Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Nocturne by Ed McBain

Ed McBain (1926-2005) was the pen name of Salvatore Albert Lombino, who later legally changed his name to Evan Hunter in 1952. The prolific output of McBain/Hunter included over 110 novels, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide, as well as numerous short stories and collections and a few plays and screenplays. He was the first American author to receive the Diamond Dagger, the highest award given by the British Crime Writers Association. He was also a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and an Edgar Award recipient for his 2002 novel Money, Money, Money.  
 
His greatest success came with his 87th Precinct series, which began in 1956 with Cop Hater, made into a film in 1958. The series also served as the basis for a television show in the early 1960s, starring Robert Lansing, Gena Rowlands, Norman Fell, Ron Harper, and Gregory Walcott. The 87th Precinct books are set in New York City (going under the alias of Isola in the books) and pioneered many of the elements of police procedurals today such as using multiple plot lines and viewpoints and an ensemble cast.

The synopsis for Nocturne from 1997 (87th Precinct installment #48): In Isola, the hours between midnight and dawn are usually a quiet time. But for 87th Precinct detectives Carella and Hawes, the murder of an old woman makes the wee hours anything but peaceful—especially when they learn she was one of the greatest concert pianists of the century long vanished. Meanwhile 88th Precinct cop Fat Ollie Weeks has his own early morning nightmare: he's on the trail of three prep school boys and a crack dealer who spent the evening carving up a hooker.

This is a McBain procedural romp on one hand, with the usual cast of characters, as well as members of the 88th precinct chasing down the killers (as Publishers Weekly noted, "McBain serves up his usual mix of urban insights, terrible jokes, sex, violence and dialogue that crackles from every page"). There are the touches of whimsy, such as the recurring in-joke involving references to The Birds, "that movie that Alfred Hitchcock wrote," prompting corrections from Detective Steve Carella that "I don't think Hitchcock actually WROTE that..." (Ed McBain, as Evan Hunter, actually did write the screenplay for The Birds.) But there is also more explicit violence and graphic sexual language than is usual even in these gritty novels. Still, it's a good introduction to the 87th and McBain's procedural prowess, although Kirkus Reviews opined that in this exuberant installment, "the whole 87th gets upstaged by the 88th."

Comments

[Todd Mason]

I'm still awaiting the Hunter story that doesn't include some aspect that strikes me as particularly false or needlessly dumb; I often have the sense that the same kind of hostility he felt as an Italian-American at midcentury (and before) that led him to change his name (he did sign a few stories Sol Lombino vs. a plethora of pseuds before the legal name changes) was being returned, somehow, in some of his work, on the audience. But that's possibly just me, another son of Italy in part who lived in a later time and sporting an Utterly WASP name. And agree with his assessment of Hammett as the superior writer to Chandler, which he argues with some vehemence in a discussion transcripted in THE PARIS REVIEW with other crime-fiction writers, not too long before his death. (Hitchcock, of course, could be hard to work with, and I gather his and Hunter's interaction wasn't all sweetness and light, any more than Hitchcock's with Tippi Hedren, if a less physically hostile one). I do prefer Du Maurier's source story. I should give this novel a try, to see if it breaks my string.

[BV Lawson]

Well, Todd, maybe you'll agree with the "Kirkus" review of this book that he should have made a series with the 88th Precinct instead ofo the 87th. :-)

Yes, I've heard a lot of horror stories about Hitch's relationships with just about everyone, including writers. I don't know why so many creative types are often difficult and high-strung, but I'm sure many psychologists have researched the topic to death.

The Chandler vs. Hammett discussion is a fun one, for sure. I'll have to go track down that "Paris Review" discussion.