Killer's Payoff

87th Precinct #6

by Ed McBain

He appeared to be a decent, upright, honest citizen.... And yet appearances can be more than deceiving in the world of blackmail and extortion. The shocking gangland-style murder of known blackmailer Sy Kramer begs the question: which of Kramer's marks had given him his very last payoff? A politician's beautiful wife with a deadly secret? An overly interested ex-con? A wealthy soft-drinks executive? Or the mystery person who had fattened Kramer's wallet by the thousands? The detectives of the 87th Precinct must break the chain that links the dead man's associates and single out a killer -- before someone else cashes it in.

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

157 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

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 4 out of 5]

When a blackmailer is shot dead on the street, there are suspects aplenty. Turns out, the recently departed swindler was bilking quite a few people with threats to expose their deep dark secrets and shameful photographs.

The detectives of the 87th once again rely on good-old-fashioned police work to solve this crime. From unproductive phone calls to face-to-face interviews with suspects and witnesses, it's time consuming, tedious work...except when several of the interviewees turn out to be female and astonishingly attractive. Precinct stud, Cotton Hawes, scores so many times I lost count.

This is another solid entry in the series.

My favorite part?

One bit of evidence is a service station receipt from 1957.
16 gallons of gas? $5.84

I dropped the book, I was laughing so hard.

[James Thane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another solid early entry in McBain's 87th Precinct series. At this point in the series, McBain was still grooming the character of Cotton Hawes to be a major player on the 87th Precinct's team of detectives and much of the book focuses on him. In particular, McBain was under instruction to make Hawes especially attractive to females, and so Hawes has several opportunities to display his talents in this regard.

A blackmailer named Sy Kramer is gunned down in the street, apparently by an expert marksman. The detectives examine Kramer's bank statements and then try to trace the source of his income back to his victims. If they can identify the blackmailer's victims, they will have a list of people with a great motive to silence Kramer.

The investigation also reveals that Kramer recently took a hunting trip to an exclusive lodge and got into an argument with another of the guests who has mysteriously disappeared. This provides another avenue of exploration and all of these developments will lead to a climax that could prove deadly for one of the investigating detectives.

All in all, this is a quick, fun read that will be appreciated by any of the fans of this series.

[Luffy Sempai · Rating 2 out of 5]

With this 6th book resuming its above 100 pages volume, there were many needless sentences. This was a book with a lot happening, yet it was all boring stuff. I had the feeling that the writer was of the ghostly persuasion. The writer did not seem to love his work. The ending was typical of the book, namely an exciting premise with mediocre pacing.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The guys at the 87th Precinct have a proper little mystery on their hands when serial blackmailer Sy Kramer gets blown away in a drive-by shooting. They find there are no shortage of suspects.
My copy of Killer's Payoff had a fascinating introduction by the author in which he is fairly scathing of the outside pressures put upon him by publishing execs because they felt the series needed a boost. Cotton Hawes, introduced in the previous book, was forced upon him because the powers that be decided Steve Carella couldn't be a proper hero because he was married. McBain/Hunter went along with it but was uncomfortable with moving away from his initial concept, that of a sort of gestalt hero embodied by an ever changing squad room. No single guy should be the hero. Cotton Hawes comes along and he's tall, young, handsome and most importantly... single. And he has a penchant for striking out on his own in a pulpy P.I. way. McBain was making very little for the paperbacks at the time compared to some of his big successes like Blackboard Jungle but he was enjoying the ride anyway and determined to keep his publishers on board with Cotton but to somehow bring him more in line with the original 87th Precinct ethos. He ends his intro, as so many Cotton Hawes chapters do, with the line.... 'And so to bed'.

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Μια σφαίρα για τον εκβιαστή", εκδόσεις Bell.

