Like Love

“In suicide, as in baseball, it is sometimes difficult to tell who is who or what is what without a scorecard.”

So, have the men of the 87th caught a case that is a double suicide or is it a homicide? This story is a nice bounce back from the previous novel. It's quick paced, and tightly written, with some dang good dialogue to boot! And I love the way the crime was solved - Christine Maxwell's strip tease!

“The facts of life in the 87th Precinct were too often the facts of death.”

A rock solid mystery from McBain that kept me guessing right up to the end. There are no gimmicks here, just a really accomplished police procedural with great characters, cracking prose and a healthy dose of pathos. It struck me reading it that one of McBain's great talents was making even the smallest of characters come to the life on the page. The city, too, is a living, breathing thing that is utterly convincing. Just superb.

This review contains spoilers about an element of the solution.

****

This is one of the earlier volumes in the 87th Precinct series (and for #16 to be considered “early”, that’s a LOT of books), and so it has brevity on its side. Detective novels in the mid-20th century were often more tightly plotted and didn’t go into great lengths of character development and description. That said, the characters here get enough development to allow the reader to form a picture of them. Women don’t come off quite as well as the men, though. There is a lot of smutty male gaze in the narration, some gratuitous stripping (that ends up being key to the solution of the crime, which I found rather eyeroll-inducing), and some deeply problematic show more characters, one of whom was fortunately blown up in the first chapter. The solution to the main crime felt a bit of a letdown: there weren’t many suspects and the motive felt unsatisfying. But I suppose there are unsatisfying motives in real life as well. show less

It's spring, when a policeman's fancy turns to ... well, investigating crime. Like every other season, I guess. Anyway, we open with Steve Carella leaning out a window, trying to convince a young woman not to jump to her death. He fails. Not long after, he and Cotton Hawes are called in to investigate an apparent double suicide, a couple found in bed with a suicide note ("we can't go on, etc.") in an apartment filled with gas. It seems nearly as straightforward as that jumper in the opening chapter, so why are Carella and Hawes reluctant to close the file and call it suicide? It's that old cop intuition, and of course it turns out to be right because otherwise there wouldn't be a book.

The plot's interesting but not quite as compelling show more as some earlier entries in the series. We do get some personal time with the squad at the 87th Precinct: Cotton's flirtation with his girlfriend is becoming serious and Bert Kling continues to mourn his murdered girlfriend. I was disappointed not to get even a cameo appearance from Carella's wife Teddy, who is delightful. Maybe in the next one. show less

Another apparent suicide that begins to look more and more like murder is the main focus of this entry in the 87th Precinct series, a plot slightly reminiscent of The Pusher. Spring brings with it acts of love - and like love - and acts of murder and vengeance that have the boys tracking down the usual leads and red herrings - and be prepared for more forensic lectures than you've seen since Give the Boys a Great Big Hand. If this book has any flaw, it's that McBain sets up three equally plausible suspects that seem to fit each additional clue perfectly, a rather blatant attempt to keep the reader guessing until the final reveal - not a bad situation, but not one of his stronger mysteries. This entry in the series finds Carella more and show more more emotionally distraught over the senseless acts of violence and self abuse they uncover, while Kling continues to react to the death of Claire by shedding his easy-going demeanor for a more hard-nosed attitude. McBain's better Precinct novels are the ones that explore various aspects of a certain theme, and Like Love stands out as a perfect example. show less

Another fine 87th precinct procedural. This time the boys are investigating a seeming suicide. Bert Kling is still mourning. Cotton seems like he may be on the verge of settling down and Steve gets the crap kicked out of him again. Super stuff.

Carella fails to prevent a girl from jumping off a building and Hawes gets a double suicide, which has some odd elements. Suspiscion falls first on the cuckolded husband and then on her mother because of insurance proceeds, but little progress is made. Once again, Carella gets attacked and badly beaten, presumably because of the investigation. Meanwhile, Cotton Hawes' lover inadvertently provides the key to solving the mystery.