Another strong entry. I love how fast these books read. ( )

This early Ed McBain 87th Precinct entry from 1957 is a fast-flowing, incredibly intriguing read. Fans of the series get to follow Carella, Kling, Meyer Meyer and the boys around fictional Isola — which mirrored New York City — on two distinct cases. The first involves the death of a not-well-liked brother-in-arms who has been shot and killed. While none of the detectives were fond of the slain officer or his heavy-handed approach to policing, all of them understood why he’d adopted those tactics, and in the end, he was one of their own.

This first case introduces readers to a new face in the 87th — the tall, lean but muscular redhead, Cotton Hawes. Created at the insistence of the publisher, who felt Carella — who was married to deaf Teddy in the series — would not appeal to both male and female readers, and therefore could not be the hero. While that theory was invalidated over time, Cotton became a nice addition to the 87th nonetheless. Hawes’s inexperience with “real” crime nearly gets Carella killed right off the bat. Because Carella is not the type to hold a grudge, and Hawes is the type of cop who learns from his mistakes, and tries to redeem himself, in a strange way the edgy incident cements Cotton Hawes into the fold.

The second story-line, which is how the novel opens, is the most intriguing for the reader, and it take up the largest portion of the swiftly-moving narrative. Young Annie Boone, the divorced mother of a five-year-old daughter, lies dead on the floor of the liquor store where she worked. I’ll not get into specific suspects and questioning, but the interviews are mesmerizing because not one picture of Annie Boone emerges, but several. Described by various people — all suspects — in ways diametrically opposed, each of their accounts and perceptions have the ring of truth. From saint to sinner, tea-toddler to drunk, prim and proper to wanton desire, Annie appeared to be very different things to each individual in her life, making it almost impossible to get a bead on her, and therefore, her killer.

My only caveat — and it’s rather minor — with Killer’s Choice was McBain’s choice, which was to describe Annie’s child as a five-year-old. This became occasionally jarring because in order to drive the narrative — and thereby the case — forward, the dialog he puts in Monica’s mouth simply doesn’t ring true for anyone who’s had or been around a five-year-old. Descriptions of the phone call she had with the killer — that’s not a spoiler in any way — came off as artificial, rather than a real conversation between an adult killer and a child of that age. One minute she’s speaking almost like an adult, the next she wants to hang up and go play with her dolly.

While not on the level of some later entries in the 87th Precinct series, Killer’s Choice is still a fun and worthwhile read in McBain’s groundbreaking series of police procedurals, in which his only true rival in the field was the great Elizabeth Linington, known to most knowledgeable mystery readers as Dell Shannon and Lesley Egan. Her groundbreaking Luis Mendoza series, the splendid Ivor Maddox/Sue Carstairs series, and to a slightly lesser degree, her Vic Varallo series, deserve a proper paperback reprint just as McBain received.

Killer’s choice is a quick, fun read in the police procedural genre created and formed to perfection by McBain and Linington, and gets a solid four stars. ( )

Review pending ( )

The fifth book in Ed McBain’s classic 87th Precinct series introduces a new character to the detective squad — Cotton Hawes. Hawes has been transferred over from one of the richer parts of the city (based loosely on New York) and has had little experience with homicide. The veteran detectives of the 87th have had plenty. During the course of a murder investigation, Hawes makes a terrible mistake, nearly costing the life of one his colleagues. But he learns quickly. And as McBain had promised, one of the detectives we met in the first four books the series loses his life in this book. And so it continues, as McBain builds up a group of memorable characters, a collective hero for the series, characters who can be killed, or transferred — just like in real life. He has invented a whole new genre here — the police procedural — and watching it being born is wonderful. ( )

Another brilliant mystery from McBain, humorous and gripping, once it gets its hooks into you won't be able to stop until you reach the end. It's the first 87th Precinct novel with Cotton Hawes too and McBain has a lot of fun with the character and the interplay with the regulars on the 87th beat. ( )