Review
Comment: McBain's latest book (a departure from his 87th Precinct
detective series) follows one week in the life of Alice Glendenning; a recently
widowed 34-year-old with two young children and a bundle of troubles. Her
eight-year old hasn't spoken since his father disappeared (presumed dead) in a
boating accident eight months before, the insurance company are quibbling over
the payout, and she hasn't made a sale since starting work as a realtor six
months ago. However, things can always get worse, and they do when her children
are abducted from school and held for a ransom of $250,000 - the exact same sum
as the yet to be paid insurance payment. Following instructions, she doesn't
call the police, but her housekeeper does, and soon her home is alive with
surveillance equipment and bumbling detectives, her itinerant brother-in-law, the
dumb blond who ran...
Beyond the Book
Ed McBain was a pseudonym of Evan Hunter. Born Salvatore Lombino, he
clocked up an impressive number of pseudonyms in his 50+ year writing career -
during the 50s he wrote eight books under the name Richard Marsten, two books as
Hunt Collins and two as Curt Cannon, in addition to starting on his now famous
87th Precinct series under the name Ed McBain. Then in the 1970s he made a brief
appearance as Ezra Hannon, and in 1992 as John Abbott. He published more than 100
books which sold more than one hundred million copies, but is best known for the
87th Precinct series - with more than 50 million copies of the more than 50 books in print.
He died of cancer in July 2005. A number of books are expected to be published
posthumously including
Fiddlers, an 87th...
