Ed McBain, Give the Boys a Great Big Hand

Ed McBain, Give the Boys a Great Big Hand
Copyright © Ed McBain, 1960


The 11th story in the 87th Precinct series.  I've generally enjoyed these books a lot, but this was a disappointment.  Partly because the blurb on the back cover led me to expect--would have led anyone, I think, to expect--a very different sort of book.  "A man dressed in black is leaving blood-red severed hands all over the city."  Not exactly.  There’s one murder in the book, and the hands are not exactly spread “all over the city.”  And, as 87^th Precinct books go, there was a lot of slack time in the investigation (although, as it’s been a long time since I read one, that might just be normal).  And, for no reason that I could discern, McBain throws in a long—3 pages (156-158 in this edition of the book)—passage in which he says, “The city is a woman” over and over again, in different ways.  Those 3 pages did not move the story, did not illuminate any of the characters, did nothing but take up space.  Still, I like the characters (mostly), and, if the outcome of the investigation is somewhat anti-climactic, it’s not a bad idea to revisit the 87^th once in a while.