I've been trying to read these books in order. Although the plot of each is stand alone, the development of the characters defiantly builds from book to book. Reading them out of sequence would probably result in the odd spoiler here and there.In this book there are a couple of con men loose in the city. These form two separate cases with a little bit of overlap. Even though this was written in the 50's, it's still a decent crime story with lots of nostalgic value.I don't have book #5 so will ta...

this will be the....3rd? 4th? mcbain story i've read....kindle....apparently it is the 5th....and all of them w/i the last year or two.starts out:everybody has a right to earn a living.that's the american way. you get out there and sweat, and you make a buck. and you invest that buck in lemons and sugar. the water and ice, you get free. you've got yourself a little lemonade stand by the side of the road, and pretty soon, you're pulling in five bucks a week.hoorah!and then the gov't comes and mes...

Steve Carella of the 87th Precinct is on the trail of a con man. His only clue is a tattoo on the hand of one of his victims. Ed McBain is a master of police procedural, mystery, urban noir, etc. His books are packed with cops and crooks, danger and downtime, and the city in all its sleaze and in all its glory. The Con Man is no exception. If you want a book that will keep you up all night because you can't put it down, look no farther (further?).

This is the fourth book in Ed McBain's famed 87th Precinct series and the one in which, it seems to me, he really finds his groove. By now, the major characters have all been introduced and we are comfortable with their back stories and personalities. Despite McBain's original intentions, Steve Carella has emerged as the first among equals in the lineup, and the series now has a "settled" feel to it.As the story opens, a con man is working the streets of Isola, McBain's fictional city where the

Several years ago Amazon put the 87th Precinct novels that have been released in kindle format on sale & I bought a ton of them. This is the second one I've read, and I primarily decided to delve into the backlist because I read a wikipedia article about Scandinavian Noir that suggested that one of the pioneering writers in that genre was influenced by McBain's 87th Precinct novels.Stylistically, these are very different from modern police procedurals, with very stripped down language and charac...

The 4th book in the 87th Precinct crime/detective series and my favourite so far. Didn't start off too well as it delved too deeply into details of procedure. I don't need to be told in great detail what the detective has to write in his report when a body is found. I'm also not that interested in knowing all the different methods of lifting fingerprints. If you can give me those details as part of the story then fine but paragraphs just listing them all is not the way to do it as it bores the r...

These early Ed McBain novels from the 1950s are now old enough to qualify almost as historical mysteries and the language and attitudes often seem staid, stilted, and outdated. Did policemen really used to talk like that? I remember watching reruns of "Dragnet" years after the series first ran and I seem to recall that Sgt. Joe Friday and his partner did, in fact, employ some of this terminology and exhibit some of those attitudes, so, yeah, I guess maybe they really did talk like that. In spite...

What's new? The always good Ed McBain writes a good book. What can you say that hasn't been said before. I can't think of anything, but it does create a problem for me. He wrote 55 books in this series, I've only read 4 and I'm 65 and I never read back to back books in the same series. So I have to go now cause I got some serious catching up to do.Damn bucket list items, whatever happened to the concept of a leisurely retirement?

This 4th entry in the 87th Precinct series again features Steve Carella & this time his deaf-mute wife Teddy plays a big part. While con men, big & small, are featured, this book is really a murder mystery at heart.

Countdown: Mid-20th Century North American Crime BOOK 247 (of 250)"Imagine your favorite 'Law and Order' cast solving fresh mysteries into infinity, with no re-runs, and you have some sense of McBain's grand, ongoing accomplishment," writes ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY on the back of the book cover/edition I read. I can only suppose they've read far into the series, as I'm just as book 4 and mystified by their popularity.HOOK - 1 stars: This novel opens with a 2-page description of the average working p...

Whether writing as Ed McBain or Evan Hunter, the author enjoyed great success for his inventive tales and fluent style. Time, though, has moved the police procedural genre a long way forward; the 87th Precinct series has period charm if you are kind or else feels simply dated.Having been a devotee many years ago, I cannot really believe that even then The Con Man was McBain at his best. He has a trick of setting a theme - the city in the rain, for example here - and then knocking off an easy rif...

The 87th have a run of floaters that set Steve Carella on the track of a con man and murderer, while Arthur Brown is hunting for a trickster that takes smaller sums from easy marks but is annoy when $5 is taken from a working girl. This is a simple easy to read detective novel that moves at a good pace and is consumed in two evenings. The series is now taking on some shape that gets you looking for the next edition.

A very good early (1957) 87th precinct novel featuring Carella and his beautiful wife, Teddy. Brown hunts down a con man low enough to steal $5.00 from a young girl while Carella is after a killer. Good procedurals, good action, good book. Recommended.

He snapped his fingers for the waiter, and while they waited for him to come to their table, she leaned over and whispered the three most expensive words in the English language."I love you."And he looked at her with tender guile and answered with the three cheapest words in the English language."I love you."Anyone can be a con man. Some do it for cash.You can remain a gentleman, pursue a life of romantic criminal adventure, see the world, meet a lot of nice people and drink a lot of cool drinks...

The Con Man by Ed McBain is the 4th book in his 87th Precinct cop series. It's a simple cop story relatively but at the same time for all of its simplicity, also very rich.Two crimes are being investigated by the detectives of the 87th Precinct. Arthur Brown, Det 2nd Grade, is looking into a pair of con men who are ripping off people. Det Steve Carella is investigating the discovery of a 'floater', the body of a woman found in the river, apparently murdered. I enjoy the process of the various in...

I have read two other books in Ed McBain's acclaimed "87th Precinct" books. I was in a bit of a book slump, so I thought I would check out "The Con Man", the 4th in the series. I like this series because it is realistic, the characters are usually likable, they are fast reads, and you can read them out of order. I especially like the older ones so far because it shows me a glimpse of what the police system was like in an urban area in the 1950's. It's a fun little blast to the past.In "The Con M...

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 Br...

This fourth book in the series firmly establishes Steve Carrella and his wife Teddy as primary characters as the 87th precinct deals with an influx of con artists, one of which is also a serial killer. McBain is a superb writer spinning dazzling descriptive prose while keeping the story taut and compelling. The killer is a fascinating character, both clever and repellant. I loved the striking third person narrative with multiple viewpoints that ratcheted up the suspense in a race against time as...

A good book. Two main stories for the 87th precinct in this one. Detective Arthur Brown is the lead detective on a hunt for a con man tricking anyone from a young girl of her last $5 and sophisticated businessmen for hundreds. Detective Steve Carella is the lead on the hunt for a man who is poisoning young women and dumping them in the river; the "floaters" are found weeks or months later, making them much harder to identify and subsequently harder to track down the killer. Carella's beautiful d...

Another interesting cop read, with Carella and co.