Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here! (87th Precinct) [Import] [Paperback]

Ed McBain (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; New Ed edition (May 4, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034059330X
• ISBN-13: 978-0340593301
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 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

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for first time readers of Ed McBain., August 17, 2001

By 

John Austin "[e-mail]" (Kangaroo Ground, Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here! (87th Precinct Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

After producing 87th Precinct crime novels regularly for fifteen years, Ed McBain issued this one in 1971. He uses a variant on the usual formula. Crimes investigated by most of the sixteen detectives on the Police Squad in one twenty-four hour period are presented. Robbery, prostitution, paedophilia, suicide, drug offences, assassination, murder, missing persons, ghosts - all these things come to the attention of the regular officers that feature in McBain's books. The cross-cutting and the editing techniques now so familiar to viewers of TV police procedural programs are here initiated by McBain.

As usual, McBain displays unerring skill at presenting scenes and characters vividly and economically. Especially realistic is the dialogue.

Readers who wish to be introduced to an Ed McBain crime novel are recommended to start with this one. Shorter than most, but tightly-packed, it provides the reader with quick access to the realism, sleaze and sensation that comprise the McBain formula.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Come Together, July 24, 2000

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here (Signet) (Paperback)

With this book (first published in 1971), McBain brings the varied crew of the 87th Precinct togther in one story at the same time. This is the format that all later period 87th Precinct books would follow. There are a total of four plots in this one, each investigated by a different detective from the precinct. A murder, a suicide, a jewel heist and a bombing each get their due treatment. This is one of the better entries in the 87th Precinct series and a must read for any McBain fan.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great introduction to McBain, July 17, 2002

By 

Mark S. Winger (Wood Dale, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here! (87th Precinct Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This was my first 87th precinct novel, and it definitely has me looking forward to more. This actually reads more like an episode of NYPD Blue, than a mystery novel, but it is a solid introduction to a group of characters I was not familiar with. The book is short and flies quickly. It is a 24 hour segment, covering both the night and day shift and 3-4 crimes that the detectives deal with and solve during their shift. If this seems like a cliche at all, realize that this was written before Hill Street Blues, or Homicide, or NYPD Blue so this format is years ahead of that television trend and is before Joseph Wambaugh's similar style. I highly recommend this book. It'll go quick and will have you in search of more McBain books.