Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here!

87th Precinct #25

by Ed McBain

There are 186 patrolmen and a handful of detectives in the 87th Precinct, but it's never quite enough. Because between petty crimes and major felonies, between crimes of hate and crimes of passion, the city never sleeps -- and for these cops, a day never ends...

The night shift has a murdered go-go dancer, a firebombed black church, a house full of ghosts, and a mother trying to get her twenty-two year-old to come home. The day shift: a naked hippie lying smashed on the concrete, two murderous armed robbers in Halloween masks, and a man beaten senseless by four guys using sawed-off broom handles. Altogether, it's a day in the life. But for a certain cop in the 87th Precinct, it could just be his last...

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Detective, Procedural, Mystery Thriller, Police

196 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

"Ed McBain" is one of the pen names of American author and screenwriter Salvatore Albert Lombino (1926-2005), who legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952.

While successful and well known as Evan Hunter, he was even better known as Ed McBain, a name he used for most of his crime fiction, beginning in 1956.

He also used the pen names John Abbott, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon, Dean Hudson, Evan Hunter, and Richard Marsten.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Halloween is weeks away, but many of the citizens of Isola are behaving like monsters now, perpetrating murders, beatings, robberies, and a church bombing. And, in the spirit of the season, Meyer Meyer even gets to turn paranormal investigator to nab a duo of thieving apparitions. It's going to take a village, or at least an entire squad of detectives, to solve this autumnal crime wave.

Too much is the basic problem here. While it's true that some of the many cases are more interesting than others, EVERYTHING seems rushed, and none of the detective's personalities are allowed to shine through. Hopefully the next in the series will feature fewer crimes, and more of the camaraderie between the bulls.

[James Thane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This, the twenty-fifth entry in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series, is a bit unusual. It basically chronicles a day in the life of the detectives in the precinct, beginning at midnight and running through to the following midnight.

All the familiar characters that McBain has introduced into the squad put in an appearance, each of them investigating a case that is both introduced and wrapped up within the twenty-four-hour cycle. None of the cases is particularly suspenseful, and the sum of them certainly does not add up to the "ferociously intense novel" promised in the cover blurb.

It's an OK read, but it's certainly not one of the better books in the series and it's one that could safely be avoided by all but the most compulsive fans of the 87th Precinct.

[Jonfaith · Rating 2 out of 5]

A prominent theme in this procedural is that time moves forward, distinctions like dates are illusory and often misleading. If detectives in mysterious are philosophers then the detectives in procedurals are technicians tending to repairs. The city in the 1970s was a gritty milieu.

I appreciated the overlapping plots but six in a two hundred page endeavor requires brief arcs and the imbrication mere flourishing amidst such spare detail.
It was -2F this morning and apparently the world is continuing its parade of self immolation. I feared I was missing out on the noir element especially the procedural. It isn’t a regret but not exactly the best use of a home bound sabbath.

McBain gives us 24 hours in a precinct with the emphasis on the homicide division. There are murders, poltergeists and racially motivated terrorists. All of which align with the headlines of this frozen Sunday in 2025. It wasn’t bad but improbably condensed.

[Kev Ruiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

★★★★

"Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here!" is one of those occasional 87th Precinct novels where Ed McBain uses the series to shift away from the usual formula. This time, the story takes a ‘day in the life’ approach, following the detectives over a single, continuous 24-hour period inside the precinct. Split into a Nightwatch and Daywatch, with no chapters and fourteen separate cases unfolding as officers clock in and out, it gives a clear sense of how the place operates.

The format works well in showing the steady, unpredictable flow of police work. Serious cases come in alongside the everyday and the absurd. A church bombing and a dancer’s murder sit next to stolen fur coats, missing person reports and the routine disturbances that fill out a shift. McBain uses the set-up to good effect, giving space to a wider section of the cast and pairing up characters who don’t usually work together. It captures the sense of a working precinct where everyone’s day overlaps with someone else’s.

The drawback is the sheer number of cases. With fourteen separate investigations and no central thread tying them together, the book can feel scattered. So many characters moving in and out makes it difficult to keep track, and the pacing shifts unevenly throughout. The lack of chapters adds to the restless quality. It might reflect the atmosphere McBain wanted to portray, but the result is a reading experience that sometimes feels cluttered.

Still, it remains an interesting and enjoyable one-off. It brought to mind those TV episodes where a show steps outside its usual structure for a day-in-the-life story to focus on character and routine. As a change of pace it works, though it is a format better used sparingly. The series benefits from a central case to give it focus.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really two and a half stars. The story follows cases that all of the detectives in the 87th precinct are covering, both the day shift and the night shift, for 24 hours. Because there were so many cases, not much time is spent with most of them and it really feels more like individual short stories than one single novel.

