Bread

Going through the whole 87th series sequentially I have had the great luck in reading 3 fantastic entries back-to-back-to-back with this being the second of the 3. The leads on the case are Carella and Hawes which is my favourite paring so it was off to a perfect start! The case involves someone’s warehouse that gets burned down. I thought this was going to be a serial arsonist story but it went off in a very welcome direction. This novel has a ton of characters in it and it had me guessing until the end.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and recommend it 100%

Notes:
Worth The Money: Yes
Would I Recommend It: Yes

On a hot August afternoon, a man comes into the 87th Precinct demanding fast action on the investigation into a fire that destroyed his warehouse along with $500,000 worth of small carved wooden animals that were housed there. He insists that he has to get the insurance claim settled immediately so that he can afford to pay for the next shipment of animals that is already on the way from Germany.

About half of the precinct’s detectives are on vacation, given that these are the dog days of summer, but Steve Carella, Cotton Hawes and the other detectives who are on duty promise to do what they can. The investigation turns out to be more complicated than your average arson case, though, especially when people start turning up dead. In addition to arsonists and killers, there are hookers and urban redevelopers running loose in the city and Carella and company have to get all these things sorted out before they can appease the guy who wants his insurance claim settled.

All in all, this is one of the more intriguing entries in this long-running series and this book is critical to the series because it introduces the character of Fat Ollie Weeks who will appear prominently in several books from here on out. Weeks is a miserable pig of a human being who does an awful impression of W. C. Fields, but he has great skills as a detective and so the other detectives of the 87th and the reader as well, will just have to grin and bear it. Another fun read from one of the masters.

Another solid entry in the 87th Precinct series, entertaining as McBain always is. If there is a flaw here, it’s that nothing stands out in comparison to the rest of the series. It doesn’t stand out as particularly strong like, say, the Deaf Man stories or the last few novels with their wonderful development of Fat Ollie Weeks (introduced here in Bread). And while there really is no such thing as a bad McBain story, Bread does avoid the rare klunker aspect that snuck into a few like the Nixon allegory of Hail to the Chief.

This is a decent story but a little slow at times. Only one character was really developed to the point where I could get a mental picture of him which I like in a story. There are no real surprises but it’s a decent detective story, and I will definitely read more of his books. I do find him a bit wordy at times and he seems to use lists to fill space.

There are 50 87th Precinct books. All of them are gems. If you are a crime fiction lover then every point is hit, every bell is rung. The story rolls out in just the right way. The characters are all real people and the situations read like a police journal. Best of all is the quality of the dialogue in these books. You will want to get someone to sit down with you and read it back and forth at times. Enjoy these jewels.

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