Product Description

The New York Times bestselling author who changed the face of crime fiction brings back three classic 87th Precinct novels -- now together in one stunning volume

LULLABY
At New Year's, a sinister song of death and destruction echoes through the 87th Precinct, and it isn't Auld Lang Syne....

VESPERS
the cops of the 87th Precinct must cast the first stone in the bizarre case of a murdered priest -- and a parish torn apart by the deadliest of sins.

WIDOWS
It's summer in the city, and the brutal slaying of a lawyer and his mistress is heating up the 87th Precinct. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

POLICE PROCEDURES RULE THREE TIMES
For the fan of the Police Procedural novel NO ONE does it quite as well as Ed McBain. The 87th Precinct series has followed the changes in Police procedural an detection from the mid fifties to the present time.

What a fun sampler this is 3 complete novels from the late 80's to the early 90's for approximately the price of two paper back novels.
I truly got my money's worth out of these three totally different
tales of the 87th Precinct ... Read more

Product Description
As Matthew Hope sinks into a coma after getting shot, his friends follow a trail of clues into the shadowy underworld of the local circus--complete with sex, drugs, blackmail, murder, and in the center of it all--a little girl.Amazon.com Review
Matthew Hope has been mysteriously shot--by whom?As helies in a hospital bed in a near-coma, his friends try to discoverwhy his professional involvement with a small circus had murderousresults.To do this they must traverse a web of sinister acrobats, kinky animal trainers, and beautiful businesswomen--one of whom is a ruthless killer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Page Turner...
but only to have it be over.

Every once in a while -- three years or so --I decide I really should read a mystery novel or two to give myself another chance at appreciating the genre.One of this year's choices was There Was a Little Girl.I hate to beat up on the dead, but this book is deviously plotted, overly descriptive, with one completely pointless character, Matthew Hope's 14 year old daughter, and every other character firmly occupying a genre role -- ex-wife, best buddy, current lover, macho performer, etc, etc.

For me, a mystery should, with inconspicuously planted clues, involve the reader in its solution.That may be an unjust expectation, but here the reader trails around Hope's friends as they go from suspect to suspect, tracking the current crime and -- it develops -- an earlier crime.There are plenty of false leads, but no cleverly dropped information that would enable the perceptive reader to solve the crime.Instead, about thirty pages before the end we get told the Eureka! moment and all the rest is coda.

Big Disappointment
After reading the summary to "There Was A Little Girl" I couldn't wait to crack into the book.

To my surprise the novel was a little bit like a piece of gum when you first put it in, minty and refreshing.Then as you keep chewing it looses its appeal and then with even more chewing it is completely flavorless.

I also was not impressed by the racism, the judging and the language.Overall this book was a big disappointment.

Not one of his best, not even one of the good ones.
Being a big fan of Ed McBain's novels, I was very disappointed when reading, "There Was A Little Girl".It just wasn't as good as his other Matthew Hope novels.By putting his main character, Matthew Hope, in a coma I think McBain made a big mistake.True, it was an interesting twist watching his friends and colleagues try to figure out what happened to him while geting a glimpse into his head and learning what happened but, the mystery he was trying to solve was boring.The ending left me feeling empty.I hate to say that it was one of my least favorite McBain novels ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (4)

First Class Entertainments
Author Graham Greene made a distinction between his "novels" and his "entertainments."This volume of Transgressions is definitely in the entertainment column, and that is no slap.

I know Lawrence Block's work, particularly the Keller tales, so I went for that one first.Mr. Block writes the Keller stories the way Keller works: he circles around the objective, gathering details carefully, and then goes in for the kill.If you don't know Keller, he makes his living as a hit man, and he's quite good at it.You're watching, and maybe even cheering on, a bad guy who is nonetheless quite pleasant.If you can get over that hurdle, go for it.

Mr. Deaver chimes in with an unlikely hero, a police statistician who is not surprisingly the butt of a lot of jokes, and held in some contempt by the self-described "real" cops.This fellow noses out a conspiracy, and gets the real cops on his side, dragging their feet most of the way.I found the ending a little simplistic, but I suspect Mr. Deaver's hero would say it was within the statistical norm.

Good, fun reading.

The Fast and the Furious
I was changing planes in Denver and realized I'd left my John Nance paperback on the last plane. A trip to the airport bookstore gave me the usual array of "already read it" vs. "wouldn't touch it" fiction, but I had another long flight ahead of me. My eye fell on the Deaver/Block edition of "Transgressions" and I thought, well, the Keller story will probably be okay. I really enjoyed "Hit Man" and was less-enchanted with "Hit List", but I expected to buy whatever came off the same assembly line. I balked at the Deaver story at first, having been disappointed by JD several times. My mom is a fan so I always buy copies for her and she passes them back, but they sit in my "nothing else to read" pile.

