Ax

The 18th entry in McBain's classic long-running police procedural series about the 87th Precinct, located in a fictional New York City. In this 1960s entry, our detectives are called to the basement of a tenement where the building superintendent has been found with an ax buried in his skull. It seems like an extreme crime against an 86-year-old man who is not known for vice, but the investigation turns up some oddities, like a schizophrenic wife and an agoraphobic grown son. The mystery deepens when the beat cop turns up dead in the same basement.

This is a solid entry in the series. The central crime is interesting, the suspect list pleasingly varied, and the red herrings convincing. The reflexive assumption that the murder was show more committed by an oversized black man who happens to be on the scene is quashed early and easily, a rarity in books of this time period.

Unlike other 87th books, there's not a lot of time spent with the detectives off duty, although Steve Carella's lovely wife Teddy makes a welcome appearance. One of the things I like about this series is that McBain gives us enough personal info on his detectives to make us care about them, but he's not a one-note writer. Some books we get a lot of personal exposition; some books hardly any. It keeps everything feeling fresh and unpredictable. And unlike some series where the characterization is stronger than the plotting, McBain generally has a good mix of the two. show less

A very graphic and gruesome beginning. A man is found murdered with an ax buried in his skull. Hence the title. And the opening nastiness. “To tell the truth, it was all pretty goddamn gory.”

A good story, with a quick pace and interesting characters! Carella and Hawes are the main detectives in this one, and they meet a lot of dead ends, no pun intended!

By the way, what does rhyme with April?

The eighteenth installment of the 87th Precinct, AX is a straight-forward whodunit focusing on Carella and Cotton as they try to figure out why anyone would want to take an ax to an elderly janitor. Plenty of hostile interviews, dead ends, and much to Carella's chagrin, mothers. McBain's attention to the struggles and pitfalls of methodical police work is one of his strong points, and Ax is a perfect example of this.

An interesting angle to this story is how investigating the murder of an individual can dredge up all kinds of past secrets, whether or not they eventually have anything to do with the crime, and how this can complicate an already difficult investigation.

Danny the Gimp plays a role in this investigation (But why is he afraid show more of revolving doors?), and Carella appears to have finally disembarked from the emotional roller-coaster he was on for the last few novels. show less

Straightforward procedural lifted by McBain’s masterful small touches throughout the dialogue and description. A solid entry in the 87th Precinct series.

Slightly disappointing entry in the 87th series, it’s not that it’s bad, just not as great as most of the stories. It’s a simple, lean tale with little room for the delicious characterisation that makes McBain’s books so good. There’s just the one mystery to solve and little detail about the lives of the cops that are working it. Good payoff though.

Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes are called to the scene of a gruesome murder where a building superintendent has killed, with an ax left stuck in his head. With their usual aplomb, these two try to find out whodunnit, looking at his crazy wife, agoraphobic son, the players from a small time card game, his war buddies, his "slow" helper at the apartment building who chops wood. McBain eventually reveals a key detail linking suspects, which turns out to be a ruse.

Puidust kirvevarrelt leiti tohutu hulk verd ja mõned hallid juuksekarvad, kuid ühtki sõrmejälge kahjuks polnud. Ja ehkki keldriseinal leidus veriseid peopesa- ja pöidlajälgi, tegid laborimehed kindlaks, et need jäljed oli jätnud mr. Lasser ise, kas kallaletungijast taandudes või põrandale kukkumise eel kobamisi tuge otsides.
Kui tõtt öelda, siis oli see neetult verine lugu, aga vere lõhna detekiiv Steve Carella ei tundnud, sest verel ei ole lõhna.