The Pusher

I don’t generally care for police procedurals. However, someone challenged me to try an Ed McBain 87th Precinct story; so I did. The Pusher is actually the second McBain that I have read. I enjoyed the first, Cop Hater. I hoped that the others would be as good. I was unable to pick up the second book, so I read the third, The Pusher, instead. It is about what I consider one of the most deplorable criminals (outside of politicians) that exists, the narcotics pusher who preys on young (barely) men and women. The story was gritty; it was dark; but it was also full of hope and love and camaraderie. Even if you are a lover of cozy mysteries, I challenge you to pick up an 87th Precinct novel and read it. You might be surprised.

Reading these books (Ed McBain) is like reading history, in a way. Since the writing of the series started in 1956 and is a conglomeration of a lot of big cities, you get the feel of how things were at the time. In 2020 the culture is a lot different. But I like the perspective it gives you.

As for The Pusher it gives a different perspective of the families of the police and the fact that more shoe leather with less technology was at work. The Ed McBain series is a good read. The characters come alive. The cities underbelly is there for all to see. Check out the 87th precinct. If you like detective novels I dont think youll be disappointed.

Now this is more like it! It seems for years I’ve been reading about the 87th Precinct series – what a groundbreaker it was and how Ed McBain has been such an influence on writers of mysteries since the 1950s when this series started. But after reading the first two entries in the series, I confess I was disappointed. As far as I could see they were mostly just interesting for their historical value, but I didn’t find them particularly entertaining.

Then I picked up The Pusher, third in the series. He had me with the first sentence. And with the first couple of pages of that wonderfully evocative description of the city in winter, I was hooked. I could have read the book in one sitting, except I had to stop and do other things for a while. I rushed back to it as quickly as I could.

It seemed to me that McBain really hit his stride with this book. The 87th Precinct and the city began to come to life for me. I began to care about the characters.

The story starts with a patrolman walking a beat a few days before Christmas. It is bone-numbingly cold. He sees a light that shouldn’t be there and goes to investigate and finds a young Hispanic man’s body in a tenement basement. There is a rope around his neck and a syringe on the cot beside him. At first, it appears to be a suicide, but an autopsy reveals he had a massive dose of heroin which actually killed him and the rope around his neck was not tied in a way that the victim could have done it. It was murder.

Detective Steve Carella and newly minted detective Bert Kling catch the initial assignment. Carella has a lot of questions about the scene of the crime. Why was it set up as an obviously phony hanging? There are fingerprints all over the syringe that was found but whose are they? There is no record of them in police files. The victim was a penny ante pusher of heroin. Who was his supplier?

As Carella and the other detectives pursue answers to those questions and others, another murder occurs. This time it is a young Hispanic woman, a known prostitute. She was savagely slashed. Much of her blood had drained away before she was discovered and taken to the hospital, but she did not survive and was not able to speak. Turns out that she was the sister of the first victim – which only raises more questions.

Carella hits the streets in search of the dead pusher’s possible supplier – a punk who goes by the name of Gonzo. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Byrnes of the Precinct is receiving phone calls implicating his teenage son in the crimes. He must make the decision of whether or not to reveal this to Carella as he struggles to save his drug-addicted son.

As the painfully slow step-by-step process of sorting evidence and following up clues continues, there will be even more drama for the 87th Precinct when another dead body turns up and then one of their own in shot. This is engrossing stuff. I didn’t want to put the book down until all the issues were resolved.

Interestingly, in an afterword, McBain reveals that the ending of the story was not the one that he originally wrote. His publisher argued against that ending and convinced him to change it. Good decision.

The writing here is just sparkling. I found myself rereading descriptive passages time and again, just for the pure pleasure of the way the words were strung together. Okay, I do begin to see why so many writers of mysteries revere Ed McBain.

Another good book in this series. Each book is a standalone novel and unlike many series you don’t have to read them in order to enjoy them and understand what is going on. Ed McBain is known for great police procedure mysteries and if you enjoy this genre you won’t be disappointed. Just remember this was written in the 70’s before DNA testing and all the other technology we now have available. Here is your chance to enjoy a police procedural mystery novel where the characters have to solve crimes with their minds and imagination, not technology.

Ed McBain (Evan Hunter) casts a huge shadow over police procedural mysteries. To long time readers, this 3rd entry in the 87 Precinct Series is a welcome visit by an old friend. McBain writing, sometimes a little overly dramatic and overly descriptive, delivers a neat tight story in under 200 pages. McBain was chosen to “replace” Earle Stanley Gardner and came up with an idea for a series where the Hero would be the detective squad not an individual. Cops would come, go, and sometimes die, but the precinct would endure. Thus was born the police procedural. He chose not a single city, but to create an anonymous archetype; more real than Batman’s Gotham but just as gritty. At the time it was fresh and original, now it seems cliche, but only because some many other authors have borrowed from and were inspired by his writings. In fact, just looking at the current crop of police television shows, you can see just how influential McBain continues to be. To long time readers, I recommend re-reading Pusher. To those who have yet to discover McBain, this was my first 87th Precinct book, and from the first page I was hooked.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member