A fairly weak effort. A series of unconnected cases, being worked on and solved by the 87th Street Precinct bulls. The main case is the shooting of Parker, whom nobody liked much anyway. ( )

Dated, but good beach read or if you like police procedural stories.

First published way back but, Ed Mcbain (Evan Hunter) was a master and student of the everyday doings of the police. This is a very fast and light read. Just a day in the life. Cases are solved quickly. Men are men and the women are glad of it. ;-) In the days of phone booths instead of cell phones. Newspapers instead of google. Holds up well. One scene has a detective checking the coin slot to see if his dime came back. I had forgotten about doing that. :-) Looking for a deep read? This ain't it. Looking for a good quick bit of old time Adam Twelve type stories or Dragnet? Enjoy. ( )

A cracking procedural covering a night shift and a day shift at the 87th Precinct. All the regulars feature here each solving their own puzzle some more criminal than others. Outstanding work deep into the series. ( )

This book tells the story of one action-packed night shift and one even more action-packed day shift at the 87th Precinct: An actress/dancer is murdered in the alley behind a theatre. A cop is shot during a robbery at a convenience store. A wealthy family is convinced that ghosts are robbing them. A marine has been mugged after a woman lured him out of a bar. It’s a “slice-of-life” installment in the series, with lots of little stories that get wrapped up fairly quickly.

I always say reading this series is like watching an episode of Barney Miller, and the dialogue especially lives up to that comparison. However, sometimes in the 87th Precinct, the seediness comes through more than it might on a similar TV show. Attitudes toward women in particular are not particularly progressive in this book, which led me to colour this an “almost liked it, but not quite”.

I do, however, think it amusing that the cop on the cover of my edition (the New American Library in Canada edition) resembles Robert Sean Leonard; that *is* somewhat how I picture Carella. ( )

This one showed 24 hours in the life of the 87th precinct: the night shift and the day shift. The numerous different crimes, some more serious than others, were all solved in a relatively short period of time, within each detective's shift. I like this one because it has a lot of humor. It was fun. ( )