The writing wasn't bad, but sometimes it was challenging to keep all of the individual cases straight. (They weren't solved in a linear fashion, so you'd read a little about a case, skip to another, then return to the first case.) This book is probably just for fans of the series who really want to read every book. It's not horrible, but there are better books in the series to read.

[Colin Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following a couple of not so good books a return to the 87th restores my equilibrium. In this one, number 25, the title says it all as this is a compendium of the the precincts detectives taken over a night and a day. It all starts out with a stabbing in an alleyway outside of a theatre stage door and Carella and Hawes set out to track the perpetrator. The night moves on as Meyer Meyer seeks out a ghost while Kling seeks out and shoots a bomber of a street side church. A woman is brought in confessing to chopping up her husband and children. That's just the night time. Day brings even more action with a detective shot and a young man dead after falling through a window, all is condensed in this slim volume. Great stuff.

Fast and remorseless action that is just right for an evenings reading.

4 stars

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was again a slightly different format from the norm. Rather than chapters, this book is split into two halves. Each half deals with one shift of the 87th Precinct. The first one deals with the night shift and the second the day shift that starts at 8am. During each shift, there are numerous crimes that need investigating and the detectives mostly split into pairs to track down leads.

Because of this unusual format/story line all of the 87th Detectives get some page time. Considering that the whole book was just under 200 pages it's amazing how tight the story was with each small case getting adequate details. I don't think there was a single sentence of fluff in the whole book and many modern authors could take hints from this style.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A day in the life of the 87th Precinct's detectives; twenty-four hours with the two working detective shifts. The title is pretty indicative; every major character is here, as well as a number of minor ones, each working on various cases that crop up: a possible murder/possible suicide, a brutal beating, a mugged marine, racial tensions, a murdered girl, a runaway daughter, "ghosts" walking off with valuables, hippies and drug busts.

Unlike most other 87th novels, with one main plot and one or two secondary cases, this one is just awash in smaller ones. The cases are short and interspersed, like a web of short stories, which made the narrative choppy---but that was part of the point. And they're a bit contrived, since almost all of the cases are solved on the same shift they started on---extreme time dilution. But the strongest 87th novels work because of their strong, developed characters, their tense and mysterious cases, and McBain's hand at cunning dialogue and strong prose. And all of those are very well developed here, making Hail, Hail an iconic hodge-podge of everything good about this series.

I really enjoyed this one, and it's one of the best entries in the series I've read so far. A great starting point if you want to get into the 87th Precinct series, as well as an excellent read for devoted fans.

Full review found here.

[Stephen Snead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dated, but good beach read or if you like police procedural stories.

First published way back but, Ed Mcbain (Evan Hunter) was a master and student of the everyday doings of the police. This is a very fast and light read. Just a day in the life. Cases are solved quickly. Men are men and the women are glad of it. ;-) In the days of phone booths instead of cell phones. Newspapers instead of google. Holds up well. One scene has a detective checking the coin slot to see if his dime came back. I had forgotten about doing that. :-) Looking for a deep read? This ain't it. Looking for a good quick bit of old time Adam Twelve type stories or Dragnet? Enjoy.

[Sandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book follows the entire squad of the 87th Precinct through one extremely busy day. I liked this different approach and found it quite readable.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable "day in the life" look at police investigators. From the mid-1970's, McBain's book shows a whole detective squad at work dealing with murders, robberies, and other mayhem. McBain writes in very flat, matter of fact way. If this book were a show, it could only be done in black and white. The author's skill in just letting the action tell the story is better than average and McBain is a lot closer to Hemingway than he is to Chandler or Hammett. The setting is a fictional major city, which frees the reader from trying to identify locales that he may be familiar with. I'm already into my next 87th precinct book.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is (literally) a "day in the life" of the 87th Precinct. Taking place over a 24 hour period, all of our favorite detectives are chasing down their particular cases with each one neatly brought to a conclusion by days end. This book was like a dozen Law & Order episodes rolled into one novel. I liked it.

[Tom Stamper · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot happening in this one. Several cases and all the regular detectives are mentioned. It bounces around a lot and I lost my place after taking a few days off from reading. Try to read it in one sitting or over two days. I would have enjoyed it better that way. The moment to moment situations are quite good and the detective work is educational. Having been written in 1968, the language is getting saltier and it seems the descriptions more graphic.

[John Biddle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read. Lots of action on 7 different cases by the detectives of the 87th Precinct. Ed McBain's a master of these stories and I've enjoyed all I've read. He practically invented the police procedural, probably my favorite type of crime novel. As with all the others, I listened to this as an audiobook read by Dick Hill, not my favorite reader, he's a little too enthusiastic too much of the time.

Anyway, Recommended.

