Regular visitors to this site will know that I’m a big fan of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct mysteries (all my reviews are posted here). Now Amazon publishing, under its Thomas & Mercer imprint, is re-releasing the entire series on Kindle. 35 of the volumes were made available in December and the remainder hopefully will become available as early as next moth. For full details on these, visit the Kindle 87th Precinct booklist.
Their Perspectives on McBain 
page is also well worth perusing as it offers short essays on his legacy by such major writers as Stephen King, Lawrence Block, Charlotte Elkins and Peter Lovesey. To celebrate these new reprints I was asked to write a guest blog over at the Kindle Post site. Having already reviewed the first dozen books in the series, I chose to write briefly on the next two entries, See Them Die (1960) and Lady, Lady, I Did It (1961).
To read my guest blog, click here or on the Kindle covers above.
N.B. For rights reasons, these editions are not available in the UK.
Wow! Congrats on being asked to write about the books!
They seem interesting. Reasonably priced, at any rate– I do get tired of seeing Kindle books priced for $9.99 when I remember that price for a *print* book being considered a rip-off. I have to wait until the next billing period on my credit card at any rate, but your enthusiasm for the series and some of your reviews have gotten me very interested.
Plus, McBain managed to finish a Craig Rice novel. That itself was an outstanding accomplishment, as I learned from Jeffrey Marks’ wonderful biography of Craig.
Thanks Patrick. I’ve never read the Rice/McBain book The April Robin Murders actually, but Hunter was a very versatile and very funny author. I’ve long been planning to do a post on these ‘posthumous’ collaborations so I may use this one as a springboard – thanks for that. I will eventually publish full reviews of the two 87th Precinct books in the Kindle post here as part of my ongoing McBain Challenge (sic) – only 41 volumes left to go …
Sergio, that’s quite an honour, congratulations! I read the short and well-written reviews of the two books of which I’m curious to read SEE THEM DIE. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve read only DOWNTOWN and since then I’ve been on a McBain hunt. I don’t have a Kindle and I’m in no hurry to acquire one but I’m pretty sure I’m going to lay my hands on his books soon. I discovered McBain and Block only last year!
Thanks Prashant, it was very nice to be asked. Reasonably priced McBain paperbacks shouldn’t be hard to find – and what a pleasure you have in store with Block – which reminds me, he hasn’t appeared on this blog yet … hmmm, thanks for that thought!
Bit of a shame about the last sentence in your post, Sergio!
Yes, not exactly the final ‘twist’ I was hoping for … I only found this out just before it was published. Apparently it is just about everywhere except the UK – a bit like that disclaimer they used to have on the back of Penguin book except the other way round. Hopefully a UK publisher will put them out instead. Have you ever read any of his? Killer’s Wedge would definitely be the right place to start for you with its locked room puzzle and references to John Dickson Carr.
Picked up Ladykiller from the charity shop yesterday, in fact, so I might give that a spin once World’s Greatest Sleuth! is out of the way – but I’m savouring that one…
Have yet to try Hockensmith but I have bought one on your say so – hope you enjoy Lady Killer, which has a nice little puzzle at its centre.
Darn! If they’d been available in the UK I’d consider getting a couple for my Kindle. You make McBain sound much more interesting than the blurbs on the back of his books! (which I remember from the bookshelves in my grandma’s bedroom – she was a big fan of crime fiction)
Congratulations on being asked to review, though.
Thanks Ela, that’s really kind of you. It’s a real shame they’re not available in the UK yet – they offer great variety and some are definitely better than others, but I do think that they are very successful in combining police procedural and traditional whodunit elements. Inevitably the preponderance of TV cop shows have robbed them a bit of their immediate freshness, but personally I think they hold up very well (and the very last one only came out six years ago after all!).