Reading the forward by Ed McBain left me hungering for some other authors who might have turned him down for this series, and I was also miffed when he stated that the authors appear "in alphabetical order on the cover, and the reverse inside", but I bit the bullet and choked down the Deaver, since I guessed I would never bother with it otherwise.

And I was thrilled! The son-of-a-gun can write, when it suits him! Or maybe the short form is really his home. This is the best book I've ever read by Jeffery Deaver, and although it unfortunately echoes a current television drama, it still strikes me as fairly original and well-rounded. I loved it!

The Larry Block piece was a nice return to our favorite hitman, picking up where we left him plus a few international tragedies. It was great, too. I loved reading the whole thing even after I flew home, staying up the rest of the night to get it all down.

I purchased the Ladies Edition of "Transgressions" (Ann Perry, Joyce Carol Oates, Sharyn McCrumb) at the same time, and so far, the stories look equally well-done.

A nifty double bill...
Just like the good old days at the movies, this is a double feature with a pair of twisty-turny thrillers from a couple masters of the genre, Jeffery Deaver (The Bone Collector) and Lawrence Block (Hit Man, Eight Million Ways To Die, and dozens and dozens more).

I bought this compilation for Block's new Keller story, not particularly having liked anything Deaver's written up to this point. So I read the stories out of sequence, thinking I'd read Block's 'Keller's Adjustment' and then just sell the thing back to the bookstore. But my time with Keller only lasted an hour or so and I still had some time to kill, so I thought, what the h***? I took a chance and gave Deaver a chance to woo me over.

Well, dammit, he did. Deaver's story, 'Forever', stars a prim, manic-obsessive police statistician named Talbot Simms, who begins an investigation into a pair of apparent double suicides after they don't quite fit into his narrow theorem. The story is deftly written, with a likeable (if REALLY quirky) protagonist in Simms - and has all of Deaver's trademarked plot twists. I don't know how far Deaver can take Simms (how many of us really care that much about a mathmatics-obsessed statistitian and his quest for the perfect number?). His profile doesn't easily translate into a viable protagonist for a series, but for a fast read with a very specific scenario, he was perfect.

Block's entry, 'Keller's Adjustment', begins with his hit man Keller on the road, working a job in Florida at the time of 9/11, and wondering if he's still cut out for the life of a contract killer afterwards. Out of all his creations, Keller is Block's most ambiguous character, often seeming to be a conduit for Block to clear out all the accumulated junk built up inside his head: Keller spends most of his time collecting stamps, chewing the fat with his matronly contractor, Dot, or spouting crazy bursts of soul-cleansing stream-of-consciousness while on a job. Here, Block seemingly sets Keller up for his rumored retirement, and as always, Larry throws in heaping bits of the most cynical, pitch-black humor around. My personal favorite - when Keller fantasizes about killing the soccer mom who honks at him at a red light. Whooo! Brought tears to my eyes...

And now, my only real complaint: Even knowing, going in, that Transgressions #1 would be short, since it contains only a pair of novella's - which are usually what? 10,000 to 50,000 words or so? Well, even weighing in at a whopping 352 pages, this volume feels PADDED. The typeface is absolutely HUGE; it's large enough that somebody who's as blind as a bat could read it. And dangit, as much as I love supporting old Larry in his dotage, $7.99 is a lot of cash to shell out for a couple of eensy-weensy stories, even as good as these are; especially when you consider that Block's contribution will also be included in his next Keller novel, Hit Parade (John Keller Mysteries), along with three or four other new stories.

Two great writers...two excellent novellas
Jeffrey Deaver and Lawrence Block have written two outstanding short stories. Deaver's story involves a man obsessed with statistics and works as a police detective when he comes across two suicides that don't seem to "fit" the mathematical odds of suicides in the town in which he works. The plot twists around a few characters and Deaver's writing style kept me interested until the end.

Block's story involves Keller, a hitman, who is beginning to have some various worries and anxieties about his life especially after 9/11. Keller (who is a main character in "Hit Man" and "Hit List" by Block) meets with his contact (Dot) and finds himself in various situations all the while worrying and thinking about his life. Block writes a great book and this novella opens up more avenues for Keller in future books in that particular series. Keller is funny at times, insightful and intelligent at other times, and the story moves quickly wit a solid plot.

I read the book in just a few hours. It's a fun read and well worth the time. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

NOVELLETTE BOOK REVIEW
ALL AUTHORS, WROTE NEW NOVELLA STORY TITLES DATED 2005, FILLED WITH SUSPENSE, GOOD CHARACTERS AND NEAT PLOTS.

