Like Love

Spring finds the detectives of the 87th Precinct busy as usual. As the book opens, Detective Steve Carella has to deal with a beautiful young woman who decides she has nothing to live for and who has climbed out onto a ledge high above the street in her nightgown. She’s ready to jump and in 1962, the PD doesn’t yet have trained specialists to deal with a situation like this. Carella will do the best he can, but this really isn’t his area of expertise.

Meanwhile, a hairbrush salesman is making his rounds. (Remember, it’s 1962 when people other than the Girl Scouts apparently still sold things door-to-door.) The unsuspecting salesman rings the doorbell at an apartment which, unfortunately is filled with leaking natural gas. The electrical impulse from the bell touches off an explosion which blows the salesman and his hairbrushes all to hell.

When the dust settles, the police discover a man and a woman lying virtually naked in the bedroom dead from inhaling the gas. They also find a couple of empty Scotch bottles and a suicide note. But something seems off and most of the detectives believe that the deaths were really homicides.

Sadly, their investigation leads them nowhere. They discover some quirky facts about the case but nothing that absolutely disproves the apparent suicide and nothing that points the finger at a viable suspect. In the meantime, some unknown person has made it his hobby to periodically kick the crap out of Steve Carella, which does nothing to improve the detective’s disposition. And unless the detectives catch a break soon, it appears that none of this will be resolved to anyone’s satisfaction.

This is another very good entry in this series. As always, it’s a pretty quick read and fans of the series are certain to enjoy it.

….not that it’s possible to conceive of a “bad” Ed Mcbain novel. But there is a certain lack of edge, of focus here that means I’d never recommend it as someones first. We drift a bit too long into the romantic mind of Cotton Hawes, we spend a bit to much time on clues and plot twists that go nowhere yet aren’t enough by themselves to make it worth the trip. Even author favorite Steve Carella seems diluted here, we follow him through a bit of angst about a failure on the job but again, it just kind of fades away, not building to anything in particular.
Still, all told, we’re talking 15-20% fat on this one. The rest is clean, lean, McBain and as always worthwhile.

The book revolves around whether a crime scene is the consequence of murder or suicide. The story follows the police as they investigate a crime scene and interview witnesses. The book is quite enjoyable and a quick read.

Some of the earlier novels are clearly showing his youth. The ending was anti-climatic. A little sad, but always sad when someone dies.

I read this one out of order because I didn’t have the one immediately preceding. I will say that I’m a little disappointed because I had figured it out so early in the book. It was good form and style, as I’ve come to expect from this author and series, but too predictable.

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