Long time no see : an 87th precinct mystery [Unknown Binding]

Ed McBain (Author)

Book Description

Carella and the detectives of the 87th Precinct search for the killer of a blind Vietnam veteran, Jimmy Harris, and his blind wife, and the only clue to the crime lies in a chilling nightmare that Jimmy had described to an Army psychiatrist a decade earlier. Read by Len Cariou. Book available.

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

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

• Unknown Binding
• ASIN: B00005WAEO
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,080,033 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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What the Seeing-Eye Dog Witnessed, October 30, 2007

By 

Acute Observer (N. Jersey Shore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Long Time No See (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Longer, darker, and more complex than his others, March 4, 2004

By 

"jac348" (Athens, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Long Time No See: Eighty Seventh Precinct Mystery (Paperback)

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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars NOT the deaf man, and not satisfying, either ..., October 29, 2002

By 

Robert Reardon (Colorado Springs, Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Long Time No See (Mass Market Paperback)

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.