Ed McBain's King's Ransom - Episode 10: Worthy Of A Long Pause

**Hark! It’s the 87th Precinct Podcast! **

…and it’s our birthday! A year since we began putting the podcast together. Have some cake!

It was a little longer ago (about 58 years longer) when Ed McBain’s “King’s Ransom” was released, the tenth of the 87th Precinct mysteries, and the last to be published in the 1950s. In this episode we look at McBain’s moral compass, propose a theory about P G Wodehouse and contemplate the voice of grief-weasel Adrian Score. It’s such a good book, we’re not even that silly! Don’t worry, because there’s lots more stuff to come. 

There's some true crime comparison, some more chat about The Bill and plenty of Columbo comparisons scattered throughout.

Thanks for listening. Please take the time to like/rate/review on whatever podcast app you use, as it will really help us to extend the reach of our McBain fandom.

See you soon for “Give The Boys A Great Big Hand”

The "Real World" 87th precinct

Did you know there was once an actual 87th Precinct in NYC? McBain's books take place in a fictionalised equivalent of Manhattan ("Isola"), but in the real world the 87th Precinct was based on the corner of Humboldt and Herbert in Brooklyn.

The station house is now condos. Originally built in 1891 in the days when stables for horses needed to be incorporated into the design of the precinct houses.

There were proposals to close the precinct for quite some time. News reports from 1954 and 1971 show community protests against the proposed closures. Clearly the precinct was important to the community. An article from the Greenpoint Weekly Star in 1967 reports on the final day of the precinct's "Village Art Exhibition".

Sadly, the '71 protests didn't prevent the precinct from closing, merging - along with the 92nd Precinct - into the 90th Precinct which still operates out of 211 Union Avenue.