Customer Reviews

McBain's Ladies (87th Precinct Mysteries)

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This book contains excerpts from Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series of police procedurals published between 1956 and 1981. This collection of short stories focuses on the private lives and careers of a number of the tough, beautiful and streetwise women who are part of the 87th Precinct including Teddy Franklin, who becomes the wife of Steve Carella; the passionate and tragic women in the life of Bert Kling; and Ellen Burke.

I have not read any of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels, so this material was entirely new to me. I picked this novel up entirely by chance and found it an interesting, absorbing quick read. I suspect that long-standing McBain readers will have already read the novels and will find nothing new in this collection. For me, though, this was an interesting introduction to this particular series and I'm pleased I read it. I'm very tempted to read the novels from which these stories were excerpted. Mr McBain was a prolific writer: there is an extensive backlist for me to explore.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I seem to be on a roll with 87th Precinct reviews recently so may as well keep going......

'McBain's Ladies' is a collection of extracts from his 87th precinct novels dealing with the various female protagonists of the series. Although it contains nothing new, it is still handy for fans to have. The 87th collection is so extensive that even die-hard fans may not have read every single book, and McBain often scattered character development and backstory randomly throughout the series. There's almost certainly something here that you haven't yet read, or don't remember.

The highlight for me is the focus on the lovely Teddy Carella, who is a personal favourite. We recall how she and Steve first met, and are treated to several key moments in their relationship such as the birth of Mark and April. Nearly every novel includes an interlude between the two, and several selections highlight the strength of both their relationship and of her own character.

From here, the book moves on to the various partners of Bert Kling. In the sequel to this ('McBain's Ladies Too'), McBain wrote an introduction in which he takes issue with a reader comment that Kling was a "token sufferer". But it's hard not to draw this conclusion when reading the rest of this book. From Claire Townsend through Cindy Forrest, Augusta Blair and finally Eileen Burke, we witness how his relationships are destroyed through infidelity, tragedy, and bad luck. The story of Claire (the original and best Kling Girl) is particularly sad. Once again, it's good for new readers to introduce themselves to these characters from the past, and for fans to re-connect with old favourites.

It would have been nice to see more of the other females in the series such as Sarah Meyer, Caroline Brown, and Harriet Byrnes. And given the series continued for about 20 years after this, these extracts certainly aren't the full story (e.g. the relationship between Kling and Burke is not finalised at this point). But as it stands `McBain's Ladies' is a good enough collection for fans of the series, even if it's not exactly essential.