Book info

• Title Lady Killer
• Author Ed McBain
• Year 1958
• Genre Mystery

'I will kill the Lady tonight at 8. What can you do about it?' This is the message on a pasted-up letter handed to Desk Sergeant Dave Murchison at 8:00 a.m. The detectives at the 87th Precinct have gotten these types of threats before, but there’s something different about this one. Something ominous. Problem is, the city contains millions of women—finding the right one in twelve hours is like finding a needle in a haystack. Detectives Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes go down the list of likely suspects but in a city this big, it's a best-guess scenario. And with the clock ticking and no other leads, guessing is the only card they have to play. All they need is one break—or they won’t get a second chance.

Thoughts

I’ve been working my way through the 87th Precinct series, but slightly read this one out of order, missing the previous book. Regardless, they can be read perfectly well in their own right, and this one was a great entry to the series. The police department receives a warning about a murder that will take place later in they day, giving them a ticking clock to find out whether the letter is real, and who the perpetrator (and the victim!) is going to be.

It was good fun following the twists and turns of the detectives as they followed various leads and stumbled across plenty of dead ends. Considering they didn’t have very much to go on, it was eye-opening to see how they managed to get to the end result.

Enjoyable read, short as always, and now I just have to go back and catch up the one I missed.

Rating: 4 / 5