Customer Reviews

Long Time No See: Eighty Seventh Precinct Mystery

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This 1977 book is the 32nd in the "87th Precinct" series. This story is imaginary, the people and places are fictitious. [But you know it is New York city with disguised names.] Jimmy Harris was 20 when he was blinded in the war. He met and married a blind woman. One November evening his seeing-eye dog was chloroformed and he was murdered on the street. Detectives Carella and Myers caught this case. The Homicide detectives got there first; they were supervisors and advisors because they specialized. They could differentiate between a stabbing and an incised wound. Who would kill a blind man on a public street? Carella and Myers begin their investigation. The widow tells them nothing; later she can't. When they return the next morning they find another body and the apartment a mess from a search for something. What will happen to the seeing-eye dog?

"Ed McBain" shows his writing skills in his descriptions of people and places. The police detectives follow their long established techniques. Interview all witnesses; they don't know what they are looking for until they find it. Since the body of Jimmy was discovered right after the murder and rigor mortis had not set in they knew the hour of his death. Can a dream or a nightmare be a clue to a murder (Chapter 8)? Chapter 10 describes an institution found in big cities. Most murders are committed by amateurs, not professional criminals. Can you believe the dramas about mental patients (Chapter 11)? People join gangs for protection in the city (p.188). Carella continues to follow leads. There is a break (Chapter 13). Carella finds a key clue (Chapter 14). There is a solution in the final chapter.

This was a very interesting story, except for the ending. The outburst from the suspect seems out of character. The story of a nightmare seems too psychological for a murder mystery. It reminds me of a TV show where the solution occurs just in time for the last commercial.

For fans of the 87th Precinct, this one will be a welcome change of pace. The writing is still pure McBain--terse, witty, and in some areas, lyrical. The dialogue sizzles, all of our old boys in blue are back, and things feel like home again--the way they always do when you open one of the tales of the 87th. But home can also be a boring place, and sometimes a chance of pace and a twist here and there will remedy that. Well, twists and turns abound in this book, a departure from the previous 87 novels in its legnth, complexity of backstory, and nifty tidbits of info--from psychoanalysis to the training of the blind--to sustain readers' interests. The ending is classic McBain, blunt, to the point, and supremely satisfying. Not since "Sadie When She Died" has McBain produced so unique a novel in this incredibly durable series.

This was NOT a return of the deaf man. (What book was he reading??)

I won't give any plot away, as that would spoil the fun. I've read a dozen or more of the 87th precinct books, and this one was rather weak. I get frustrated with books that rely on a gimmick that gets revealed in the last 5 pages. I think that a novel should be rewarding throughout, giving out nuggets of the solution along the way, instead of making it impossible for the reader to figure out until the author pulls back the curtain at the very end.

The true greatness of a hero can only be matched by the cleverest of villians. Here the boys of the 87th are facing their archnemesis, the Deaf Man. I was with them every step of the way as they tried to out-think the delightfully fiendish mastermind.