Friday 27 April 2018

Ed McBain's Lady, Lady, I Did It! - Episode 14: Relatively Politely Spoken Flautist

Hark! It's the 87th Precinct Podcast!
The year is 1961. 87th Precinct fans have had to wait an entire year since their last fix and they're desperate for another story - McBain finally provides them with the 14th novel in the series, the brutal and heartbreaking Lady, Lady, I Did It!
Join us for our usual mix of book-review and contextual-chatter (sorry, there's quite a bit of preamble this time!), as we discover all about what was going on around the world in music, TV and politics. Listen whilst Paul relates some communication from Hunter's literary agent Jane Gelfman (thanks, Jane!) and try not to get fed up with us as we mention the Carry On... films yet again.
Thanks for listening and please, as always, share on social media, rate and review in your podcast apps and feel free to send us messages on FB, Twitter, Insta or email (hark87podcast@gmail.com). Join us soon for a bonus episode and then get reading the collection of novellas, The Empty Hours (1962). Fare thee well!

Monday 23 April 2018

Book List Update

I wish this was a post saying there was a new or long-lost 87th Precinct story coming out, but sadly not. However, it is a post to say that we've updated the book list here to include the several short-stories and novellas about the 87th Precinct that were released in some form or other in the latter years of the series. 

Also included is the link (legitimate!) to the story Ed wrote for the BBC 'End Of Story' competition. The idea was that established authors would write short stories without an ending and submissions would be made by unpublished writers. The best would be picked by the author themselves. McBain also wrote an ending and this is the version linked to on the book list.

In regard to the numbering system, I've chosen to add them as 'sub' numbers (i.e. 48a, rather than making it 49) to more accurately express their place alongside the main body of 87th Precinct stories. The scholar Ted Bergman, who we have to thank for so much good 87th Precinct research, used the other system, but I think it's generally considered that we have 55 actual published 87th Precinct stories (including the Christmas novella), so anything additional to that is a bonus. 

Wednesday 4 April 2018

Ed McBain's See Them Die - Episode 13, Bonus: A Papier-mâché Inspector Morse

Hark! It's an 87th Precinct Podcast Bonus Episode


I mean, we do talk a bit about McBain in this rather silly appendix to our main podcast. Stevo, of course, provides us with the results of his book-huffing and we delve deep into the sorts of books you could get from the discount mail-order shops advertising in the NYT in 1962. 


We also, as usual, retread some "Carry On..." ground and hark back to the days of the kids TV magazine show "How?", just in case you've not go enough UK emphera inside your heads. With a nod to the podcast, The Five By, we speculate on how you could turn the world of the 87th Precinct into a board game. 

Oh, and Melvyn Bragg pops by to tell us some more about 'In Our Time'.

See you soon for "Lady, Lady I Did It!". Please like, rate, review and share wherever you can, ta!