Cop Hater (87th Precinct) Paperback – May 8, 2012

Almost all readers with the slightest interest in crime fiction are aware of Ed McBain and his 87th precinct series of fifty-five books. McBain was born Salvatore Lambino. He wrote "Blackboard Jungle" under the name Evan Hunter. He also was a screenwriter and adapted DuMaurier's short story into Hitchcock's "The Birds"and wrote for a number of TV series including "Columbo".Set in the fictional Isola and remarkably similar to NYC, the 87th Precinct series spanned fifty years. The first book was "Cop Hater" (CH), 205 pages and published in 1956. CH focuses on Steve Carella, though he is not exactly the protagonist; rather that seems to be the cops of the 87th. The story begins with the murder of one of the 87th's detectives on his way to work late one night; he leaves a wife and two young kids. Before long there are more murders, all the victims are from the 87th.I didn't really get into this book until I had finished the first fifty pages or so, and then I began to enjoy it very much I was particularly interested in how well a book written sixty years ago would hold up. Would it be relevant? ? I have read other crime fiction from this period and earlier and some have been ultra dull with such skimpy descriptions they could well have taken place anywhere between pre-WWll and post Viet Nam. But not so with CH. To my surprise, and delight, it was rather sexy. Not in a pulp fiction way, and while not graphic, there were scenes that you would not see in a Hitchcock film of any era. A second surprise was the crime solving technology. Residential air conditioning was rare in these days. During a heat wave, many folks would escape for a few hours of cool, not matter how bad the movie. But there were precursors of CSI already evident. Following one cop's murder, one of the investigators is able to make a fairly detailed and accurate description of the shooter based on forensic evidence of hair, blood and skin on the victim. One final big surprise is how naive and open one 0f the detectives is with a reporter going so far as to share the name of his fiance and the and the neighborhood in which she lives - I guess privacy had not been invented yet.CH was very interesting. The story takes quite a turn toward the end. The plot is excellent, the pace is very fast, good tension and the dialog is excellent. What next. I don't intend to read a 55 book series at this stage but I will read more McBain. I think I will jump into the next decade, and choose a promising title (perhaps "Doll" from the mid-60s) and see how the stories compare over time, and then maybe to the next decade.This is the second crime fiction classic I have read recently, the other being Ellery Queen's "Penthouse Murder". I recently took a course on classic crime fiction and will read and review a number of the books the professor cited.

**Review:**⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️*Cop Hater* by Ed McBain is a gritty and fast-paced crime novel that captures the essence of 1950s police procedural fiction. The first book in McBain's *87th Precinct* series, it introduces readers to a group of detectives working in a tough, unnamed city, where cops are being murdered, and the pressure to solve the case is intense.McBain's writing style is sharp and direct, pulling readers into the day-to-day grind of police work without sugarcoating the challenges. The characters are well-drawn, particularly Detective Steve Carella, who stands out for his dedication and determination. The atmosphere is grim and realistic, giving a strong sense of the era and the tension between the police force and the public.The pacing of the story keeps the suspense high, though at times the investigation can feel somewhat linear, with fewer twists than expected. Still, the novel excels in its portrayal of police camaraderie and the procedural details of solving a case in an unforgiving city.Overall, *Cop Hater* is a solid introduction to the *87th Precinct* series, blending hard-boiled crime with procedural accuracy. A must-read for fans of classic crime fiction.

Over my years of reading mysteries, I have often encountered writers who acknowledged the influence on their work of Ed McBain, but somehow I've just never gotten around to going to the source of all that inspiration. I decided to remedy that chasm in my mystery-reading experience this summer, starting with the very first McBain entry in his 87th Precinct series.Cop Hater was first published in 1956 and the series ran all the way up until the year of McBain's death in 2005 with more than fifty entries overall. In the foreword to this re-publication of Cop Hater, McBain says that, when he started, his publisher was looking for someone to be a successor to Erle Stanley Gardner who was nearing the end of his long and productive writing career. It seems that the publisher struck gold when they selected McBain for that role.Among the first things that struck me about reading this book was the similarity between styles of McBain and the Swedish duo Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo who wrote the Martin Beck series that I've been reading this year. The Sjowall/Wahloo series started about ten years after the 87th Precinct one. They were among those writers who acknowledged their debt to McBain. They professed their admiration for his spare and straightforward way of telling his stories and sought to imitate it in their own writing. They succeeded very well.The second thing that hit me in the face in reading the book was the heat. The mythical city of Isola where the story is set is experiencing a terrible heat wave. It is July and all anyone can talk about is how hot it is. This novel was set contemporaneously with its time but now, 58 years later, that makes it a historical novel, taking place before the time of almost universal air conditioning. Sweat is a constant factor in the story. It runs off the characters and down the pages as we read.A third thing that is very arresting (pun intended) about the story is that it takes place before the Miranda decision of the Supreme Court. McBain describes a very different world of interactions between arresting officers and suspects. The suspects are never advised of their constitutional rights to remain silent and to have a lawyer to represent them, and the police have pretty much a free hand in browbeating the people they arrest and trying to get a confession, as well as sometimes actually beating them.The main story here involves the murder of cops - all detectives assigned to the 87th Precinct. The first two detectives that are killed, on two separate nights after they leave work, had been partners, and so the initial suspicion falls on cases that they might have been working on or had worked together. But then a third detective is killed, one who had not actively worked with the other two on anything. This leads that man's partner, Steve Carella, to begin to suspect that the killer of the men - the same gun was used to commit all three murders - was not a "cop hater" at all. Perhaps the motive for the killings has nothing to do with the fact that the men were policemen. This, ultimately, proves to be a very insightful analysis of the situation.As I was reading the book, I couldn't help thinking that, even as later authors paid homage to McBain, he himself was influenced by the old TV show "Dragnet." Indeed, he acknowledges as much in the story. As the detectives review possible suspects, one of those suspects turns out to be in Los Angeles, and a detective in the group comments that they "can leave him to Joe Friday!"This was an interesting reading experience, both for the obvious connections with other authors I have read and am currently reading and for the historical view it supplies on a time that wasn't really so long ago and yet is vastly different in perspective and in its approach to police work. I think it will be fascinating to continue reading the series and see how - and if - that changes over the years. After all, the series went on for another 49 eventful years after Cop Hater and I suspect that it must have evolved with the times in order to stay so popular for all those years.

