The Last Dance: A Novel of the 87th Precinct [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Ed McBain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2000

Set in Isola, the city that both is and is not New York City, it features his world-reknowned squadroom of heroes and anti-heroes, joined together by a tough and often unrewarding job. This time a man with no enemies is found hanging in what appears to be a suicide. But Carella and Brown soon discover that, drugged and unconscious, he could not possibly have hanged himself. They are dealing with murder. The investigation takes them into the politics and passions of a musical in preparation. Or rather two: one that happened half a century ago and one that is happening now ...

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, January 2000: When it comes to the novels of big-city cop life revolving around a single station house's daily dramas, Ed McBain wrote the book--50 of them, in fact. And whatever one thinks of the virtues of NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, or even Law and Order, there's the undeniable truth that McBain was there first, with his wonderfully reimagined New York. (Fans know that Isola is the stand-in for the borough of Manhattan, Riverhead for the Bronx, Majesta for Queens, Calm's Point for Brooklyn, and Bethtown for Staten Island.)

Here, as one hopes and expects, a body turns up within the opening pages. And also, as is often the case, Detective Steve Carella is there to spar with the medical examiner.

But there are other bodies and other police personnel in a story that takes the typical McBain route--no short cuts--that amounts to a crook's tour of the city he loves. With a cast of characters that ranges from socialites to hookers, The Last Dance takes in theater world chicanery, police brutality, and a pizza-joint massacre.

Ed McBain, also known as Evan Hunter, is the only American ever to have won the British Crimewriters Association's Diamond Dagger; he is a grand master of the Mystery Writers of America; his books have sold over a hundred million copies around the world; and he wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, the Matthew Hope series of mystery novels with fairy tale and nursery rhyme titles (Rumpelstiltskin, Goldilocks, etc.), as well as the classic The Blackboard Jungle.

Celebrating the publication of the 50th novel in a series that stays amazingly fresh and incredibly readable is no small thing. This much-loved and seminal writer is a national treasure. If you're a mystery reader, you've undoubtedly read Ed McBain. If you haven't read one for a while, try this one. It's so good it will immediately send you scurrying back for the ones you missed. --Otto Penzler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The 50th novel of the 87th Precinct is one of the best, a melancholy, acerbic paean to lifeAand deathAin the fictional big city of Isola. The story begins with death: detectives Meyer Meyer and Steve Carella are questioning Cynthia Keating, whose father lies lifeless in a nearby bed. Cynthia claims she hasn't touched Andrew Hale since she discovered his body, but the cops suspect she's lying: for one thing, the corpse's feet are blue from postmortem lividity, a sign of death by hanging. The detectives' doubts turn darker when, after Cynthia admits she found her father hanged and, in shock, laid him down, the M.E. rules that Hale was murdered. Carella asks stoolie Danny Gimp to listen to the drums on the street for any hints of the killer. Danny calls back for a meet but is gunned down before Carella's eyes by two shooters, who escape. Much shoe leather hits the pavement before the cops find a possible motive: Hale left Cynthia the rights to a play now in preproduction as a major musical. If it's a hit, she and three other heirs stand to gain a fortuneAand Hale, the cops further learn, had refused to okay the production while alive. The dicks thus take their investigation into the bustling worlds of theater and high society, which McBain observes tartly. Further deaths ensue, further suspects arise, including a Jamaican hit man who sheds the blood of one of McBain's heroes. The closing of the case comes a tad easily to the cops and to the narrative, but overall this is McBain in classic form, displaying the writing wisdom gained over more than 40 years of 87th Precinct novels (the first appeared in 1956) to deliver a cop story that's as strong and soulful as the urban heart of America he celebrates so well. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Wheeler Publishing (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568958145
• ISBN-13: 978-1568958149
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,373,545 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

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent as usual!, January 12, 2000

By 

kmorical (Belmont, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Dance: A Novel of the 87th Precinct (Hardcover)

Ed McBain has done it again. The book was entertaining. Unfortunately, it was too short, and left me wanting more. I suppose that's a good thing... Anyway, BRAVA.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Last Dance...let's hope not, April 30, 2000

By 

Roz Levine - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Dance: A Novel of the 87th Precinct (Hardcover)

Ed McBain is back at the 87th precinct with the whole gang...Carella, Kling, Brown, Meyer and my personal favorite, Fat Ollie Weeks. McBain uses his tried and true formula, moving the plot forward at a good pace from several directions, until he ties it all up neatly at the end. The writing is wonderful. The dialogue crisp and spare. And the story tight and compact. There's nothing extra in this novel. A truly enjoyable read. Let's hope McBain gives us many more from the 87th.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank God for the 87th Pecinct, January 11, 2000

By 

Brian Torsney "bbt1118" (Palm Desert, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Dance: A Novel of the 87th Precinct (Hardcover)

I have been reading about the 87th Precinct, Steve Carella, Meyer Meyer et al. since my college years. I think I have read them all. I keep waiting for Ed MCBain to go stale, his plots become disorganized and the suspense to ebb. Well 40 plus years of reading and I have yet to be disappointed. "The Last Dance" has all the same characters, but I found the plot to be more intriguing and the suspense lasted until the end. Mr McBain's description of the City on page 91 is alone worth the price of the book. Ed McBain keep on writing, you keep me young.