MY FAVORITE WAS TITLED (MERELY HATE) BY ED MCBAIN, ABOUT MUSLIM CAB DRIVERS BEING SHOT DEAD, AND THE STAR OF DAVID SPRAYED ON THIER WINDSHIELDS, CAUSING TENSIONS IN THE PUBLIC AND STIRRED BY THE MEDIA. ... Read more

Product Description
When merchants all over town start receiving anonymous threats, the only things the boys of the Eighty-Seventh Precinct have to go on is a character called the ""deaf man"" and the ominous possibility that the threats are real. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Getting a little repetitious
87th Precinct mystery. Steve Carella gets shot again, this time by the "Deaf Man." This is getting a little old, this constant use of Carella as a punching bag or the character around which the "mystery" is structured (like his sister's wedding in an earlier novel). McBain has several interesting characters in the 87th, and he's done Carella to death (literally, almost). What was "fun" here? The scene in which the break goes against the Deaf Man, who has carefully calculated and elongated the odds in his favor for getting away with his burglary. There's still some horrendous overwriting here, although nothing as purple as the last novel. It's amazing, to me, that these novels were bought and published. I know why I read them now, that is, because I've read the 1980s 87th Precinct, and know how good McBain gets, but how ever did he survive long enough with work of this poor caliber? Is there a Young McBain even now creating a series that we will look back at 20+ years hence publishing today? I doubt it. I think the publishing conditions and conventions were much different in the late 50s and early 60s. Today's writer has to be much better with that first novel, and each subsequent one.

Let's hear it for the deaf man!
Every hero needs a worthy adversary: Sherlock Holmes matched wits with Professor Moriarity; James Bond battled Goldfinger; and in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct, Steve Carella and the boys take on the wily Deaf Man.
In the twelfth number, Meyer Meyer investigates a series of complaints about a caller threatening businessmen. Carella grapples with a homicide, a naked man wearing US Navy shoes. Eventually, via the newspapers, a caller identifies the corpse as John Smith.
Meanwhile, the Deaf Man is hard at work on a caper that will net him two and half million dollars. He's creating diversions based on the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Red-headed League." The businesses being threatened are near banks and jewelry stores, and the men of the 87th are spread awfully thin trying to cover every eventuality.
McBain is a clever stylist who works on the reader subliminally. Carella's nemesis is deaf; his other senses are heightened because of it. Carella's wife, Teddy is also deaf. I'd be interested to know if there is some deafness in Evan Hunter's background. Also, when the situation fits, McBain takes a dig at the politically correct. If you don't believe me, get a load of Ollie Weeks (He's not in this one). McBain (Hunter) is also not afraid to combine humor and dramatic action. There's a fantastic twist toward the ending that made me laugh out loud, and I was alone. He's also not afraid to break convention; Carella and the 87th fail as often as they succeed, especially when they're up against the Deaf Man. Also, it's a convention in most mysteries that the hero be involved in the capture of the villain. Carella is in a coma when the Deaf Man is foiled (by a beat cop).
I started reading the 87th Precinct novels way down the line with LULLABY. As a result, I stumbled across the Deaf Man when I happened to pick up LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE DEAF MAN. I've been trying to find the rest ever since. There are five of them: THE HECKLER, FUZZ, LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE DEAF MAN, EIGHT BLACK HORSES, AND MISCHIEF. I can't remember if they finally got him in MISCHIEF, but if not, isn't it about time for another, Ed?

THE HECKLER IS A HECK OF A BOOK!!!!
McBain has written another good one in "The Heckler". I have read the first twelve and think I gave them all a five. Someone is calling shop owners and telling them to move by a certain date or die. Who could be doing this? Their only clue is the caller states he is a little deaf. Myer Myer is in charge of this investigation. Meanwhile, Steve Carella is in charge of another one involving a dead man. Are the two connected? Myer and Carella sit in the same squad room but they think each are working on two different things???????? What is the deaf man planing to do? Caerlla and gang of the the 87th are trying to find out. But, will they do it in time? These books will hold your attention. They go a little deeper into police procedure than many mystery books do. I really enjoy them and I hope you will too. If you read very many you will come to think you know the whole bunch. You will also worry about their wives and children. McBain does a good job. ... Read more

Product Description
The lady looked like death personified. Dressed all in black she carried a handgun and a jar of nitro-glycerine in her handbag. She sat in the 87th Precinct squad-room, waiting for Detective Carella. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Squadroom Standoff At The 87th
Ed McBain's alter ego Evan Hunter often said the guiding principle behind his 87th Precinct series of police-procedural novels was developing a composite central character out of the squadroom itself. In few entries was he as successful in that regard as here, with one of his earliest stories.

