Book info

• Title Sadie When She Died
• Author Ed McBain
• Year 1972
• Genres Mystery, Thriller, Crime

Christmas is coming. But erudite attorney Gerry Fletcher got his present early: his wife’s body with a knife buried in it. Though he shamelessly cops to being happy she’s dead, his alibi is airtight and all signs point to a burglary gone bad. But even when detectives Steve Carella and Bert Kling follow the clues to a junky punk and get a full confession, Carella can’t quit thinking there’s something about the case that’s as phony as a sidewalk Santa’s beard. Maybe it’s because the victim’s husband wants to pal around with the suspicious cop on a cryptic pub-crawl through the urban jungle. Or maybe it’s the dead woman’s double identity and little black book full of secret lovers. Whether she was Sarah the shrewish wife or Sadie the sex-crazy swinger, there’s more to her murder than just a bad case of wrong place, wrong time. And Carella won’t rest till his cuffs are on the killer.

Thoughts

This was another fun entry in the 87th Precinct series, with a crime that initially seems solved but has a bigger story behind it. Only the hero, Steve Carella, is convinced that there’s more to the crime than first appears and he has to convince those around him to help him out. Meanwhile, the love lives of various detectives is also interwoven in the story, which is impressive because it’s not a particularly long book.

My favourite moments in the book are the dialogue, interrogations or listening back to the bugs put in various apartments and cars. It flows well and really gives you a sense of being there listening along.

Rating: 5 / 5