The Con Man (An 87th Precinct Mystery) [Hardcover]

Ed McBain (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Signet Books (1974)
• ASIN: B0014C4ZYU
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 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

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First 87th Precinct Book, December 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Con Man (Paperback)

I first caught on to Ed Mcbain by accident with his Matthew Hope novels, I liked them so much I decided to find other works of his. That's when I found the 87th Precinct Series. I thought I'd never find the original because it was over 40 years old. Fortunately I was wrong. The description of an imaginary city is phenomenal, each character is slowly developed and revealed to you. I loved this first novel and look forward to reading the remainder of the series.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life is a Con, December 25, 2006

By 

S. Michael Wilson "A Strange Hero to a Select... (Phillipsburg, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Con Man (Paperback)

The fourth book in the 87th Precinct series, the title says it all as the members of the 87th attempt to track down con men preying on the weak and naive members of The City, as well as involving themselves in a few cons of their own.

Written in 1957, my favorite dated aspects of the narrative:

*When talking about pretty girls, it is noted that no one cares if you are smart "so long as you have a beautiful phizz."

*Pointing out the absurdity of something, it is stated that it "takes the brass bologna" and "wins the fur-lined bathtub."

Main man Steve Carella and his deaf/mute wife Teddy (who is yet again involved in a crime relating to Carella's investigations) track down a deadly Lonely Hearts killer, the impatient Brown attempts to stop a pair of street smart confidence men, and rookie Kling helps out while helping his college student fiancee Claire con her school into granting her an early vacation with Kling. The mischevious Meyer Meyer and violent Havilland take to the background in this short entry into the series.

As always, McBain's characters are all three dimensional and compelling, and he manages to explore the emotional and philisophical aspects of crimes, victims of crimes, and their protectors in a way that few ever match. The theme of the The Con is throughout the novel, from the obvious and dangerous to the subtle and benign, and as his opening states and story demonstrates, life itself is a con, and to some degree we are all Con Men.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An early call at the 87th Precinct, June 15, 2006

By 

John Austin "[e-mail]" (Kangaroo Ground, Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Con Man (Paperback)

The 87th Precinct and the guys who staff it must be better known to police procedural mystery readers than any policing establishment in the world. The locale and the guys were presented for the fourth time by author Ed McBain in this short 1957 read. He already opts for the reliable formula: quick changes of scene, colorful dialogue, gruesome murders, suspense, and a chase to effect a last split-second capture at the end. McBain presented several confidence tricks occurring here. Some now seem so obvious and so transparent that one wonders how anyone could fall victim. Nevertheless, for me, McBain's story-telling skill never fails to keep me fascinated.