At first, I was surprised that some of the characters were so fully developed but were killed off and quickly. Kept you thinking. Games were played there. Not all were successful 7

Great read, and a wonderful Writer!

When a cop is shot down in the street one night, the squad from the 87th Precinct in Isola swing into action. At first the reason for the shooting isn't known. Was it random? Was it personal? But when another cop from the precinct is killed in the same way it begins to look like there's a cop hater on the loose. Now Detective Steve Carella and his colleagues have two reasons to find the killer quickly – to get justice for their fellow officers and to stop the perpetrator before he kills again...First published in 1956, this is the first in the long-running, successful and influential 87th Precinct series. I read many of them in my teens, but this is the first time I've revisited the Precinct in decades. I have no memory of the individual plots, but vividly remember the setting and several of the characters – a testimony to how well drawn they are. In this one Steve Carella is the main focus but as the series progressed McBain developed an entire group of detectives who took their turn in the spotlight, which is why the series is known by the name of the squad rather than any one detective. Carella stays at the forefront more than the other detectives overall, though, throughout the series. The books are based in Isola, an area of a major city which is clearly a fictionalised New York. The various boroughs have been given different names but are apparently recognisable to people who know the city (which I only do through books and TV or movies - I suspect my first impressions of New York may in fact have come from this series).The style seems to me like a kind of crossover point between the hardboiled fiction of Hammett, Chandler and their generation, and the more modern police procedural that would come to the fore and perhaps dominate crime fiction over the next few decades. (I hasten to add I'm no expert and not particularly widely-read, especially in American crime fiction, so this is just my own impression – perhaps other writers had been making the transition before McBain got there.) When he writes about the city – the soaring skylines, the dazzling lights, the display of wealth and glamour barely hiding the crime, corruption and violence down on the streets – it reads like pure noir; and in this one there's a femme fatale who equals any of the greats, oozing sexuality and confidence in her power over men.But when he writes about Carella and the squad his tone is warmer, less hard-edged. While hardboiled and noir detectives always seem to be loners, rather mysterious men without much in the way of backstory, McBain's police officers are real humans, who joke and watch sports, who have wives and children. Personally I prefer that mix to pure noir – McBain's detectives aren't always wholly likeable, but they're human enough to allow me to care about them. Also, because he uses an entire squad as his protagonist, each individual is more expendable than the single hero or partnership of many other authors, so there's always an air of real suspense as to whether they will come through dangerous situations. They don't always...The plot is excellent – I won't give any spoilers, but I will say that it was only just before the reveal that I really got any idea of where it was heading. McBain creates great atmosphere with his writing, which actually is of much higher quality than I remembered. Some of the scenes had me on the edge of my seat and he left me shocked more than once, but without ever stepping over the credibility line. In fact, realism is at the heart of the book – these detectives have to rely on doing the legwork, using informants and hoping for lucky breaks. There's a fair amount of casual police brutality, with the impression that this was the norm back then, and rather approved of than otherwise, both within the service and by society in general (and, I suspect, by McBain himself). Times change – depictions of casual and repeated brutality by police protagonists in contemporary British crime fiction annoy me because it wouldn't be considered acceptable here today and so jars as unrealistic. But it feels right in this book, and isn't over-emphasised; it's just part of the job.There's also a strand about the relationship between the police and the press, with an irresponsible journalist creating problems for the investigation. This is handled very well, with the reader put firmly on the side of the police. They may not always be nice guys, but McBain leaves us in no doubt that they're the good guys. And yes, I do mean guys – no women yet in this detective squad. Women are strictly either femmes fatales or loving wives and girlfriends. Well, it was the '50s!The ending has aspects of the thriller and again reverts to a more noir-ish feel as we discover the motivation behind the crimes.I was expecting to like this but perhaps to find it a bit dated. In fact, I loved it. Writing, setting, atmosphere, characterisation – all superb. While some of the attitudes are obviously a bit dated, the storytelling isn't at all, and the vices and weaknesses of the human animal haven't changed much over the years. Excellent stuff – definitely a classic of the genre, and highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a realistic police procedural with an edge of noir.

As usual very well written with an interesting conclusion. Although it is not my normal reading preference I have found this series enjoyable as the Author constructs the stories very well, the pace is good and the characters emerge effectively as the story unfolds. My only gripe is the book is set with the constant background of heat which doesn't paint a pleasant picture of the setting.

I'm reading these books fast. Once I start I can't stop. I like when a writer grabs me into the book.

I bought this, well because I like detective stories, but also because it was an old story from the mid 1950's I have always imagined how old novels would read like and I wasn't disappointed. It's a very simple easy read, simple plot, although a nice twist at the end, simple characters who you come to like even though there isn't the in depth biography you get in this day and age. A nice simple light read, with the only thi9ng missing is the rain that wipes the slime from the walls, Instead its a heat wave.If you'd like a quick light read, then this is your book. There is nothing to deep about it, it is just what it is, a nice easy pleasant read. I am looking forward to reading the second book in the series (The Mugger) and others thereafter.