Evan Hunter Collectors Guide

HARK! It's a Lockdown Gift for you all! As so many of you are sorting & sharing images of your wonderful bookshelves & McBain collections (keep 'em coming!), the following link is to what is hopefully a *definitive* Evan Hunter/Ed McBain collectors guide.

Plus, there's a short biography of Hunter's life included. If anyone spots any omissions or amendments required, our contact details are on here. It's in PDF format (simply click the arrow to open the file in a new window and DOWNLOAD from there)

 

Hark! Solo-pod: Short Stories - Roger Lasagna?

Hark! It's an 87th Precinct Podcast bonus stopgap, er, thing...

Just so you don't go mad waiting to hear Paul's dulcet tones again, here's a short episode that takes a quick trek around his bookshelves looking at collections of short-stories he loves and then an examination of Ed McBain/Evan Hunter's story collections in a little more detail. We appreciate it's taken a little longer than usual to get round to the next 87th Precinct book, so this is offered by way of a little stopgap.

Featured in this episode particularly are the books THE RETURN OF MR CAMPION, written by Margery Allingham and published by Agora Books - a fine collection and THE DIMENSION SCALES by Garry Abbott.

We'll see you soon for Let's Hear It For The Deaf Man.

Ed McBain's Sadie When She Died - Episode 26: Played By An Ocelot

H*A*R*K It's an 87th Precinct podcast!

The year is 1972 and Gerald Fletcher has just come home to find his wife eviscerated on the bedroom floor and his apartment burglarised. Luckily the police catch the burglar. Case solved? Well, not quite. Carella becomes Columbo in this tale of identity, betrayal, lost and found (and lost again) loves at Christmas in the Eight-Seven. [This episode marked as 'Explicit' due to some of the words taken from this book...]

Paul, Morgan and Stevo discuss the book and take a look at what Evan Hunter was up to in 1972 in other areas and we relate some contemporary reviews of the novel as well. Our contextual chat about the year can be found in the upcoming bonus episode!

Thanks for your continued support. Please rate, review, listen and share. We love to get your contributions and comments. Also, if you're wondering what we're giggling about and saying the word "Neasden" for, please watch this Youtube clip of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

We'll see you again soon for the return of the 87th Precinct's arch-nemesis in "Let's Hear It For The Deaf Man". Fare Thee Well.

Ed McBain's Ax - Episode 18, Bonus: Chief Superintendent Strange Noise

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

Following on from our main episode discussion of Ed McBain's 1964 87th Precinct novel, Ax (or Axe, if you like), we take our usual dive into the editions we own and the original publications. In a shocking turn of events, Morgan reveals that his edition has re-awoken his dormant sense of smell. This is book huffing To The Max.

We then ruminate on matters such as what Crimey things we've been watching and reading, where you'd set a US adaptation of Inspector Morse, before the evening takes its toll and reduces us all to helpless idiots whilst Stevo attempts to perform another story from the "TRUE CRIME?" canon. Please, forgive us our indulgences!

Apologies, also, for the sound of loose-elbows hitting microphone boom arms. We'll list the books we've read/recommended on our blog/website. Join us next time in 1965 for "He Who Hesitates". Chop chop!

Ed McBain's Lady, Lady, I Did It! - Episode 14, Bonus: Novelty P*nis Frying Pan

Hark! It's an 87th Precinct Podcast bonus episode!

FULL DISCLOSURE - we suffered our first ever real technical problem during the recording of this episode, so part way through there's a brief music-snippet to paste over the join. We do 'fess up to it and we didn't lose too much, so it's all okay!

In our follow-up to the main podcast episode, we finally reveal the details about Stevo's idea for the show "Criminals and Little and Large"! With amazing skill, Morgan manages to tie our chatter about 1980s/90s British comedy Double Acts back into the world of Police Procedurals, so all's well that ends well.

We have a good bout of Book Huffing and explore the peculiar differences between two seemingly identical editions of Lady, Lady, I Did It! and throw in a bit of detail about the history of Bar Codes and the sorts of things that can crop up if you're not careful with your internet searches.

Join us again soon for the next book in the series, "The Empty Hours" (1962) and some other Hunter/McBain items! Please remember to rate, review, and share wherever you can. Thanks for your support!

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.