Steve Carella is paired with Fat Ollie Weeks in this unusual entry in the 87th Precinct series. Shifting away from the whodunit formula, this is a contemporary thriller involving drug trafficking, counterfeiting and the secret service and featuring a rogue’s gallery of villains ranging from petty burglars to hit-men (and hit-women) and Islamic terrorists on American soil.
He flipped back his jacket, holstered the gun, and said, “You owe me one, Steve-a-rino.”
I offer this review for Friday’s Forgotten Books meme, hosted today by Todd Mason at his Sweet Freedom blog
Money, Money, Money (87th Precinct series #51)
First Published: 2001
Leading players: Steve Carella, Fat Ollie Weeks, Andy Parker, Meyer Meyer, Lieutenant Byrnes, Teddy Carella
Detective Steve Carella wished that one of the lions hadn’t dragged the left leg into the 88th Precinct. That was what brought Fat Ollie Weeks into the case.
Steve Carella and Fat Ollie Weeks take centre-stage, to the exclusion of most of the 87th Precinct regulars. The case begins with a corpse, but this is only after a 40-page section detailing the often confusing activities of a smuggler. She ultimately winds up dead and naked in the lion’s den at the zoo – only it turns out she was stabbed to death before being thrown in there! In trying to extricate her body, one of the lions pounces on Carella but Fat Ollie shoots it dead. Then another body turns up in a trashcan, feet first. All of which is linked to a large shipment of drugs that was paid for with funny money printed in the Middle East, which has a connection with a bomb that is going to be planted during a classical music performance.
The 87th precinct books usually had multiple plots but here the fun comes in trying to keep a grip on how the disparate elements all eventually gel into a single, criminous whole. The result is highly entertaining and does also very much show the influence of Elmore Leonard as an assortment of criminal groups, some better organised than others and some even affiliated with the US government, all get in each other’s way in search of a large bag of cash. And on top of that, there is that terrorist plot too …
It really upset Nikmaddu Zardour to be treated like a terrorist. Even if he looked like one. Even if he was one. Which, in fact, he happened to be.
This sprawling tale of murder and mayhem is set at Christmas but is pretty dark at heart and indeed got some unexpected publicity as its bombing subplot suddenly became sadly topical when it was published just before the World Trade Center attack (in an afterword, a first for the series, the author tells us the original US hardback publication was on 6 September 2001). In my paperback edition, printed in 2002, the event was in fact referenced directly, in what must have been an amendment to the original edition. Over a long and busy career, Ed McBain (aka Evan Hunter) managed to keep finding new ways to vary the formula of the series. Some were a lot more successful than others at coping with changing market demands and the preferences of readers. And in this volume there are many signs of time moving on and catching up with our regulars. Steve Carella, first among equals in the 87th squad, has been feeling a little low and even hitting the bottle of late. He is still upset with his sister for dating the man who bungled the prosecution of the man who killed their father, and really irked when it turns out that his mother has moved on and is dating someone! But he has also let the job get to him, not realising that he has not even grieved properly for the loss of his old friend and confidential informant, Danny Gimp (as explored in the previous volume, The Last Dance). Despite the contrasting pairing of straight as an arrow Carella with oafish and slovenly Weeks, McBain seems to have also been intent on making Carella a bit less idealised than normal. The domestic subplot certainly puts him and his family through the wringer – but then, if you have to expect some personal problem when a lion pounces on you in the line of work!
“You know who would make a better President than the one we got now?” Hawes said.
“Who?” Kling asked.
“Martin Sheen.”
But there is some levity too, such as an extended skit on the best representations of US Presidents in the movies (the above quote is taken from a section that lasts four pages). On the whole then what we have here is a topical and pretty exciting thriller – not much of a puzzle in the traditional 87th Precinct sense but it eschews the sex and gore that marred some recent volumes, focusing instead on intrigue and the eccentric range of criminals, McBain proving himself as artful as ever as we watch all the various parts of the narrative come into focus with the author’s enviable skill.
McBain discussed the genesis and aftermath of this book’s publication with Mike Stotter of Shots magazine and can be read on their website.
You can check out my reviews of all the previous volumes at my 87 Precinct microsite.
Tipping My Fedora 
Wot, just 3 fedora tips? Hrrmph! I recall loving this one — in fact, you’ve inspired me to go see if I can find my copy for a reread. (Hm. Or was it a library loan?)
Well, the disadvantage of reading them in bulk, perhaps?