Χρονολογικά πρόκειται για την έκτη ιστορία στην σειρά του 87ου Αστυνομικού Τμήματος, η οποία έκανε ιδιαίτερα γνωστό τον πολύ καλό αυτό συγγραφέα. Τελευταία φορά που διάβασα βιβλίο της σειράς αυτής ήταν τον Ιανουάριο του 2015 και η αλήθεια είναι ότι μου έλειψαν οι χαρακτήρες και ο κόσμος τους, καθώς φυσικά και η γραφή του Μακμπέιν.

Λένε ότι ομάδα που κερδίζει δεν αλλάζει, κάτι που γενικά ισχύει, έτσι και εδώ το ύφος της ιστορίας, η γραφή, η ρεαλιστικότητα, το χιούμορ, όλα αυτά τα καλούδια τέλος πάντων, παραμένουν στο ίδιο καλό επίπεδο ποιότητας. Ένας εκβιαστής, ονόματι Σάι Κράμερ, πέφτει νεκρός έπειτα από πυροβολισμό που δέχτηκε στο πρόσωπο από ένα διερχόμενο αυτοκίνητο. Ο Κράμερ ήταν ένας απατεώνας που εκβίαζε κόσμο, έχοντας στα χέρια του διάφορα μυστικά για διάφορους ανθρώπους. Όλο και κάποιος από αυτούς θα βαρέθηκε να τον πληρώνει κάθε μήνα, είπε "αρκετά πια", και τον καθάρισε. Οι αστυνομικοί του 87ου Τμήματος καλούνται να βρουν αυτόν τον κάποιο. Το έργο τους μόνο εύκολο δεν θα είναι...

Κλασικά, ωραία ιστορία, με δράση, μυστήριο και εκπλήξεις, έντονος ρεαλισμός, ωραίες περιγραφές των αστυνομικών διαδικασιών, του κόσμου του εγκλήματος, των σκηνικών και των χαρακτήρων, εξαιρετικά αληθοφανείς και φυσικοί διάλογοι, μπόλικο χιούμορ, γαμάτη ατμόσφαιρα. Είπαμε, ο Μακμπέιν είναι άρχοντας στο είδος που γράφει, ξέρει πως να πει μια ωραία και ξεκούραστη ιστορία που να προσφέρει ψυχαγωγία.

[Jason McCracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being fairly hard-boiled procedurals these novels have developed an odd sort of light-heartedness in the writing as the series has progressed. It works for me.

And once again the introduction detailing the continuing battle between author and publisher steals the show.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awhile ago my friend asked me to recommend some good mystery series that take place in New York. Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series was the first thing that popped into my mind. While the series takes place in a fictional city called "Isola," it's New York City through and through. McBain essentially rotated a map of Manhattan, the outer boroughs, Long Island, and New Jersey 90 degrees and renamed everything. If you're familiar with New York, you'll immediately be able to identify each place he's writing about. If you're not, it's not a problem. You'll still enjoy this series if you like mysteries and police procedurals.

This is the second book in the series to feature detective Cotton Hawes, and like the last one, there are too many scenes in which he operates on his own, beds many lovely ladies, and gets out of a jam on his own. With the focus on Hawes, it's too much like a James Bond novel or a hard-boiled P.I. story. I like it better when the detectives of the 87th Precinct go through their thankless tasks in pairs or as a group.

But that's a minor complaint. Killer's Payoff, which is about a murdered blackmailer, is another solid, fun-to-read entry in the series. The mystery here is a little better than in some of the previous entries, and the police work is still depicted well. One of my favorite things about McBain is his ability to write lines and lines of unattributed dialogue in which there's never any confusion about who's speaking. Picture one of those scenes from a black & white movie in which a couple of tough cops grill a suspect sweating in a cramped interrogation room and you'll get the idea. Here's an example:

"I didn't follow nobody any night."
"You followed me and hit me. Why?"
"I hit you? Don't be ridiculous."
"Where are the pictures?"
"I don't know anything about pictures."
"Were you and Kramer partners?"
"We were friends."
"Did you kill him to get him out of the set-up?"
"Kill him? Holy Jesus, don't tie me into that rap!"
"Which rap do you want? We've got a lot of them."
"I had nothing to do with the Kramer kill. So help me Jesus."
"We can make it look pretty good."
"You ain't got a chance."
"Haven't we? Try us. What'll you go for? Extortion or homicide?"

