Customer Reviews

The Con Man (87th Precinct)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The year turns and another 87th Precinct book breezes through. It's April in Isola. The cruellest month? Cruel enough anyway as the con is well and truly on. McBain relishes in his chosen theme. The con and the conmen themselves get a thorough going over by McBain's philosophically edged examination. The detectives of the 87th are trying to reel in a couple of tricksters who are working their way through the confidence trick handbook, fleecing the rich and poor for a fortune or a dime. Arthur Brown and newly promoted Bert Kling are hitting the streets trying to luck out for a lead on the pair. But it's Steve Carella who discovers a far more sinister and deadly conman at work. The river deals him a woman, dead for some time, a tattoo of a heart encircling the word MAC almost hidden on the flesh of her hand and a mysteriously emptied bank account. As ever the characters are great and becoming more familiar by the book. With the investigations waiting for that one killer lead, McBain revels in dangling them in front of the wrong eyes at the wrong time. Some of it gets dangled by our eyes too through print outs of missing persons reports, Criminal identity cards and, somewhat indecipherably, dental records. Carella is recently back from his honeymoon with new wife Teddy who is deaf-mute. This one works up to a particularly suspenseful finale with Teddy aiding in the investigation.

I bought this item for a christmas present and my wife was very please with it
it has given her many hours of enjoyment

Well written as usual. A clever take on an old theme. Will continue to read this author's work. At the same time I think this genre is becoming a bit overcrowded.

Slickly written, gripping and a smashing read. The characters are well crafted and the story line is thrilling. Brilliant read.

I like this series. They are relatively short and deceptively simple police procedurals. In this case the hunt is on for two separate conmen - the big one who romances plain Janes, steals their money and then poisons them and the small one who fleeced a girl of $5. The principle is the same: stealing is stealing. The writing style is spare and factual, much the same as the detectives it portrays but it still conveys so much as I'm sure I felt the April sun described in chapter 1.
For those who know the series I don't need to say much more but for those who don't these are the original police procedurals and the blueprint for future generations but they will seem dated as they are a product of their time.

I have read a lot of this author's books but out of sequence. You can tell this is an early book but it is still an excellent read. The �1.00 it cost me has made me want to read all the others. So here goes!!!

I read the whole book, to find out how the story ended though quite often wanted to stop reading. It went on a bit, often unnecessarily long descriptions or comments, These were easily skipped but were pretty annoying. Edited well, this would have made a decent short story.

We have been reading Ed McBains 87th Precinct novels for over 40 years and have probably read them half a dozen times over and still enjoy them. There have been many authors who have written good books of the genre subsequently but McBain still stands out. You can see to this day his influence in the story lines of cop series on TV.

not up to the standard i like my stories to be but would read future books by this author if i was stuck for something to read. There seems to be a lot of information on the characters in each chapter and not enough happening to the story

I enjoyed this book, although it is dated, it's a good read. The day to day life at the 87th is as good as the plot