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This is another entirely solid and enjoyable entry in the 87th Precinct series, albeit not on of the very best. It’s the 49th book, so I guess it’s no surprise that McBain had his formula and craft very well honed by this point. ‘The Big Bad City’ has three parallel stories running: the investigation into the murder of a nun, a spate of burglaries by a criminal who leaves his victims a plate of freshly baked cookies, and a character from a previous book on the hunt for hero Steve Carella.
The nun story is definitely the main plot and is a satisfying mystery, with Carella and Brown doing the legwork to tie the motive back to events in the dead woman’s surprising past. The burglary plot is a somewhat atypical one in that its largely told from the criminal’s perspective, with the cops only getting involved towards the end. It reads a bit like a standalone short story, albeit one without a terribly satisfying ending. The Carella story is the one with the most tension, with Steve unknowingly in peril throughout.
It’s not as funny as some of the books, but certainly has its moment, including one brilliant sequence where the narrator expresses consternation at the fact that the notoriously lazy detective Andy Parker manages to catch a suspect in a foot chase. Fat Ollie Weeks features, managing as always to be something of a hero as well as a complete tosser. There’s one particularly repellent sequence where he unsuccessfully tries to wind up a Pakistani cab driver, reminding the reader how obnoxious he can be. Matthew Hope, the lawyer hero of McBain’s other series, also makes a surprise appearance.
As always with McBain, it skilfully mixes police procedural detail with amusing characters, a smattering of liberal politics and solid plotting. If you’re a fan of the series you know what to expect and won’t be disappointed.
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Steve Carella and the 87th Precinct detectives have to contend with a dead nun with breast implants, a cookie-baking burglar whose career goes upside down during a break-in, and a paranoid sociopath is gunning for Steve. Nobody can figure out who would strange a beloved nun, who worked with the terminally ill, but Steve and Artie dig deeply into her past. And Fat Ollie Weeks investigation of a seemingly random killing ends up saving the day.

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Of all the characters of the 87th, Carella and his wife Teddy remain my favorites! Same goes in this book!

The cases in this book are a nun murder and “the Cookie Boy burglaries”. Geez, when will fictional crooks ever learn? You NEVER leave a calling card! They are both good stories, as is the smaller plot involving the killer of Carella's father. The ending is satisfying, to say the least. If you like the other books in this series, you'll like this one. I did!

“I hope I’ve been helpful,” he said.
He hadn’t. ( )

“So if you came here thinking, Gee, there’s going to be a neat little murder takes place in a town house and some blue-haired lady will solve it in her spare time when she isn’t tending her rose garden, then you came to the wrong city at the wrong time of the year. In this city, things were happening all the time, all over the place, and you didn’t have to be a detective to smell evil in the wind.” (The Big Bad City, Page 32)

The detectives of the 87th precinct, let alone the other precincts of New York City have their hands full. That was before a suspect in the precinct cage knifed a fellow suspect before being shot by Detective Carella. That resulted in two teams of paramedics being brought in and the obligatory visit from Internal Affairs Detectives on a mission to determine what the heck happened. It doesn’t help that it is August and the air conditioning in the precinct house is seriously on the fritz.

Then there are the murders.

One murder is the dead young lady found in Grover Park in front of a park bench. One could tell by looking at her throat she had been strangled. Detectives Brown and Carella had been ready to call it a day and go home when their boss, Lieutenant Brynes sent them out on the case. A case that is going to become incredibly complex.

The burglar nicknamed “The Cookie Boy” continues to do his deal of breaking into places and stealing stuff before leaving a container of homemade chocolate chip cookies behind. Detectives Mayer and Kling have been on that case quite a while. A case that may now involve two murders.

The detectives are not the only ones on the hunt in the city. So too is a man bent on revenge. His target is one of the detectives of the 87th precinct. Like some of the other two legged predators that travel through New York City, murder is on his mind.

The Big Bad City: A Novel Of The 87th Precinct is a complicated police procedural with many moving parts. Like others in the series, it is a solidly good read. As noted in the above quote, this is not a read for cozy readers who prefer sanitized language and situations.

The Big Bad City: A Novel Of The 87th Precinct
Ed McBain
https://www.edmcbain.com
Simon & Schuster
https://simonandschuster.com
January 1999
ISBN# 0-684-85512-7
Hardback (also available in various formats including paperback and digital)
272 Pages
$25.00

My reading copy came from the downtown branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2019 ( )

In this edition of life in the 87th Precinct, Detectives Carella & Brown are working the mystery of a young woman found strangled in a park who turns out to be a popular nun with breast implants. Unknown to Carella, the man who murdered his father is trailing him watching for a chance to shoot him. The burglar known as Cookie Boy is active and proving difficult to track down until he opens a door into big trouble.

Another real page turner. ( )