Virginia Dodge's husband just died in the clink, and now she wants to kill the man who sent him up, Det. Steve Carella. Lucky for Carella, he's on a case when she shows up in the 87th Precinct squadroom with a loaded revolver and a bottle of something she claims is nitroglycerin. "Don't open that door, Lieutenant," she warns an officer about to run for help, "or I'll fire into this purse and we can all go to Hell!"

Published in 1959, "Killer's Wedge" feels like a wedge itself of sorts, as it marks out the beginning of McBain's harder narrative voice. There's sex talk, profanity, and a distinctly areligious tenor here, not to mention a lingering, detailed description of a lusty woman's bodily charms, all familiar to readers of McBain's later works.

It's a short, tense read, with remarkable twists and turns McBain throws up as deftly as a Vegas cardsharp. Various members of the 87th Precinct detective squad, who get more attention than usual here with McBain's favorite son Carella elsewhere, try various ploys to disarm Dodge, risking life and limb in gambits that often end unpleasantly. Carella, meanwhile, is kept busy working on a more traditional whodunit caper involving a dead man in a locked room, where events move more routinely, though not without suspense given what the reader knows about what's awaiting Carella back at the precinct house.

McBain really shines with his main story, giving Dodge a vaguely sympathetic character (her husband was her reason for living, even if he was a louse) at the same time he makes us hate her for the way she treats her hostages. As time passes, it becomes clearer how much she is enjoying herself trifling with people's lives. Like the detectives, you have both a desire to see her die and a strange guilty feeling about it, as McBain presents her less as evil than fatally limited, if dangerous all the same.

Not everything is resolved at the story's end, like the fate of a minor character McBain makes us care about, and some things like the presence of Carella's deaf-mute wife feel artificially tacked on, but this is a quality story, not just a quick page turner but a unique one you will chew on long after you put it down. McBain wrote better books, but this one shows why the series endured as long as it did, and is remembered with affection by so many: It's a showcase for a master.

Crisp entry in the 87th precinct series
Killer's Wedge opens on a bravura piece of writing ,one which establishes mood and atmosphere quite brilliantly as well as setting the period with deft economy .It details the sights ,sounds and atmosphere within the squadroom -aan ambience that is a compound of typewriter sounds, cursing and casual profanity and the ringing of a telephone clamouring for attention .The conversation is a mix of dirty stories and complaints --please note ,if you object to this sort of thing ,the stories are not related to the reader and neither is the profane language .The atmosphere is masculine and as this is a 1950's novel women police officers are not as prominant as they would be in a novel written now .
A woman does enter the squadroom -a woman clad wholly in black and resembling ,as one officer remarks ," death personified " .She demande to see Detective Steve Carella who sees blames for the death of her husband in prison ,where he was sent after Carella secured a conviction .She is Virginia Dodge and she has the means of backing up her demand -a container of nitro -glycerin that she threatens to detaonate if Carella is not brought before her .The problem is that he is out on a case -an alleged suicide at the home of the wealthy Scott family .The head of the family has allegedly killed himself by hanging but Carella is sceptical as there is no discernable motive and the man's children were not exactly noted for their displays of afection for their late father .
We cut back from his investigation to the scenes in the squadroom where Virginia holds the detectives under the gun and the nitro .Also present in the squadroom is a recently arrived Puerto Rican streetwalker accused of stabbing a gangleader .There are attempts to smuggle out a message to passers by of the situation in the squadroom and the author deftly builds up the suspense around these .Add the arrival of Carella's pregnant deaf-mute wife Teddy and the suspense intensifies .
This is a well characterised novel and the squadroom scenes are palm sweatingly tense .I was less taken by the scenes at the Scott mansion -that case is essentially a locked room mystery and McBain even invokes the classic writer of such tales John Dickson Carr .The strenght of this series is its sense of realism and the interaction of the various personalities in the squad .The intrusion of elements drawn from the classic cosy mysteries of an earlier age are intrusive

This is a minor quibble however and Killer's Wedge is a powerfrul and potent suspense tale that wears its age well

WILL WEDGE YOU INTO A CHAIR UNTIL YOU FINISH IT!!!!
This is the 7th book I have read on the 87th Precinct. I think I have rated all of them a five. This one is great. Virginia Dodge holds the entire precinct as hostage waiting for Steve Carella to show up. She wants to kill him for arresting her husband, who then died in prison. She has a gun and a bottle of nitro or is it nitro???? She is mean, mad and means what she says. Meanwhile Carella is out investigating a suicide. Or is it a suicide? Was it murder??? He does not know anything is going on. Different officers try things to get the gun away from Dodge, and some pay for it. This is a quick read. It will hold you attention. You will not want to put it down. McBain has done another good one.

