Fiddlers: A Novel

One of many things I enjoy about Ed McBains 87th Precinct series of police procedurals is how he shows police detectives engaged not just in their daily work but also their personal lives and relationships. So it is in FIDDLERS. (Which sadly seems to be his last published book before his death.)

The cast of characters involve quite a cross-section of humanity.

One overweight white male detective is becoming involved with a pretty Latina. He is socially awkward, she is engaging, and there are concerns about the cultural differences.

Another detective is married to a deaf woman. They are a loving couple, who arguably communicate better than most married couples. They are raising teenage twins a boy and a girl who face the usual teen temptations. These include peer pressure to engage in drugs and petty shoplifting, which could be especially egregious to a father who is a cop.

A third couple is a white detective and a black woman who are on the verge of splitting up. The cause? The detective had jealous doubts and followed her. I was not just a trust issue, but involves misunderstanding due to racial consciousness.

One of the detectives has a black partner, who tries to help him understand, though sometimes the problems are just too complicated.

All the while, the detectives do their job in a professional manner. Even with all these problem swirling in the backs of their minds, step-by-methodical step they unravel the complicated mystery to its solution.

Just another case in the lives of McBains characters.

Ed McBain died in July 2005, and this, his final novel, was published in September. In half a century of writing the 87th Precinct series (giving him the honorific Father of the American Police Procedural), loyal readers have followed the sometimes grim, sometimes rollicking cases of the hard-working detectives. In this wrap-up – which does not read as if it were definitely the end of the line – the villain has an unusual motive, and one which resonates in an ironic way with the state of the author. Without trying to tie up every character’s arc of development, the reader can see how things might have played out. Bert Kling, the boyish detective with phenomenal bad luck in the romance department – will he ever get it right? Cotton Hawes finds a new love interest of a different kind. Steve Carella is dealing with his teenage children, and that’s no picnic. Fat Ollie Weeks has been moving toward redemption ever since he met Patricia…and he’s even lost a few pounds. Everyone is on hand to figure out why a serial killer is targeting a seemingly unrelated group of people. Red herrings abound. Even at the end of his life, the author writes an intricately layered story that showcases his abilities. As with other books in this series which have single words for titles, there are many riffs on the subject of fiddlers, so be on the lookout for them.

I think of Ed McBain as an efficient writer. Procedurals like the 87th Precinct series usually have several plot strands that lie unresolved for much of their length. As the police run up against one bad lead after another, you wonder how they will ever catch the perp. What’s the thread that leads from crime to criminal? Sometime this complexity of plot and the (necessary) delay of solution leads to a mess. Here, McBain not only clarifies the strands but builds compellingly and rhythmically to a climax. The strands seem to come together in a breathtaking rush. Furthermore, he manages to bring some depth to several characters. Beginning with a blind violinist, a casualty of Viet Nam, several people have been shot in the face at close range by the same killer. Nothing seems to tie them all together (although there’s a drug angle to some of them), and yet the murders don’t seem random. Of all the victims, the violinist intrigues the most. There’s also a subplot of Fat Ollie Weeks in courtship and of the romance subtly changing him. Carella and Teddy have serious problems with one of the twins. Will they muff it? All in all, one of the better novels of the 87th.

I’ve been reading the 87th Precinct books since the early 80s. Ed McBain always advised writers to ‘find your voice’. In truth, he had one of the most distinctive voices out there. All it takes is a line or two and you can’t fail to recognize his unique style. He writes great dialogue. It’s not how people really talk, of course, but it’s as much a part of the world he created as ever-youthful Bert Kling is. A world which, incidentally, has moved on for us, with our CCTV and DNA, but for these characters, remains stuck in the mid to late 1970s.

After five decades – a literal lifetime – Fiddlers is the last novel in the series. And what an end.

If you have never read an Ed McBain/87th Precinct Novel, where have you been? This end is not the place to start – as the author trusts that we have remembered his unforgettable characters sufficiently that pains are not taken to re-introduce them. Best you start back – way back – in 1956 and enjoy the ride with these all-too-human cops and criminals – who have not aged according to the chronological calendar, but who shall remain, if not forever young, at least forever time-lapsed.
Ed McBain, father of the police procedural as we know it, which spawned Hill Street Blues and other cultural icons, has written his last 87th Precinct potboiler. Whatever will happen to all our beloved and not-so-loved characters? Will April Carella be spared from Reefer Madness? Will Ollie become not-so-Fat and bed Patricia? Is there an heir-apparent to carry on the tales? Pray not Whoever is writing Lilian Jackson Braun’s Cat-Who-s or the Gawd-Awful *Scarlett* in response to which Margaret Mitchell should righteously and rightfully rise up from her grave and smite Ripley and her own heirs who allowed that abomination!
Faithful followers of McBain’s Boys and Girls of the 87th, plead to his publishers not to let some ghastly ghostwriting idiot fiddle around and ruin it all. Let the legend live on with the same clever wit and crisp, clipped style to which the characters and readers are accustomed. /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member