GIVE THE BOYS A GREAT BIG HAND (PENGUIN CRIME FICTION) [Paperback]

ED MCBAIN (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: PENGUIN BOOKS LTD (1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140023100
• ISBN-13: 978-0140023107
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,800,397 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

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GIVE MCBAIN A BIG HAND FOR THE BOOK!!!, April 9, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: Give the Boys a Great Big Hand (87th Precinct Mystery) (Paperback)

This is ther eleventh of the 87th precinct series I have read and I think I gave all of them a five. Carella and the rest of the precinct are trying to solve the latest mystery. A hand is found, by a policeman on the beat, in an airline bag. Whose had is it and who left it? They start to work on the case and another hand shows up. They appear to have come from the same person. The book as many interesting characters in it. Such as Bubbles, and how is she conntected to the hands? McBain will hold your attention while you enjoy the ride. The books are short, easy to read and very good. You will begin to relate to the whole squad if you can find the books to read in order. A good mystery and hard to put down when you start it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early McBain, August 15, 2000

By 

Larry Eischen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Give the Boys a Great Big Hand (87th Precinct Mystery) (Paperback)

This 87th Precinct story like most of the late 50s-early 60s books in the series is short by modern standards. As always, McBain puts a lot of story in just a few pages. When a severed hand is found, the men of the 87th find themselves tracking a missing seaman, a vanished stripper, and a lost drummer. Juggling several cases at once, the detectives find the solutions while trudging McBain's noir city.

5.0 out of 5 stars It doesn't get better than McBain, October 8, 2007

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Give the Boys a Great Big Hand (An 87th Precinct Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

First Sentence: It was raining.

On a rainy Marcy day in Isola, Patrolman Richard Genero sees someone all dressed in black board a bus but leave behind an airline tote bag. What Genero doesn't expect is that the bag contains the large severed hand of an adult male. Now it's up the "boys" of 87th Precinct to identify both the victim and the killer.

There is something wonderful about reading the Ed McBain books. His descriptions are unparallel: "It had been raining for three days now, an ugly March rain that washed the brilliance of near-spring with monochromatic, unrelenting grey." His characters are great; the members of the 87th are real and imperfect. The dialogue is among the best there is. The plots are tight and twisty; I can never predict where they are going. It's fun to read a story where men wore hats, women usually wore dresses, there were no cell phones or DNA matches, and references are made to Debbie Reynolds and a man having an Ernie Kovack's mustache. If you're looking for a special treat, read McBain.