RARA-AVIS: Re: Ed McBain: Dig in and get it done

From: JIM DOHERTY (jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com)
Date: 04 May 2010

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    T,

    Re your comment below:

    "Right now I am in the middle of McBain's _The Heckler_, a heck of a good read, unusual crimes, really good stuff."

    My favorite in the series. You may be aware that the villain of this piece, the hearing-impaired master criminal referred to as "the deaf man," has a number of return engagements in which that phrase is capitalized into a proper name, "The Deaf Man."

    In addition to THE HECKLER, the "Deaf Man sub-series includes FUZZ (1968), LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE DEAF MAN (1973), EIGHT BLACK HORSES (1985), MISCHIEF (1993), and the penultimate novel in the entire series, HARK (2004).

    For me, though, McBain never juggled the seemingly incompatible elements of ultra-realistic depictions of law enforcement with a Morarty-life master criminal as deftly in any of the sequels as he did in THE HECKLER.

    JIM DOHERTY

          



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