This was an unusual sort of novel for this series, Sergio. But for my money (money, money… 😉 ) it worked very well. I think the ‘thriller’ aspect of it went off better than it might have in less skilled hands, even though it wasn’t his usual style. Just my thoughts…
Definitely an expert change of pace Margot 😀
I’m not always a fan of the multi-strand thriller and can get bored at times – I think I may have read to many when I was younger. As such, it’s nice to hear McBain not only tackled this fom but did so with a reasonable degree of success.
As so often, I think we are (ahem) on the same page here – the blockbuster thriller is not something that I would want to read much nowadays. This is a fascinating change of page – a bit overlong, like most of his later books anyway, but very well done. And if you’re a fan of Elmore Leonard, then you’ll be very happy with this one I would have thought.
Of the later 87th Precinct mysteries, MONEY MONEY MONEY might be the most entertaining. It’s loopy plot held my interest despite the length of the book. Nice review!
Thanks George – I love how the series still managed to vary itself so late in the day!
I’ve been trying to decide with 87th I want to read next (I’ve read only a few thus far) and you’ve pretty much sold me on this one, Sergio. But the three hat tips has me scratching under mine.
The later books often have a lot of padding for which I do deduct more than others might … 😀
…which..
Gotcha!
It sounds interesting, Sergio. It will be a while before I get this far, though.
Lot of books out there and never enough time Tracy!
A dead lion? Oh no, Sergio, you know my feelings on this sort of thing. Am I a weepy animal hugger? Yes, yes I am. 🙂
But he was trying to eat Steve Carella!!!
No excuses! Ha!
Now come in Yvette, it was self defence I tells ya!
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Sergio, as I wind my way through the 87th Precinct series I find I’m almost always in sync with your opinion, sometimes liking a particular book a little more or a little less than you, but generally in agreement with your review. But not here; I’m afraid I hated this book. The multiple plot threads were all over the place, the rest of the detectives almost completely missing, Fat Ollie’s unnecessary presence beginning to irritate (I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe that he could claim jurisdiction because a lion dragged a woman’s leg to the 88 side of the zoo–indeed, would a precinct boundary even cut *through* the zoo? Wouldn’t that be like having an apartment building be half in one precinct and half in another? That doesn’t seem plausible), and in general a sense that McBain is sick and tired of the Eight Seven in general, and of Carella in particular. Heck, in harkening back to very early on in the series, when McBain wanted the books to be about the squad-room and not about a particular person, he comesthisclose to killing off Carella *twice,* including a ridiculous attempted murder-by-lion. Then there’s a vignette where Steve looks around the squad-room, takes in all the sights sounds and smells, reflects that it all feels very familiar, and then suddenly becomes inexplicably saddened. To me, it was an unconscious admission by the author that he is tired of the series. And don’t get me started on the out of control government shadow agency business. I don’t read those kinds of thrillers because I don’t like those kinds of stories. I didn’t enjoy it any better here.
Things that did appeal to me: the mention of Svetlana Dyalovich in the same paragraph as Heifetz and Menuhin, and the scene where the cops try to get a search warrant from a judge who has trouble following the plot. That scene did make me laugh. But otherwise….
Good to hear from you Jack. It was very popular in its day and I always like McBain’s attempts to extend the formula. But yes, Fat Ollie is a bit of a problem. Must admit, I didn’t take that view of Carella / McBain as showing being tired of the series – I think it was more poignant, a rumination on the passing of time and McBain’s knowledge about his own very poor health at the time. Very glad you are plugging away at these chum. not long to go before time to go back to COP HATER and start all over again 🙂
Certainly there’s no doubt I’ll continue on to the end–I finished Money Money Money this morning and already have begun Fat Ollie’s Book! But afterwards, I don’t know if I’ll immediately start over at the beginning, or dive into another series. I’m only about halfway through the Inspector Morse books, for instance. And even though I’ve read the first dozen or so Maigrets, I find that I’m still only in the second year of publication!
Ah, the Maigrets are amazing dream-like narrative combined with such a concrete view of sensation and such an acute sense of psychology. Admittedly, reading those chronologically does mean getting past that torrent of work in the first couple of years, Then there are big gaps and a steadier pace. I’m a huge fan.
Having just finished Fat Ollie’s Book, and after some reflection–particularly in light of your own comments here, I’ve revised my notion that McBain was tiring of the series in general and of Carella in particular. I see what you’re saying about the author being in poor health, and that everything was coming to the end. On the whole, I still didn’t care for Money Money Money–perhaps my animus was coloring my reaction to McBain’s relationship with his characters
Fair enough buddy. I once got into a huge debate with the late, great John Grant about NOCTURNE. He really liked it it but there were elements of it that just me so far away that I just felt it truly determined my overall feeling for the book. John was a huge fan and a wise man. But he did not convince me. Which I suspect speaks only to my stubbornness 😁