And so on. Highly recommended, as always.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A blackmailer is shot dead. Who killed him? Three suspects are immediately identified and Detective Cotton Hawes investigates seducing several women along the way. Very odd misogynistic attitudes in the 1950s.

The story is good with some excellent red herrings and when the murderer is revealed it is not what I expected. Excellent twist. McBain is building up the different characters in each story and he does it well. Meyer Meyer, Steve Carella and his deaf wife and the many others.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Hawes sets a record rap for the murderer. However, all three of the suspects are the murderers and turn up. They were being blackmailed by the murder victim. He had seen them accidentally shoot someone in a hunting accident and then hide the body. Hawes manages to subdue the three men and arrests them.

[Deb Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

McBain writes with a good grasp of basic human nature, making his characters believable and interesting whether they be the protagonists, the suspects, or the characters peripheral to the story. There is no outright humor in these books, but McBain has a way of writing that brings a smile now and then.

Written in 1950s America, the world moved more slowly without the Internet and instant communication, but crime keeps the detectives of the 87th Precinct busy all the same. This time, the investigation is of an apparent mob-type murder of a known blackmailer. Whether the guy had it coming or not, it's still a homicide that needs to be solved. Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes work this one with some help from their fellow detectives.

[Colin Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am well into this series now. A blackmailer, Sy Kramer is shot dead with a hunting rifle as he walks along the street. The killing leads Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes to the discovery of a hunting trip gone wrong and a trail of Kramer's victims. Hawes leads the way but finds himself in danger at the end as he closes in on the perpetrators.

The novel is slick and without any frills. The detectives of the 87th race through the clues. Plenty of action in this one. Good straightforward escapism!

[Joe Nicholl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Killer's Payoff (1958) by Ed McBain is Book 6 of the 87th Precinct Mysteries. I thought it was a pretty good read and found it to be the first of the series to feature the mystery predominately over the usual police procedural. The mystery portion of the story-telling was strong as it kept the reader in suspense right up to the final couple of pages. It's a worthy 'who-done-it'! The case follows Detective Cotton Hawes as he investigates the drive-by shooting of arrogant blackmailer Sy Kramer. Could Kramer's murderer be a victim he was blackmailing, or, possibly a member of his hunting group? A number of worthy suspects leaves you guessing...I must add though there's one stylistic change in the writing that stuck out like a sore thumb was McBain's introduction of sex to his story-telling. Character Hawes, who first appeared in Book 5 is apparently the young stud of the 87th Precinct. In Killer's Payoff he beds three different woman in the book, those being characters Mary O'Hara, Polly, and Alice Lossing. I'm not being a prude here, I just found each escapade came off like a dull 'thud' and added nothing to the story-line. Who knows, maybe McBain was told to spice it up by his publisher to keep pace with Mike Hammer and the pulps....So, the story telling in Killer's Payoff was overall very good except Hawes unneeded conquest of some female companionship....3.5 outta 5.0...I'll round it off to a 4.0...

[Kev Ruiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Really enjoyed Killer's Payoff. The move to one mystery worked well, making the story more focused and suspenseful. McBain’s knack for weaving societal issues into the background adds depth, and the writing is smooth, with great pacing.

Cotton Hawes is still not very well developed, and his romantic entanglements felt excessive—likely an attempt to build him up as a lead, but it didn’t quite convince me. I also missed Carella taking the spotlight. That said, it’s only Cotton’s second outing, so there’s time for growth.

A solid, engaging read—definitely worth picking up!

[Rob Smith, Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a while since I visited the 87th Precinct. About 20 years. That visit I didn't like. This one I do.

