip-hop diva, is poised on the precipice of stardom. Her new video is set for release, and her recording company has rented a yacht for a chic launch party. Tamar is performing a live version of her rape-fantasy video when two armed intruders snatch her and escape on a small speedboat. Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes of the 87th Precinct catch the call. There are dozens of eyewitnesses, but the kidnappers leave no trace. Even though kidnappings are usually the FBI's purview, Tamar's promoter coerces the feds into keeping Carella and Hawes on the case. Meanwhile, the kidnapping is replayed thousands of times on cable, and the talking heads debate the propriety of Tamar's video, in which a potential rape victim repels her attacker in a fantasy sequence. In 48 hours, Tamar has morphed from wanna-be to megastar in the wake of a potential tragedy. As Carella and Hawes track down the kidnappers, McBain--the godfather of the police procedural--skewers cable news, the music industry, FBI bureaucrats, the current presidential administration, and the Patriot Act. It's difficult to praise a single 87th Precinct novel as demonstrably better than the preceding 52, so let's just say the current case is always the best, but only until the next one. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1ST edition (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743250346
• ISBN-13: 978-0743250344
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,915,115 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

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frabjous, January 23, 2004

By 

MR R D SMITH (Gloucestershire, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Frumious Bandersnatch: A Novel of the 87th Precinct (Hardcover)

The major plot elements have been discussed elsewhere, as have the wonderful characters. The seamless continuity with earlier (and expected) 87th-series novels has been mentioned too, although that doesn't matter so much, as this novel is very capable of standing on its own two feet. I shan't re-hash these points here. Everything is in place, as expected, as usual. This review, then, could legitimately be just an additional 931 adjectives, (there's a maximum 1,000 words in a review, darn it), describing how good this book is.
It's that good.
It's so beyond 'up to snuff' it's 'Class-A drug' level. So pure you could sit down and snort it. Beyond all the usual asides, funny references, 'in-jokes' and flat-out vicious ironies - the McBain-isms - it reflects the Lewis Carroll theme in ways which can't fail to make you hoot, including at one point some wonderful playful new 'Carrolls' all of its own.
It's rare.
Patricia Cornwell would chew off one of her own arms if it meant writing this well. Ever. No disrespect to her - who wouldn't?
Enjoy!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars still the best, December 31, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Frumious Bandersnatch: A Novel of the 87th Precinct (Hardcover)

Bison Records' Barney Loomis sets up a special event on a yacht to launch his latest find Tamar Valparaiso to stardom. Tamar lip-synchs her debut CD Bandersnatch aboard the rented River Princess with the media along. All seems well as the vessel sails along the river until Hussein and Arafat abduct the star. The media and the police wonder if perhaps Barney set up the ploy as a publicity stunt, but he insists that he did not and displays much anger.

87th Precinct Detective Steve Carella begins investigating, but almost immediately has to deal with an FBI led joint task force consisting of every bigwig wanting publicity in the nearby universe. The kidnappers demand a ransom to return the future superstar while the Feds try to keep Steve off their Squad. However, Barney demands Steve and the locals remain active as he believes they have a better chance of rescuing his diva because unlike the Squad they are not concerned about looking good in the media.

It has been five decades with over fifty novels, yet the 87th Precinct books are always among the best police procedurals on the market. The latest tale is superb with a delightful and cleverly conceived investigation at its center. However, that is lightened by Fat Ollie's dating and homage to Lewis Carroll. Alice and her Looking Glass company provide a wonderful foundation to the relationships within the task force and within the three kidnappers (one more in a Bush mask) and their victim as well as between the two groups. Even the Queen of Hearts knows that Ed McBain is the best and he proves that once more with the fabulous FRUMIOUS BANDERSNATCH.

Harriet Klausner

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How Do You Spell That....?, January 26, 2004

By 

Kenneth Shipley - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Frumious Bandersnatch: A Novel of the 87th Precinct (Hardcover)

Before you buy the book, you have to find the book. Asking for it yields its own little joys.

"Frumious Bandersnatch please," a gentle query to a clerk who responds with a sparkle in the eye born either of interest or befuddlement. A kind of secret, privileged conversation ensues between buyer and seller, an academic treatise on the etymology of the title, Lewis Carrol and Monty Python.

So you buy the book and the story flies by as is usual with McBain and the 87th Precinct, wholly satisfying except for it being over too soon. The wait for the next one begins immediately. A brilliant man once said, "After a time you may find that 'having' is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as 'wanting.' It is not logical, but it is often true."

Brilliant, but never read McBain.