I was "wedged" into my seat for this thriller!
I've always loved McBain novels and Killer's Wedge definately didn't make me change my mindset. This novel epitomizes what the word "thriller" is all about.McBain's subtle writing style flows wonderfully from page to page. Virginia Dodge is the perfect femme-fatale: sexy, sultry, and oh so dangerous! I read the LARGE PRINT edition simply because I had forgeotten my glasses and bought this in an airport before a flight to Europe and I needed the large print so I could read it. But I'm positive you'll enjoy this book in any edition, it's solid, thrilling writing!! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Somethings Shouldn't Be Kept in the Family
A young girl staggers into the 87th in a torn dress and with knife cuts on her hands and face.She says that a man 'with dark hair and blue eyes' attacked her and her cousin in the hallway of an abandoned building.An officer on patrol finds the cousin dead in the vestibule, her hand hanging out onto the sidewalk.

When questioned by Kling she initially says that he was a 'perfect stranger' and that he forced her cousin to commit a sex act and then tried to force her too.But during a line up she picks out one of the cops and not the suspect, so Kling and Carella begin to doubt her story.To tell you anymore would give away the plot and the "surprise" ending.

Needless to say it's another fine outing for McBain and the 87th.

Zeb Kantrowitz

Another great book
This is another great book in the series. you dont need to start with the first book to understand what is going on. worth your money

Keeping The Aspidistra Flying
Right from the opening page, an almost surreally cinematic description of a bloody girl running toward a police station in the rain, you realize you are in for a solid 87th Precinct crime novel. And you are. Published in 1975, 20 years into the run of the series, "Blood Relatives" plunges you into the middle of one of Ed McBain's most vividly realized stories.

Seventeen-year-old Muriel Stark is slashed to death in the hallway of an abandoned tenement, her murder witnessed by her cousin Patricia. But Patricia's story gets more complicated, and the 87th Precinct detectives find themselves hunting up several different alleys to solve the crime.

At his best, McBain produced not mysteries or simple story yarns but colorful and diversely-patterned mosaics, where, as in real life, varied and disconnected elements of city life came together in the course of a routine investigation never anything close to routine. A drunk who slaps his wife around, a hobo who imagines himself king of the city and visits junkyards to examine his tribute, an amiable bank manager who shares his name with a radio-age superhero are all elements meaningless in isolation that come alive as the stuff of life and death in McBain's hands.

Police work, too, is described in a way both authentic and entertaining, like when he steps away from the story for a moment to note the peril of policemen trying to ape Baretta. "Television cops were dangerous. They made real cops feel like heroes instead of hard-working slobs."

McBain's doesn't let you forget about the central crime or sundry other atrocities the detectives of the 87th must deal with. He just delivers in such a way that you get used to it all the way they do, "keeping the old aspidistra flying" as he puts it and making you feel a part of their strange brotherhood. There's more than the usual amount of police business in this police procedural, with McBain explaining the rules of homicide investigation (if a case isn't solved in the first 24 hours, it is as likely to be solved by chance as by detection thereafter) and why you can't smoke at a crime scene, even in 1975.

The mystery itself is one of McBain's better ones, too, one that keeps you guessing as you read though not thinking much about it after. I could have done without the device of a diary that gives away many of the secrets. I'd rather have had 50 more pages of sleuthing. Alas, he wasn't yet writing 400-page installments of the 87th series, though this has more story than some of those later volumes.

"Blood Relatives" is overall a solid, worthy effort that presages many of his great 87th Precinct novels of the 1980s, with its singular vitality and depth. Read this, and you will come back for more.

False Accusations
"Blood Relatives" is another fine installment in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series.In this episode, Detective Steve Carella attempts to track down a psycho who has killed the cousin of a fifteen year old girlright in front of her eyes.Just when Carella thinks he has a positive ID,it turns out to be the wrong guy!This book is typically of earlier periodMcBain. It is short, sweet and to the point, describing matter-of-factlyhow a murder investigation works.It is not the most memorable of McBain'sworks, but will satisfy any fan of the 87th Precinct series.

Great one
This is classic McBain. It gripped me from the suspenseful and beautifullydescribed opening (a girl running in the rain) to a twisty revealingfinale. ... Read more

Product Description
When Jill Lawton hires Florida attorney Matthew Hope to locate her missing husband, she has two things on her mind: divorce and plenty of alimony. Hope wants to help the mercilessly beautiful woman more than he cares to admit. Following a trail of blood through a murky, moneyed world of kinky sex, high-class thievery and dangerous games, Hope finds help from a most unexpected source--a detective named Carella, of the 87th Precinct.Amazon.com Review
Matthew Hope is at the end of his spiritual rope.He'sdivorced from his wife, recovering from a coma and tired of living inCalusa, Florida.When Jill Lawton hires him to find her husband,who's been seen "up north" with another woman, Hope thinksit's just another failed marriage ... until a body washes up on thebeach with no face and Jack Lawton's driver's license in hispocket.