Being a strict procedural, this book is never boring. The structure of the plot is perfect to scatter elements of the story for the police officers to track and assemble theories and answers. McBain uses many literary tricks sprinkled throughout to draw the reader in and through the tale.

Establishing the characters is done mostly through actions and less narrative. Writers ability to do this takes a great deal of focus and organization to do this in various parts of a book that can add up to a completing profile by the reader. This is a crackerjack job.

The settings are also extremely well written as both urban and rural and wooded areas are all part of the story. McBain is weakest describing the outdoor areas. I love how McBain can write of various structures in the city he created and each have a separate distinction. So very impressive.

Sadly, there was an obvious and required move to be made by the police that wasn't written in. That told me what had happened early in the book and I knew eventually where the story would end up.

Bottom line: i recommend this book. 8 out of ten points.

Update: Re-read as I’m now reading the lot in order. Odd that I remember reading the 3 before this, but barely remember reading this one more recently, save part of the ending.
Otherwise, I stand by my earlier review.

[Vladimir Ivanov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Роман построен на блестящей идее - из окна мчащегося автомобиля застрелен не простой парень с улицы, а матерый шантажист. В результате сыщики из 87 участка вынуждены иметь дело не с одиночным убийством, а с целым букетом преступлений и пороков общества. В неполные сто пятьдесят страниц умещается такое количество персонажей, событий и тайн, что другому автору хватило бы на несколько толстых томов.

Финальный сюжетный твист выполнен с реверансом в сторону г-жи Кристи. Вероятно, это сделано сознательно, книгу совсем не портит.

Характеры, диалоги, юмор, полицейская рутина, социальный комментарий - все на высшем уровне, как всегда у Макбейна.

8/10

[Cyn McDonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've given it a couple of tries and 87th Precinct is not my cup of coffee. The story is fine, and it is actually nice to read about ordinary detectives, but the guy who jumps into bed with any random woman he happens to like a little bit -- and they actually encourage him -- is, well, dated sensibility at best.

[Laura Gooch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good

Old school story set in an old school precinct, has a lot of character and great for anyone looking for a bones deep crime novel.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Killer's Payoff" (1959) begins when a happy citizen walking the downtown streets of Isola is shot, not in the usual manner we see in big city street crime but in an odder way, a car having pulled over near the victim and shooting him dead with a high-powered hunting rifle at almost comically close range. The victim is known to the detectives of the 87th Precinct as a blackmailer and extortionist, so they start looking at the victim's marks when drawing up their initial murder suspect list.

As the bulls work through the group of suspects they hit more dead ends than leads, crossing off alibis and motives for the obvious suspects, and even leave town a few times to interview folks in the countryside, trying to build a history for the victim and the suspects.

While the mystery is interesting, just the fact that this is a blackmail story is less dramatic now; secrets wished to be held to protect reputations are a little overdone in crime fiction and are usually not that big a deal in the grand scheme of everyday life now.

Verdict: A fun whodunit detective-style installment of the usually police-procedure heavy 87th precinct series, "Killer's Payoff" is smart and well-paced but does not work as well as the gritty street crime investigations we've seen in the series so far.

Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Killer’s Payoff, the 6th entry in Ed McBain’s wonderful 87th Precinct series, is a quick and entertaining read. An interesting fact is that an executive at McBain’s publisher was pressuring him to kill off the character of Steve Carella and provide an unmarried, strong male character with whom men would identify and women fall in love. Thankfully, McBain ignored the executive’s first wish, and still managed to assuage him with a character called Cotton Hawes, who figures prominently in this book.

The storyline is rather singular and linear, focusing on just one case— the mysterious murder of a blackmailer. Much of the book is devoted to chasing down possible victims of the deceased blackmailer to see if any of them might have decided to end the payoffs with a bullet.

Along the way, Cotton wields his charms on more than one female, apparently fulfilling the publisher’s wishes in this regard.

