Bread

by Ed McBain

Book Overview

The summer heat is sweltering. Tempers are rising. When the watchman in a warehouse filled with imported wooden figurines dies with a bullet to his head, the cops of the 87th Precinct are called in--but the case doesn't end there. A fatal hunger for "bread" seems to be spreading throughout the city as a hooker loses her life in the quest for dough. Money is lost in a warehouse fire. Cash is flying in a slum redevelopment deal. And what the cops find behind a tale of fire and money is murder--and lots of it.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380703688
• ISBN13: 9780380703685
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Probably the Best McBain up to this Point (1975)

"Bread" is the 29th installment of the "87th Precinct" novel series, and maybe the best up to this point. Not only are we given a great story (yes there is only one in this book) but we are also introduced to one of McBain's best characters, Oliver "Fat Ollie" Weeks of the 83rd in the Diamondback district. Ollie is only slightly about Parker in the hygiene department and can match him BO to BO on any day. Ollie though is a good detective, but with the mouth of a bigot who doesn't understand why some people are upset by the way he talks and acts and smells. The story starts with an arson investigation, then leads to another arson and then two murders and the beating of a woman. Involved are a group of business partners who add new meaning to the expression 'cya'. They are so busy double dealing and trying to screw each other that even they lose track of who's doing what to who. It's a great story and much more realistic and believable then the "Deaf Man" stories. I'm looking forward to more of "Fat Ollie". Zeb Kantrowitz

sizzling

McBain captures the tense relationships of city life in "Bread." The heroes and the villians are equally memorable characters. McBain provides it all: humor, suspense, and action all in perfectly written prose.