Hope enlists the help of Steve Carella, from the 87th precinct, andtogether they find that the Lawtons weren't the wholesome, tennis clubmembers that they appeared to be.Jack Lawton is planning to steal aprized Greek artifact from the Calusa museum.Jill has a plan of herown, and both of them are sleeping with Melanie Schwartz, who is alsosleeping with Peter Donofrio and Ernest Corrington-both ex cons.

The Last Best Hope is a wild ride.It starts out as a sleepy,love-gone-bad story and twists itself into a tightly wound tale ofmurder, deception and kinky sex.Almost every character isunpredictable and almost every character is a suspect.Ed McBain'stwo series characters-Hope and Carella-make a powerful team and thefriendship that develops through the book lends the story an importantsympathetic element. -- Mara Friedman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Matthew Hope meets Steve Carella at last.
Ed McBain tried to tie his two best selling series together with this novel set both in Matthew Hope's Calusa Beach and in the world of the 87th Precinct.While I'm not sure if he completely succeeded I do think this noirish story of a swinging married couple, their young girlfriend (for lack of a better term), their involvement with a murderous ex con, a scheme to steal a priceless art object, and an unsolved murder or two make this still a vintage exciting McBain novel.The friendship that detective Steve Carella and lawyer (kind of PI) Matthew Hope strike up long distance over the phone seems entirely believable and adds some sympathetic empathy for two of the longest suffering "good guy" crime fighters in modern day mystery fiction.I was glad to see these two each find a sympathetic ear.

The story itself is a little raunchier in terms of sex than previous McBain's, but I don't think it detracts from the story.Indeed it seems kind of essential in explaining the actions and motivations of some of the characters.I could definitely see the book being cast as a noir type of film with one wondering to the end what the outcome will be.

One last note, it isn't necessary to have read any of the other Matthew Hope or 87th Precinct novels before having read this one.It stands on its own well enough, but I do think that it might be helpful to have at least a little bit of a previous acquaintance with Hope and Carella.If nothing else it helps to show the reasons these two would feel a connection with each other.However, once again it isn't necessary for one to enjoy the novel.

Without giving away the ending, the title implies that this might be the last Matthew Hope novel.I certainly hope not, I for one would love to see a follow up where Hope visits Carella and the 87th Precinct in the big city.I'll certainly keep my hopes up.No pun intended.

Hoping for More Hope
This most recent Matthew Hope novel is the best in the series.Ed McBain, mystery master, has developed a story involving personal agendas, a dead body washing ashore, and a complicated theft.It also features McBain's other protagonist, Steve Carella, in a crucial role.I've always enjoyed this series.McBain does a solid job with his Florida setting.His Hope series is great!I'm hoping for more!

Heart not in it.
I have read all of the Matthew Hope series, and have always enjoyed them thoroughly, until now. I found this book just drifted along, and neither the main character or the author really seemed to have their heart in it,so I'm not quite sure why they bothered. I did not find the plotinteresting at all, and the writing style was disjointed and unfeeling. Iwas very disappointed. I hope the new 87th Precint book, which I havesitting in my 'to be read' pile is better than this.

I hope it's NOT the LAST
I am a big fan of the murder mysteries series genre: Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone, J. McDonald's Travis McGee, Robert B. Parker's Spenser... As teens, my brother and I devoured as many of McBain's "87th Pct"books as we could get our hands on. I hadn't read anything by this authorin awhile when I stumbled on "The Last Best Hope" last year.Icouldn't put it down -- especially after one of the 87th Pct detectivesshowed up! I'm only sorry that I didn't know about Matthew Hope before --I've got a whole lot of reading to catch up on!

Intriguing plot but disappointing ending
Well written and fast paced.I usually love these stories, but as exciting as the ending started off, the payoff was abrupt and unbelievable. ... Read more

Product Description
More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fiction

Each year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A.Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field.

In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. (Jon L. Breen), England (Maxim Jakubowski), Canada (Edo Van Belkom), Australia (David Honeybone), and Germany (Thomas Woertche).

Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year’s compilation, “the best value-for-money of any such anthology.”