This is a well written police procedural, a product of the times, and hampered by only a few weaknesses, the greatest of which is the lack of other cases being worked by the ensemble cast of memorable characters inhabiting the Precinct.

3.5 Stars rounded up for McBain’s outstanding knack for dialogue.

[Gav451 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really solid and fun little mystery. You can tell that one of the characters is being pushed a little too hard as a lothario and according to the author's introduction this was at the insistence of the publishers. As you read the book his is clear because he is just not quite as well rounded as the others in the group.

Hes not a bad character and I'm hoping the author was eventually given free reign to do as he liked with him but for now he feels ever so slightly out of place.

Aside from that this was a great tale. A quick and fun read and considering it was a pulp fiction book surprisingly well written. I'm enjoying going through these one by one.

[Mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobooks do something like what movies of books do. Just as a movie gives you visuals of a book, audiobooks give you voices, like old time radio did. The narrator usually does a different voice for each character, which is nice; you know them by their voices. But another important aspect of audiobooks is that when you hear a book read aloud, it’s easier to keep your mind on it, and you have more mental energy available to think about what you’re hearing. When I have a difficult passage, I read it aloud; this practice increases my understanding.
I’m really enjoying this series. I’d always been afraid McBain would be too gruesome, but it’s more like Nero Wolf.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read about an extortionist. I was partially able to figure out the whodunit, but was still surprised at the end.

[Curlyhair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Number 6 in the series. Another good read.

[Vicky D.]

Another tale with twists and turns.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: he appeared to be a decent, upright, honest citizen, yet Sy Kramer was a blackmailer. Which of Kramer's marks gave him his last payoff?

[Θανάσης · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

[James Shrimpton · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, a reliable palate cleanser after a bad run of dreck. Great stuff. Not as good as the others, but there were enough good moments to elevate it

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore McBain's work. The novels are quick reads, always with something that makes them worthwhile. This is another solid entry in the series.

[Dorothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Continuing with my reading of Ed McBain's iconic 87th Precinct series, I've reached number 6 which was first published in 1958. It was the second book that featured the character of Cotton Hawes.

Hawes was introduced in the previous book because, as McBain explained in a foreword to the later edition which I read, his editor warned him that a married cop - such as Steve Carella was - could not be the hero. He needed someone who was unmarried and available to the ladies. Thus, Cotton Hawes was born.

In Killer's Payoff, McBain is obviously still working on the development of the Hawes character. He's presented as a man who falls in love - or at least in lust - with every pretty girl he meets and, immediately after falling, he's generally in bed with them. It seems to make little difference whether they are someone who is involved in a case he's investigating as a possible murder suspect or just some random waitress he meets on the road. The result is the same - a one-night stand and the next day moving on without a backward glance. So this, I guess, is what passed as "heroic" activity in the eyes of book editors in the 1950s. A reader can only hope that in future books, Cotton Hawes might show a little more depth to his personality.

In fact, I found this book quite dated for several reasons. Many of its references would be characterized as racist and misogynistic by today's standards. Even bearing in mind the era in which they were written, reading them was not a pleasant experience. This is probably my least favorite of the books I have read so far in the series.

This time the detectives are investigating the murder of a known blackmailer named Sy Kramer. Kramer was shot with a hunting rifle on a street in Isola. The obvious suspects would seem to be the people whom Kramer was blackmailing. The problem is that he was a lone operator and nobody knows who those people were. A search of his apartment turns up no clues about their identity. His bank accounts give the detectives their first leads and Carella and Hawes pursue those leads doggedly hoping to get a break in the case.

The trail eventually leads them to a private hunting lodge in the Adirondacks and it is there that Cotton Hawes is able to develop the information that finally helps them to solve the case.

