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Murders, muggings, and assaults...just a routine night and day in the 87th Precinct until one of their own is shot, sending every available detective on the hunt to bring down the gunman. "McBain forces us to think twice about every character we meet...even those we thought we already knew." --New York Times Book Review "Imagine your favorite Law & Order cast solving fresh mysteries into infinity, with no re-runs, and you have some sense of McBain's grand, ongoing accomplishment." show more --Entertainment Weekly show lessTags
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Member Reviews
For a while there a ways back in the dim and distant past I was addicted to McBain novels, and now I'm remembering why. There's a type of crime novel that requires two consummate abilities: plot like a demon, and create a vast cast of characters, some of which turn up for a page at the most, all of whom slide effortlessly into view and inhabit their world as if they've always been there and as if they always will, so long as they don't get murdered. This book has about a hundred different stories and a hundred different characters (roughly) all crowded together over two shifts at the 87th precinct and they're all perfectly balanced and paced and developed and resolved. Masterful.
This book tells the story of one action-packed night shift and one even more action-packed day shift at the 87th Precinct: An actress/dancer is murdered in the alley behind a theatre. A cop is shot during a robbery at a convenience store. A wealthy family is convinced that ghosts are robbing them. A marine has been mugged after a woman lured him out of a bar. It’s a “slice-of-life” installment in the series, with lots of little stories that get wrapped up fairly quickly.
I always say reading this series is like watching an episode of Barney Miller, and the dialogue especially lives up to that comparison. However, sometimes in the 87th Precinct, the seediness comes through more than it might on a similar TV show. Attitudes toward show more women in particular are not particularly progressive in this book, which led me to colour this an “almost liked it, but not quite”.
I do, however, think it amusing that the cop on the cover of my edition (the New American Library in Canada edition) resembles Robert Sean Leonard; that *is* somewhat how I picture Carella. show less
I always say reading this series is like watching an episode of Barney Miller, and the dialogue especially lives up to that comparison. However, sometimes in the 87th Precinct, the seediness comes through more than it might on a similar TV show. Attitudes toward show more women in particular are not particularly progressive in this book, which led me to colour this an “almost liked it, but not quite”.
I do, however, think it amusing that the cop on the cover of my edition (the New American Library in Canada edition) resembles Robert Sean Leonard; that *is* somewhat how I picture Carella. show less
A cracking procedural covering a night shift and a day shift at the 87th Precinct. All the regulars feature here each solving their own puzzle some more criminal than others. Outstanding work deep into the series.
This is an 87th Precinct novel with a difference. What McBain did here is write what 24 hours at the Precinct would be like. He follows the teams of detectives as they are assigned the crime they are to investigate including the wounding of a detective at a stackout in a grocery store prone to being robbed on a regular basis. Other cases include a suicide that seems suspicious, a woman who claims her and her husband hear & see ghosts in their house, a man beaten on is front porch, a Marine who is mugged by a beautiful woman and her accomplice and a woman who reports her husband missing almost a week after he has disappeared.
The theme that is driven home is that successful police work involves boring investigation involving endless show more interviews, tracking down sources and snitches and an instinct that tells the detective when he is being lied to and when things are not as they appear. This is a fascinating book. show less
The theme that is driven home is that successful police work involves boring investigation involving endless show more interviews, tracking down sources and snitches and an instinct that tells the detective when he is being lied to and when things are not as they appear. This is a fascinating book. show less
This one showed 24 hours in the life of the 87th precinct: the night shift and the day shift. The numerous different crimes, some more serious than others, were all solved in a relatively short period of time, within each detective's shift. I like this one because it has a lot of humor. It was fun.
Dated, but good beach read or if you like police procedural stories.
First published way back but, Ed Mcbain (Evan Hunter) was a master and student of the everyday doings of the police. This is a very fast and light read. Just a day in the life. Cases are solved quickly. Men are men and the women are glad of it. ;-) In the days of phone booths instead of cell phones. Newspapers instead of google. Holds up well. One scene has a detective checking the coin slot to see if his dime came back. I had forgotten about doing that. :-) Looking for a deep read? This ain't it. Looking for a good quick bit of old time Adam Twelve type stories or Dragnet? Enjoy.
First published way back but, Ed Mcbain (Evan Hunter) was a master and student of the everyday doings of the police. This is a very fast and light read. Just a day in the life. Cases are solved quickly. Men are men and the women are glad of it. ;-) In the days of phone booths instead of cell phones. Newspapers instead of google. Holds up well. One scene has a detective checking the coin slot to see if his dime came back. I had forgotten about doing that. :-) Looking for a deep read? This ain't it. Looking for a good quick bit of old time Adam Twelve type stories or Dragnet? Enjoy.
A fairly weak effort. A series of unconnected cases, being worked on and solved by the 87th Street Precinct bulls. The main case is the shooting of Parker, whom nobody liked much anyway.
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Author Information
366+ Works 32,515 Members
Ed McBain is a pen name for Evan Hunter who was born in 1926 in East Harlem, New York on October 15, 1926. Hunter was born with the name Salvatore Albert Lombino, and he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952. During World War II, Hunter joined the Navy and served aboard a destroyer in the Pacific. He graduated from Hunter College, were he show more majored in English and psychology, with minors in dramatics and education. He was a prolific writer who also wrote under the names of Ed McBain, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon, and Richard Marsten. His first major success came in 1954 with the publication of The Blackboard Jungle, which was later adapted as a film. He published the first three books in the 87th Precinct series in 1956 under the name of Ed McBain. He also wrote juvenile books, plays, television scripts, and stories and articles for magazines. He won the Mystery Writers of America Award in 1957 and the Grand Master Award in 1986 for lifetime achievement. He died of laryngeal cancer on July 6, 2005 at the age of 78. (Bowker Author Biography) Ed McBain is the only American to receive the Diamond Dagger, the British Crime Writers Association's highest award. He also holds the Mystery Writers of America's coveted Grand Master Award. His books have sold over one hundred million copies, ranging from his most recent, "The Last Dance", to the bestselling "The Blackboard Jungle", the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" & the bestselling "Privileged Conversation", written under his own name, Evan Hunter. He lives in Connecticut. (Publisher Provided) Ed McBain, aka Evan Hunter, wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and has written many novels. He is the only American to be awarded Britain's coveted Diamond Dagger Award, the highest honor a suspense writer can achieve. He lives in Connecticut. (Publisher Provided) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here!
- Original title
- Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here!
- Original publication date
- 1971
- People/Characters
- Steve Carella; Meyer Meyer; Carl Kapek; Hal Willis; Bert Kling; Cotton Hawes (show all 9); Bob O'Brien; Richard Genero; Arthur Brown
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA
- Dedication
- This modest volume is dedicated to the Mystery Writers of America, who, if they do not award it the Edgar for the best _ten_ mystery novels of the year, should have their collective mysterious heads examined.
(Coercion... (show all): A person who with a view to compel another person to do or abstain from doing an act which such other person has a legal right to do or to abstain from doing wrongfully and unlawfully, is guilty of a misdemeanor. Section 530, New York State Penal Law.) - First words
- The morning hours of the night come imperceptibly here.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Another day was about to start.
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- ISBNs
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