Killer's Payoff [Hardcover]

Ed McBAIN (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Perma Books (1958)
• ASIN: B000YZGCJE
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 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

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ANOTHER WINNER!!!, February 10, 2002

By 

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

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This review is from: Killer's Payoff (G. K. Hall Nightingale Series Edition) (Paperback)

This is the sixth book on the 87th precinct I have read. They all have been good and this is no exception. The precinct is trying to find who ever gunned down a man who was walking down the street and why. The usual bunch is here, Steve Carella, Bert Kling, Cotton Hawes, Myer Myer(yes that is right) Hal Willis and newcomer Bob O'Bryan. Danny Gimp, the informer for Steve Carella shows up with information. Through much work the answer is found and one of the above is nearly killed. A fast read, will hold your attention and make you want to read the next one, if you can find it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early 87th Precinct books set the foundation, October 31, 2009

By 

Cheryl A. Reynolds "Spuddie" (Minneapolis, MN, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Killer's Payoff (87th Precinct Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

#6 in the 87th Precinct series, set in fictional Isola, modeled after New York. Classic "cop fiction" with the boys from the 87th trying to track down the murderer of a blackmailer/extortionist who was mowed down gangland style in the street. First they must track down who he was blackmailing, and then figure out which among them had the means and opportunity to go with their obvious motive for wanting the man dead. Or maybe it wasn't one of Sy's "clients" at all--maybe it was someone from his personal life who wanted him out of the way?

Great police procedural, although a bit dated, as it was written in 1958--the author uses lots of monetary figures which make me laugh--you know, the blackmailer was living in the lap of luxury in a $350/month apartment, stuff like that. LOL I've speculated before on whether McBain realized at the time what a time capsule he was creating? Enjoyable, quick read, interesting to read about the characters that I came to know and love later in the series before they were really fully formed.