Lady Killer

by Ed McBain

Book Overview

Detective Hawes is on the trail of the man who wrote he was going to kill the lady at 8 that night.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451150821
• ISBN13: 9780451150820
• Release Date: April 1987
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 10 Pages
• Weight: 0.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Early, brilliant effort from the 87th Precinct

Ed McBain's long-running series of mystery novels spanned fifty years and over fifty books. Based in the fictional city of Isola (with its eerie similarities to New York), McBain's conscientious cops spent thousands of pages chasing down every sort of villainous behaviour. From 1956 to 2005, readers were introduced to serial killers, money laundering, granny dumping and more. One of the early ones, Lady Killer focuses entirely on Detectives Carella and Hawes. The two detectives receive a note that 'The Lady' will be killed tonight. With a city full of ladies to choose from, there's a lot of floundering about to be done. The book is a bit more procedural than most - the detectives tap their informants, brush up on fingerprinting, mull over some criminal psychology and even use a sketch artist. As a side effect, there's actually very little chance for the reader to solve the mystery themselves - instead, we're just along for the ride. There's also some entertaining nods to 1950's sensibilities involved. Hawes hits on everything in a skirt (or, more daringly, those ladies in pants). A good one.

LADY KILLER IS A KILLER BOOK!!!!!!

I don't know any one but McBain that could hold my attention in a book that last for only a one day period of time. He is so good. The 87th Precinct gets a note one morning saying The Lady will be killed that night at 8:00. What lady???? Who could the killer be and why? There are millions of people in the City, is it possible to find The Lady and the killer before the deadline? The usual bunch try their best, Bert Kling, Steve Carella, Cotton Hawes, Myer Myer and Hal Willis give it all they have. It is a very good book on the way good police procedure will win out. The book will hold your attention, you can feel like you are part of the action going on, you can see in your mind the sweat and concern as the dead line draws closer. It is not about blood, guts and gore but will be a very good fast mystery read for you. I am trying to read these in order, hard to find some of them but think it is worth the try.

Very intriging

This book kept me very much in suspense. I enjoyed it very much. I just couldn't put it down. I could not figure it out for anything