The A-to-Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader:
Robert Barnard • Lawrence Block • Jon L. Breen • Wolfgang Burger • Lillian Stewart Carl • Margaret Coel • Max Allan Collins • Bill Crider • Jeffery Deaver • Brendan DuBois • Susanna Gregory • Joseph Hansen • Carolyn G. Hart • Lauren Henderson • Edward D. Hoch • Clark Howard • Tatjana Kruse • Paul Lascaux • Dick Lochte • Peter Lovesey • Mary Jane Maffini • Ed McBain • Val McDermid • Marcia Muller • Joyce Carol Oates • Anne Perry • Nancy Pickard • Bill Pronzini • Ruth Rendell • S. J. Rozan • Billie Rubin • Kristine Kathryn Rusch • Stephan Rykena • David B. Silva • Nancy Springer • Jac. Toes • John Vermeulen • Donald E. Westlake • Carolyn Wheat.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

powerful anthology consisting of thirty-nine tales from 2001
As usual the G and G (great goldies) team has put together a powerful anthology consisting of thirty-nine tales from 2001 that run the mystery-crime-thriller spectrum.Obviously all the inclusions have seen print elsewhere, but not under one tome before this compilation.The contributions for the most part are excellent depending on the reader's taste, but none are terrible regardless of palate.In addition three articles report on the general state of the genre during 2001 and four country specific reports (Great Britain, Australia, Canada, and Germany) furnish insight into the trends.THE WORLD'S FINEST MYSTERY AND CRIME STORIES, THIRD ANNUAL COLLECTION, VOL. 3 provides the audience with a delightful slice of some of the year's better short stories.

Harriet Klausner

An absolute must for all readers of crime fiction
I have recurring dreams where I'm on a rock or a raft or some sort of lifesaver in the middle of raging rapids and objects are floating by me. For some reason I feel duty bound in my dreams to grab each of the objects, like I'm a character in a video game or something. I think I'm grabbing everything, but it gradually hits me that I'm not. I usually wake up at the point where I've grabbed and missed for something I really, really need. My dream, of course, is a metaphor for books or authors I miss during the year.

It's impossible to keep up with everything that's going on in the world of literature. Even if you want to limit yourself to a particular genre, something good is going to get by you. Time is a problem, distribution is another and some time word of mouth doesn't reach its intended target. That's why those "Year's Best" anthologies are required reading, particularly in the mystery genre. There's no way to keep up with everything and, even if the market for short stories is shrinking, there are enough of them --- and they are hard enough to find --- to make it virtually impossible to keep up with all of them.

A particular favorite mystery favorite of mine is THE WORLD'S FINEST MYSTERY AND CRIME STORIES. It's only up to its third annual edition, but is already staking out a claim in the genre as being indispensable. Editorial chores are handled by Ed Gorman and Martin Greenberg, both of whom are legends in the anthology arena. Between the two of them they burrow into every cranny of the genre and come away with treasures.

THE WORLD'S FINEST is not merely a collection of short mystery and crime fiction, though it would be worth the price of admission on that basis alone. There are a number of essays included, dealing with The Year 2001 in Mystery and Crime fiction, a Yearbook, the state of the art in Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Germany and Fandom. There's also a list of the ten best novels that is quite interesting, both for what is included (TOTAL RECALL by Sarah Petretsky) and what is not (what happened to THE JUDGEMENT by D.W. Buffa?). The list of course is, at least to some extent, subjective and part of the fun of it is finding one (or two or three) books you missed. And, when you're done having fun with all of that, there are the stories.

One of the joys of this anthology is finding names you know and love, while finding others you've never heard of. In the former category, there is Ed McBain with "Activity on the Flood Plain" which, on the surface, doesn't appear to belong in this collection at all. What begins as a story of a beleaguered artist dealing with a nattering nabob on a planning and zoning board takes a left turn near the conclusion. And, yeah, it definitely belongs in this volume. Jeffrey Deaver is included as well, with "Beautiful." This marks the first time I have ever been able to guess the conclusion of a Deaver work and it did not diminish my enjoyment of the story, which concerns a woman who finds an effective, if drastic way, of dealing with a stalker. Lawrence Block is represented by a thoughtful piece entitled "Speaking of Greed," a classic tale of a card game held among a very, very diverse group of gentlemen. There are also great, great stories by such well-known figures as Ruth Rendall, Max Allan Collins, Donald Westlake and Joyce Carol Oates, who is quietly demonstrating a versatility that has been under-appreciated as she demonstrates in "Tell Me You Forgive Me."

