The Heckler

I am mystified that the Department of Homeland Security--doesn't the name have an anachronistic teutonic flavor to it, you know, kind of like Fatherland; it's all I can do to avoid making the famous Dr. Strangelove salute--hasn't banned this book and burned all the copies. It certainly provides a terrifyingly easy scheme to shut down New York.

The Deaf Man is at it again, harassing the 87th squad in a fiendish plot to rob a bank of $2 million. Clues abound, but in his usual obeisance to realism, things go wrong, communication is imperfect, i.e. shit happens.

As far as shutting down NY, the plotters plant small incendiary devices in public places, like movie theaters, ball parks, paint stores, etc., all timed to go off at the same time. show more The ensuing chaos totally preoccupies the police and fire departments as well as the hospitals. It would be really quite easy. So while TSA is strip searching your grandmother at La Guardia, morons could be planting all sorts of nefarious little devices that would be even more effective than slamming a plane into the Twin Towers.

Classic McBain. show less

A naked man, dead from a shotgun wound to the chest, is found in the park by some children. At the same time, shopkeepers in the city are receiving crank calls by a "heckler" that threatens them if they don't move shop by the end of the month.

Could these two cases be connected? Apparently so, and although such a setup makes it obvious that these two story line will intersect, an interest in the detectives of the 87th and their procedure keep it interesting. Also interesting is the first appearance of a new recurring villain, the Deaf Man. Playing Moriarty to the Precinct's Sherlock, the Deaf Man is a somewhat low-rent criminal genius, who works his vast plan to distract the city while robbing a newly constructed bank vault with a motley show more crew of second-hand crooks and punks. His role as Moriarty is blatantly pointed out by Kling, who mentions having just read The Red Headed League, a Sherlock Holmes story featuring a similar bait-and-switch scenario.

Possibly the most interesting thing about The Heckler is that in the end, he is not thwarted by brilliant detective work, but by a simple twist of fate and a moment of bad luck. McBain is refreshing in his willingness to show the limitations of the department, and how human error can sometimes work in its favor. This is especially evident when Kling practically solves the whole thing in reference to The Red Headed League, but isn't able to put his finger on its relevance until it is almost too late.

Also, over forty years later, the Deaf Man's plan to distract the police force by creating a state of panic and fear with simultaneous bomb attacks throughout the city seems all too possible.

Like King's Ransom, the narrative spends a bit more time than usual with the criminals involved. This is a relief in a book with a much lengthier time frame than his time compressed one-day scenarios, as it allows passage of time in the ongoing investigation while allowing us to skip the more dreary legwork.

Meyer opens and closes this story handling the Heckler calls, while Carella and Hernandez try to track down the identity and murderer of the naked man in the park. Carella is yet again nearly killed in the line of duty, raising the question of how many times can his imminent death be used as a plot point before it gets old. show less

First appearance of the deaf man. Carella gets shot again. The genius plan involving a city wide terrorist attack to cover a bank robbery is only defeated because a beat cop wants an ice cream. None of this should work, but it does. I challenge anyone to read the first chapter of The Heckler with its description of April arriving like an exotic Gentile/Jewess and Dave Raskin ribbing Meyer Meyer about being at his briss and not proclaim Ed McBain a poet/comedian/genius.

This entry in McBain's 87th Precinct story marks the first appearance of arch-villain The Deaf Man, who becomes a recurring character in later books. Here, he's the brains behind an audacious and fantastically complicated robbery plot that sends our hero Steve Carella to the hospital and nearly drives the rest of the precinct to their knees. In this 12th book of the series, you can almost feel McBain hitting his stride with his characters and his pseudo-New York City setting. A strong entry in a very strong series, provided you can get past the casual sexism reflective of the 1950s era when it was written.

A good police novel, pitting the officers of the 87th Precinct against the "deaf man" and his gang of criminals. It's a good old fashioned bank robbery, but the criminal mastermind is using probablility, his "mathematical genius", and diversions galore to give the plot some twists, especially at the end. And for all the would be criminals out there, be careful of ice cream trucks!

A very good novel of the famed 87th Precinct series by Ed McBain. In this one, a mysterious antagonist is calling up various businesses and threatening the owners if they don't move out. Some plan must be behind the calls, but finding out what it is before disaster strikes is not easy. Into the familiar world of police procedure McBain introduces one of his most memorable characters, an intelligent and clever crook known as The Deaf Man. His first appearance in this novel was so successful he became a mainstay of McBain's series. The series is wonderful and so is this entry.

A good police novel, pitting the officers of the 87th Precinct against the "deaf man" and his gang of criminals. It's a good old fashioned bank robbery, but the criminal mastermind is using probablility, his "mathematical genius", and diversions galore to give the plot some twists, especially at the end. And for all the would be criminals out there, be careful of ice cream trucks!