Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Typical early 87th Precinct mystery with a horrendous pun for the title (the "Boys" of the 87th find a large cut-off hand in the first chapter). McBain in this period has a horrible tendancy to overwrite (the three page description of the "City" as a woman was excruciatingly purple) and play cute (several times the characters make references to either entertainment or novels, in an early and poor attempt at post-modernism). Introduced in this book is Juan, the Puerto Rican addition to the 87th, as McBain slowly trudges towards diversity, thirty years earlier than Bill Clinton.

(Sorry about this review being on here twice--I originally posted it years ago before Amazon kept track of reviewers.)

Typical early 87th Precinct mystery with a horrendous pun for the title (the "Boys" of the 87th find a large cut-off hand in the first chapter). McBain in this period has a horrible tendancy to overwrite (the three page description of the "City" as a woman was excruciatingly purple) and play cute (several times the characters make references to either entertainment or novels, in an early and poor attempt at post- modernism). Introduced in this book is Juan, the Puerto Rican addition to the 87th, as McBain slowly trudges towards diversity, thirty years earlier than Bill Clinton.

(This "review" originally appeared in First Impressions Installment One [http://www.owt.com/users/gcox/fi.contents.html]).