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not one plot, but multiple crimes over a 24 hour period, involving the whole Precinct - great police procedural

[Doris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ed McBain (Evan Hunter) was an author who created the police procedural, and for fifty years produced books in his fictional city of Isola, which always feels like Chicago to me. Here, in the 25th book in the 87th Precinct series, we come together with Detectives Steve Carella, Arthur Brown, and a few others as they work multiple cases throughout the day, pulling on resources as needed.

Unlike many tv shows, the squad doesn't work just one case. They have murders, cop killers, possible suicides, ghosts, and drug dealers winding through the story as they make their rounds through the day in Isola. One of the cases, which involves the attempted killing of a cop, forces the recall to duty of multiple people who should be off duty, which really rang true.

The story itself is dated, obvious in the language, the views of the people, and the equipment available (typewriters and corner telephone booths!).

Note: this review is only for this one version, but applies equally to the various versions I have read.

One thing that saddened me to read was an attempted bombing, because it seemed like it could have been lifted straight from a recent paper. This was especially sad since the copyright date is 1971, so in nearly 50 years we as Americans still haven't learned to get along.

The masterpiece that is this series though will never get old, because even if the equipment, the slang and the clothing changes, the attitudes and the atmosphere does not.

Excellent!

[Rose]

*Review from 2008, reread 2010*
This suffered a bit from being listened to in chunks spread over time, because there were lots of different crimes and investigations going on, and it was easy to forget quite what was happening. Even under ideal conditions, I don't think it would be my favourite 87th Precinct book, but it's entertaining enough with some funny moments (like the old man trying to get two girls arrested for hooking, and their responses to everything he says).

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stories, just not outstanding compared to others in the series. Dead guy - did he jump or was he pushed? Cop is attacked. A couple of hustlers mug a marine.

[Mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one of McBain’s series is exactly like an ensemble television show about a police precinct, with three or for stories involving a bunch of characters. It’s a good pastime, but that’s all.

[Jason McCracken · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first in the series that didn’t hold my interest. It’s just a bunch of unconnected cases that are too easily solved.

[Shuan Rose]

One of the better 87th Precinct books.

All the best of the early 87th. All in one day. Action from the beginning to the end. If you like the 87th, you'll like this.

[Keith Astbury · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every now again you come across an 87th Precinct book where you feel that Ed McBain is experimenting with his well-versed format a little. And this is one such book...

Rather than being one long continuous novel, Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here! is a game of two halfs. The first deals with the nightshift, the second the following day. And within those two parts there are a number of different stories, so really what you are reading is a collection of interwoven short stories. But whilst it's pretty enjoyable as you would expect, it is hardly one of the finest works in this long running series.

[Dave Hogg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The point of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels was that the city and the police force were the heroes, not any particular cop. (This changed from time to time due to his publisher's whims, as recounted in his hilarious forewards to several of the books.)

This book, though, had so much going on that everything blended together. That was the point, in a lot of ways, but it got confusing in parts. Still, the worst 87th Precinct book is going to be a fun read.

[Chad Malkamaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good tale set with the good guys protecting Isola from murders, thieves, junkies, and roughnecks. On a crazy couple of days in October the men in blue have several cases that have them running all over the city. With brief mentions of Dawes and Meyer, this addition to the series has some of the newer names in the 87th taking center stage to fish out the crime and keep the bad guys at bay.

[Nik Maack · Rating 4 out of 5]

McBain writes short books. Dense books. This book is two stories. Way too much is going on. That's kind of the point, I suppose. Look at the busy lives of cops. But so much is going on I'd put down the book, pick it up later, and I had no idea what I was reading.

Still, the stories are fun. The plots are intriguing. The dialogue is great. I just had to trust McBsin to reorient me and he usually did.

Fun. Forgettable. Intense while you're there. McBain's books are somewhat like candy.

[Thalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've read a book like this one..it reminded me how much I love them. I gave it 3 stars cause the the stories were just narrated without any mystery or suspense!otherwise a very enjoyable reading ...

[Booknerd Fraser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I can see why he was the King of the police procedural. This *almost* a short story collection, as it consists of a number of short crime stories involving the detectives of the 87th Precinct, broken up into night shift and day shifts. Well-characterized, pithy, zippy, with good action.

[wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

six thirty three pee em the 18th of march sunday evening, later afternoon, finished, good read three stars or four i liked it kindle owned another from mcbain. two...was it? two stories in one, or was it three? an entertaining read.

[Mike O'connell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Ed McBain 87th Precinct mystery but it won't be my last. Very fast and entertaining.

[Skip · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fairly weak effort. A series of unconnected cases, being worked on and solved by the 87th Street Precinct bulls. The main case is the shooting of Parker, whom nobody liked much anyway.