Customer Reviews

He Who Hesitates

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

 

 

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.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!

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.

I loved this story. It felt like a short story, but the characters he drew were fantastic. It was a see-saw,a tugging at the unknown that made this a page turner for me.

"He Who Hesitates" is too incomplete to recommend to 87th Precinct fans and too odd to recommend to anyone else. It is another interesting experiment from an author who never wrote a book the same way twice, but it just doesn't come off.

Roger Broome checks into the big city of Isola to sell some family crafts, but soon finds himself in trouble, the kind of trouble only the law can deal with. Trouble is Roger isn't too sure he wants to involve the police. So he hovers indecisively near the imposing front of the 87th Precinct station house, glimpsing and overhearing characters known from other books in the series, trying to decide what to do next.

It takes us nearly two-thirds of the book before we find out what the trouble is, though it's clear beforehand that Broome is a bit of a nut. Published in 1965, "He Who Hesitates" suggests some inspiration from Hitchcock's then-recent "Psycho" as Broome shares many qualities with that movie's Norman Bates. He's an insecure man-child with some heavy Mommie issues, dangerous when attracted to women, but endearingly sweet and not without redeeming features.

McBain plays up Broome's naïveté well early on, as when he is propositioned by a homosexual outside the stationhouse and doesn't cotton to what's going on. But his denseness, as channeled by McBain, quickly makes for a wooden narrative with the 87th boys regulated to the sidelines and Broome's biggest dramatic moment stretched out in broken-up flashbacks.

I liked the idea of an 87th crime mystery where the crime itself is kept a mystery for a while. And McBain always has rock-solid moments, like Broome's barside meeting with a woman who knows she's ugly but still hopes the right guy will come along, a moment McBain exploits with all the cruelty of a puppy-mill owner.

But the story never really gets going, and the ending, while obviously part of the experiment, feels a cheat both to 87th Precinct readers and anyone who gets involved in Broome's story.

I on the other hand felt a bit cheated well before the end. McBain's strength wasn't just his willingness to experiment, but his craft with a story, a craft largely missing here. It may be worth reading this if you're an 87th buff looking for something different after a classic like "The Mugger" or "Tricks," but there are too many good McBains out there for most people to waste their time here.