But what about the unknowns? Well, there are plenty to talk about, but I'll limit discussion to one who was a new face, at least to me. Dick Lochte is not an unknown, but I was totally unfamiliar with his work until encountering him with "In The City of Angels." Reprinted from FLESH AND BLOOD, an under-appreciated anthology of erotic mystery stories edited by Max Collins and Jeff Gelb, "In the City of Angels" combines equal parts of lust, greed and danger to create an atmospheric, contemporary Los Angeles, written the way Chandler would have if he'd have been born in the 1970s. It is the last story in THE WORLD'S FINEST and for good reason: it would have been a tough one for anyone to follow.

THE WORLD'S FINEST MYSTERY AND CRIME STORIES: Third Annual Collection is an absolute must for both the seasoned and casual reader of crime fiction. Leave plenty of time to revisit your favorite authors and to find some new ones. Very highly recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Not as good as other anthologies
Although the collection represents a wide spectrum of sub-genres (cozy, hardboiled, etc.) it seems that only very typical specimens of each type were chosen.It does not seem the editors looked very far and wide for stories.There are some damn fine tales in this book, but the collection as a whole is neither ground-breaking nor especially interesting.Fans of business-as-usual mystery will love it.More demanding readers who like to see the genre push the envelope a bit more will be underwhelmed. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (9)

seat 25B
Never judge a book by its cover! I saw Stephen Kings name on the cover and threw it into my Target shopping basket only to find out later that Stephen King's novellette was only 50 pages long!The other novellette was just a tad better than grabbing the dated USA Today paper on United 890.While the story was mildly interesting, phrases like 'Stop! I am the police' somehow did not feel 100% natural.Unless your the unfortunate person who found the copy of this book that I left in seat 25B, don't bother.

Volume 2 - Misleading
I have not yet read either story - but very much look forward to it.I do have a complaint, however.I ordered the hardcover version of "Transgressions" and before receiving it also ordered "Transgressions Vol 2."

Well, the two stories in "Transgressions Vol 2" are contained in the hardcover "Transgressions," which also includes many other short stories.

So don't make the same mistake I made!

Great King
"The Things They Left Behind" is very simple and very moving.It is perhaps the best King I have read in 10 years.His talents were put to good use in this one.It took me back to 2001-2002 when we were pulling together and before we went back to business as usual, shooting our own wounded.

Wandering Off the Well Walked Path
TRANSGRESSIONS is a series of short stories from popular authors edited by Ed McBain.This volume in the series contains two stories:one from Stephen King and one from John Farris.

King's story, "The Things They Left Behind" is the shorter of the stories.Scott Staley called in sick to his job as a claims adjuster in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.It was a decision he questioned almost everyday after.Almost a year later, in August 2002, a box containing personal items of people he worked with in the tower shows up in his apartment.He doesn't know what to do with the items.Then one night the voices start.It's enough to drive a sane person crazy.Scott tries to give the items away, but he always ends up back with them.Somehow he has to figure out what to do with the items, stop the voices, and ease his guilty conscience.

The second story, "The Ransome Women" is by John Farris.This story is basically a psychological suspense story.Echo Halloran is a young and beautiful starving artist/art critic, trying to forge her way in New York.Echo's favorite artist is the reclusive John Ransome, a portrait painter who only paints pictures about twice a decade.Echo catches the eye of Ransome and he wishes to hire her for a year as his next model.Becoming a Ransome woman could be the break of a lifetime.However, Ransome is a shady figure with a mysterious past and the fate that meets each of the former Ransome women is one that Echo tries desperately to avoid.

Of the two stories, I found "The Ransome Women" to be the more exciting.Not that I didn't like "The Things They Left Behind," because I did.In style that story resembles some of King's best works, such as DIFFERENT SEASONS, THE GREEN MILE, THE COLORADO KID, and THE LONG WALK.I enjoyed reading it.However, I liked reading "The Ransome Women" more even though it is four times longer than "The Things They Left Behind."The story begins rather slow, but quickly picks up pace.As a whole, it reminded me of the 1944 movie starring John Carradine and Jean Parker, BLUEBEARD.True to the title of the series, both stories are welcome transgressions.

One First Rate Story and One Blah Disappointment
Mr. King's work here is, I feel, right up there with his best.One of the other reviewers found it poignant, which it is, and unimpressive, with which I disagree.His protagonist escaped the World Trade Center disaster quite by luck, and rather abruptly finds himself the custodian of objects belong to people he knew who lost their lives that day.Throwing them out does not work, and he comes to understand that the objects need him to return them to the survivors.Mr. King gets inside the guys head, and lets us follow his somewhat tortured path to the right idea. This is the kind of thing that SK excels at, and here he is at top form.

The John Farris item I found overlong, somewhat adolescent in tone here and there, soap-opera-ish, and no particular mystery at all.I don't know Mr. Farris, and this effort is not going to push me into reading anything else of his.

Get this one for the Stephen King story. ... Read more