He Who Hesitates [Mass Market Paperback]

Ed McBain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2003

Roger Broome is in the city to sell the woodenwares he and his brother handcrafted in their shop upstate—and he does so with stunning success. To celebrate, he goes out to enjoy the fruits of his labor and winds up in a bar, where he meets Molly. They have a few drinks and then head back to his room.

Now Molly is dead, and only Roger knows what happened.

The men at the 87th would surely love to get that information from Roger…if they even knew he had it. While Roger wants to report what he knows to the detectives, he struggles to reach out to them when a Spanish beauty named Amelia makes him forget everything else in his life. And with each missed opportunity, Roger delays justice from being served.

One of the 87th Precinct series’ more gripping and psychologically intense installments, He Who Hesitates is bestselling author Ed McBain at his finest as he delivers a brooding, suspenseful thriller Newsday hails as “a tour de force!”

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Stephen King and Nelson DeMille on Ed McBain

I think Evan Hunter, known by that name or as Ed McBain, was one of the most influential writers of the postwar generation. He was the first writer to successfully merge realism with genre fiction, and by so doing I think he may actually have created the kind of popular fiction that drove the best-seller lists and lit up the American imagination in the years 1960 to 2000. Books as disparate as The New Centurions, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Godfather, Black Sunday, and The Shining all owe a debt to Evan Hunter, who taught a whole generation of baby boomers how to write stories that were not only entertaining but that truthfully reflected the times and the culture. He will be remembered for bringing the so-called "police procedural" into the modern age, but he did so much more than that. And he was one hell of a nice man. --Stephen King

Way back in the mid-1970s, when I was a new writer and police series were very big, my editor asked me to do a series called Joe Ryker, NYPD. I had no idea how to write a police detective novel, but the editor handed me a stack of books and said, “These are the 87th Precinct novels by Ed McBain. Read them and you’ll know everything you need to know about police novels.” After I read the first book--which I think was Let’s Hear It for the Deaf Man--I was hooked, and I read every Ed McBain I could get my hands on. Then I sat down and wrote my own detective novel, The Sniper, featuring Joe Ryker. My series never reached the heights of the 87th Precinct series, but by reading those classic masterpieces, I learned all I needed to know about urban crime and how detectives think and act. And I had a hell of a time learning from the master. Years later, when I actually got to meet Ed McBain/Evan Hunter, I told him this story, and he said, “I would have liked it better if my books inspired you to become a detective instead of becoming my competition.” Evan and I became friends, and I was privileged to know him and honored to be in his company. I remain indebted to him for his good advice over the years. But most of all, I thank him for hundreds of hours of great reading. --Nelson DeMille

To read about how Ed McBain influenced other mystery and thriller writers, visit our Perspectives on McBain page.

For a complete selection of 87th Precinct novels available for Kindle (paperbacks coming in February 2012), visit our Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Booklist.

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--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Ed McBain was one of the pen names of successful and prolific crime fiction author Evan Hunter (1926–2005). Debuting in 1956, the popular 87th Precinct series is one of the longest running crime series ever published, featuring more than 50 novels, and is hailed as "one of the great literary accomplishments of the last half-century." 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. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Morrow/Avon (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380641984
• ISBN-13: 978-0380641987
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,349,434 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 An unusual McBain, June 13, 2000

By 

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

This review is from: He Who Hesitates (87th Precinct) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the most unusual novel in the great 87th Precinct detective series in that instead of being told in the third person like the rest of the books, it is narrated by one of the perpetrators. The perp in question is also one of the more interesting and psychologically tormented of the entire series. This is not the 87th Precinct novel to start with, but if you are a fan of the series, you'll love this one.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars PLEASE HESITATE TO READ THIS BOOK!!!!, August 8, 2002

By 

Mac Blair (Huntingdon, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: He Who Hesitates (Mass Market Paperback)

Trying to read these in order, I have now read 19 of the 87th Precinct book. I think this is the first one I did not give a five star rateing to. There is no police work in this book. No Carella Kling, Hawes, Myers, Willis or any of them doing much of anything. The book is all about Roger Broome who comes to the city, committs a crime and spends the whole book trying to work up enough courage to tell the police about it. Really, that is all the book is about. I would say, SKIP THIS ONE IN THE SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing story told from a new perspective., April 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: He Who Hesitates (87th Precinct) (Mass Market Paperback)

A new and interesting twist to the series of the 87th precinct. It has an originality that only Ed Mcbain can work with, and draw the reader into the minds of the villain, rather than the detectives themselves. It gives a new glimpse into the lives of the detectives as seen by others, and not only from what is read. It keeps you in suspense about what is to happen, and also, what has happened. There is true genius in this piece of work.