The saving grace of the book is that it, like all the others so far, was short, so it didn't involve a big investment of time, but I just couldn't get terribly interested in the plot or any of the characters involved. I really had the feeling that the author was struggling with trying to get Cotton Hawes' personality fixed, and that seemed to consume his efforts. This book did not have the sharp writing or descriptions of settings and individuals that I had come to expect from him. It was a workmanlike tale and not terrible, but just not one of McBain's best.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mid-20th Century North American Crime and Mystery
My Favorites: # 23 (of 250)
I almost stopped reading this series after the 5th one as I was finding it disappointing. Apparently, some publishing executive decided Steve Carella (married, not really handsome) couldn't be THE CENTRAL HERO and that McBain should have a single, handsome lead in Cotton Hawes (introduced in the 5th book but there it felt like McBain just wasn't much interested in developing Hawes). Cotton comes to life in "Killer's Payoff", fully realized this time, and it all just works and improves the series.
HOOK - 4 stars: "It could have been 1937..." is the opening line. PERFECT, a throwback to a golden age of noir/private investigators.
PACE - 4 stars: A sizzling 157 pages.
PLOT - 5: Several good ones, the first and best starts with a blackmailer being shot dead on the sidewalk, probably by another blackmailer. There are some great twists, good subplots, and 3 climactic action sequences building one on top another. And it's not JUST the action sequences that make the end of this story so good, it's the character's reactions as the scenes unfold. This is the story I'd been expecting all along from this author.
CAST - 4: "Oh, that Cotton Hawes" McBain writes, winking at us, "And so to bed..." Bobby O'Brien kills his first person while off-duty and "that night Bob O'Brien cried like a baby." But on duty, Bob goes to a gay bar and "in the space of 20 minutes, O'Brien was approached and propositioned five times [but dismissed all] with a simple shake of his head. The people he despised were those who came to watch the display." Amen to that. On the next page, Carella rudely says "Do you always go to fag joints?" to O'Brien. Then, a few pages latter, Carella says to Cotton, "Anything's worth a g**d*** try." When O'Brien had not responded to the bait, Carella softens up and tries again with Cotton. These exchanges say a lot about all three characters, and suddenly we don't much like Carella. Or at least we are conflicted. Yea, that publishing executive was right all along.
ATMOSPHERE - 4: McBain tells us he is taking us to 1937. Then gives us lines like, "You couldn't tell an exploding firecracker from an exploding .32 without a program, and nobody was selling programs that day." Nice and easy prose, nothing that calls much attention to itself. Except maybe a few pages earlier: "In the terraced back yard of the exurban estate, overlooking the swimming pool in the distance, Carella sat with Lucy Mencken and wondered why she wore army boots." Army boots? Slick to slide that one in.
SUMMARY-4.2: Easily, this is the best in the series, so far. The prose/style hits a high point here: It's Chandler/Hammett lite, but McBain does it right. The plots mesh. The characters open up. THIS is the reason McBain is so popular.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure if this entry really was as lackluster as it felt to me, or if I maybe just read this too closely to the last one. As much as these books are like TV episodes & it makes me want to "binge watch" them, they work best, I think, when consumed in moderation.

I'm kind of confused as to McBain's portrayal of the new guy in the squad, Cotton Hawes. Supposedly Hawes was brought in to be the new main male protagonist - women should want him and men should want to be him, etc. If that's the case, the decision to make him a fool in his first book and a lech in the second seems ... an odd choice. Yes, in the end he keeps getting the killer, but especially in this one it's a close thing that really depends more on dumb luck than a strong application of brains.

I suppose my main frustration with this book is that the "twist" at the end seemed not only obvious but NECESSARY structurally, and I very rarely figure out twists, so it always seems a bit annoying when I can figure one out but our intrepid heroes can't.

Also, again, most crime fiction's strength depends upon how interesting the Q&A sections are. It's kind of the bread & butter of the genre. It felt to me like McBain relied too heavily on the 'this character loves repeating a certain line, no matter what' trope. Like every secondary character was a half-crazy Jewish grandmother or something.

Overall, though, quick & decent read.