Fat Ollie's Book: A Novel of the 87th Precinct (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "RESPONSE TIME - from the moment someone at the Martin Luther King Memorial Hall dialed 911 to the moment Car 81, in the Eight-Eight's Boy..." (more)
Key Phrases: cuchi frito joint, underwear factory, dispatch case, King Memorial, The Needle, Lester Henderson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The disreputable, bigoted, dirty-mouthed but oddly likable Ollie Weeks, a walk-on in Ed McBain's popular 87th Precinct series, gets a book of his own here: not just the mystery of who killed a popular mayoral candidate a few days before the election, but the one Ollie, improbably, is writing. Pity the schmuck who lifts Ollie's only copy of his manuscript from his car--not only is its author in desperate need of what he's sure will be his ticket to fame and fortune, but the befuddled miscreant somehow believes that the caper recounted in Ollie's book is a real one, and that he's in possession of a blueprint for the crime that will allow him to cash in on it. This is a fast, funny read from the master--like a valentine to his fans while they wait for his next big one. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Even when MWA Grand Master McBain (aka Evan Hunter) isn't in top form, he is very good and such is the case with this 87th Precinct novel, which really belongs to Det. Oliver Wendell Weeks of the 88th Precinct. Fat Ollie, of the gross appetite and the even grosser ignorance of political correctness, played a surprisingly heroic role in the last 87th Precinct novel, Money, Money, Money (2001). Now he claims star billing and repayment of a debt owed by Det. Steve Carella. Two major crimes occur at almost the same time: the shooting of Councilman (and possible mayoral candidate) Lester Henderson as he is getting ready for a rally and the theft of the just completed manuscript of Ollie's first novel, Report to the Commissioner. Ollie enlists Carella's help (Henderson lived in the 87th) and pursues both the murderer and the thief. McBain's broad humor is much in evidence as he pokes fun at detective novels and their readership through excerpts from Fat Ollie's ponderous book. On the other hand, Ollie's outrageous bigotry, like that of TV's Archie Bunker, never seems to hurt or offend anyone and palls over an entire novel. Still, McBain creates wonderfully strange characters, like the transvestite hooker who latches on to Ollie's book, and crimes that are somehow ingenious, stupid and utterly convincing.CWA's highest award, the Diamond Dagger.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st Edition Edition edition (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743202708
• ISBN-13: 978-0743202701
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #876,768 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This item is part of The 87th Precinct 87 Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner from the 87th Precinct, January 12, 2003

By	Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Ed McBain likes the titles of his 87th Precinct series to bear more than one meaning, and "Fat Ollie's Book" is no exception. Fat Ollie Weeks, detective of the neighboring 88th Precinct, stands at the center of this novel, having caught the call on the murder of an aspiring politician. Fat Ollie, not an incompetent detective but quite willing to let others carry the load if circumstances warrant, shifts the burden of the investigation to Steve Carella and Bert Kling while he pursues a case far more important to himself - the theft of the sole existing copy of the manuscript of, well, Fat Ollie's book, a detective thriller written by him to cash in on the lucrative fiction market dominated by a bunch of women amateurs who wholly lack his real world expertise and insights. The book took him months to write, too, at least three or four months, all thirty-six pages of it, and he wants it back, no matter the effort required or whose toes must be stomped on.

Fat Ollie, it should be said, is a racist, but that is an inadequate description. He is also an ethnic, religious, and sexist bigot. He despises, in short, everyone not exactly like himself. Come to think of it, he also despises anybody who IS like himself. Oblivious to the insults he showers upon others and sensitive to slights from others, he nonetheless is not absolutely without a touch of oafish charm, just enough to intrigue a Puerto Rican uniformed female cop caught up in the murder case and just enough to keep the reader interested in such an otherwise unsympathetic protagonist.

As usual in the 87th Precinct novels, the plot twists around itself, sweeping up a collection of odd characters marching unknowingly to inevitable interaction and intermeshed fates. Along the way, we get to read - in short doses - Ollie's truly dreadful attempt at literary creation, so bad as to become bizarre fun. And we follow the developing stories of McBain's familiar stable of detectives from the more than fifty novels that have preceded this one. No 87th Precinct fan should miss this one, another top-notch entry in this series filled with dark humor.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fat Ollie and friends in the big bad city., March 9, 2003

By	E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In his fifty-second 87th Precinct novel, Ed McBain features the loathsome and obese sexist bigot, Fat Ollie, who has finally finished his own police procedural, "Report to the Commissioner." Oliver Weeks sees himself as a literary lion in the making. The protagonist of his rather brief novel is Ollie's female and slim alter ego, whom he names Olivia Wesley Watts. Unfortunately, Fat Ollie never got around to making a copy of his manuscript, which he composed on an old fashioned typewriter. When Ollie leaves the novel in a dispatch case in his car, a junkie steals the case and its precious contents.

"Fat Ollie's Book" has many of McBain's trademark touches. It is politically incorrect and filled with flippant dialogue. The author seamlessly threads three main plot lines throughout the book and they cleverly overlap at times. A prominent councilman who may be planning to run for mayor is shot while preparing for a rally. A pair of cops is hoping to interrupt a big drug sale. And, of course, Ollie is determined to find the perp who ripped off his precious book.

McBain's 87th precinct novels are always entertaining, and "Fat Ollie's Book" gets high marks for its large and colorful cast of characters, its fast moving story and its self-mockery. McBain quotes large sections of Ollie's book, and through Ollie, McBain makes fun of the conventions of the police procedural. McBain's fictional city of Isola is a homage to New York City, with its high-octane excitement, its political pressure and the desperation and chutzpah of its criminal element.

Ed McBain has won every award that is available to a mystery writer. "Fat Ollie's Book" makes it clear why McBain has remained successful for so many years, while lesser talents have fallen by the wayside. This novel, like so many others in this series, is witty, smart and irreverent, and I recommend it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner from the grand master of mystery writers, January 8, 2003

By	Kristen White (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Every time I read an Ed McBain novel (and I've probably read half of the more than 50 he's written, each a gem), I wonder why it's not sitting atop a best-seller list (arbitrary as those lists may be). Mystery-lovers of the world, take notice! McBain (aka Evan Hunter) is a brilliant writer, the kind who dreams up ingenious plots and then populates them with an array of diverse characters, filled with spunk and armed with witty banter, who will make you laugh out loud and might - just might - even cause you to shed a tear or two.

In this latest winner, Detective Oliver Wendell "Fat Ollie" Weeks of the 88th Precinct has written his first novel - a police procedural. Unfortunately, just as he's taking his precious tome (all 36 - yes, 36 - pages of it) to be photocopied (somehow Fat Ollie hasn't seen fit to purchase a computer), he gets called to a murder investigation, and wouldn't you know it, someone filches the sure-to-be-a-best-seller (!) from the back of his squad car while he's off fighting crime.

Can Fat Ollie find time to recover the manuscript while solving the murder of a political up-and-comer? Heck, should he even be concentrating on the murder when the fruit of his labor has disappeared? Truth and fiction are tightly intertwined as Fat Ollie teams up with the boys from the nearby 87th Precinct (familiar to and well-loved by McBain fans everywhere) to figure it all out.

McBain's sense of humor is beyond priceless, if that's possible, and this story is a grand piece of entertainment. I enjoyed every page. Don't miss it.