Jigsaw

87th Precinct #24

by Ed McBain

Every day the men of the 87th Precinct solve puzzles. Of lives interrupted, lives intertwined, and lives gone wrong on the streets of the city where they work. Sometimes the clues come easy. Sometimes they come covered in blood...Six years ago four men robbed a bank. Then a shootout left them dead, and 750 grand missing. Now Detectives Carella and Brown are finding pieces of a photograph, each piece tied to a name, each name tied to a murder, each murder tied to the bank robbery six years ago. The 87th Precinct cops know than the complete picture will lead them to the money. They just don't know how many people still have to die -- before the last piece falls into place.

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

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

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

[James Thane · Rating 3 out of 5]

When two men turn up dead in a sleazy apartment, one shot and the other stabbed, detectives Brown and Carella conclude that the man who lived in the apartment surprised a burglar and killed him, but not before the burglar was able to inflict a fatal blow on the tenant. It seems like an open-and-shut case until the detectives discover that one of the men is holding a small piece torn from a photograph. What could that be all about?

Shortly thereafter, an insurance investigator shows up in the squad room and says that the two victims were loosely tied to a bank robbery several years earlier. $750,000 was taken and is still missing. The investigator's company had to pay off the claim and the investigator is still on the hunt.

It turns out that most of the men who committed the robbery are dead, but when they hid the loot, they took a photograph of the location. They then tore the picture into pieces and distributed them to trusted acquaintances as an insurance policy. The detectives now have one of the eight pieces of the photo; the investigator has leads on a couple of others and suggests they cooperate in finding the others and recovering the stolen money.

Well one thing leads to another, as it almost always does, but a clever killer seems to be one step ahead of Carella and the other detectives. Will they be able to recover the missing pieces of the picture, and how many people will die before they can?

This is a fairly typical 87th Precinct novel; it's relatively short and a good way to lose an evening. The series has now progressed to 1970; the sexual revolution is in the air, and not all of the detectives are comfortable with the fact. This makes for some amusing moments is what is, all in all, another entertaining entry in the series.

[Melki · Rating 2 out of 5]

A double murder, and an insurance investigator with an interest in a nearly forgotten cold case combine to send the detectives are on a wild goose chase to find scattered pieces of a photo that will lead them to the whereabouts of a wad of stolen cash. Despite the high body count, this had an old-fashioned, almost cozy mystery feel to it. The whole shebang felt kind of far-fetched, and ultimately predictable.

This story features the precinct's only black detective, Arthur Brown, and there are more than a few uncomfortable race related moments. Brown, however, rises above it all, and I hope he'll be included in more upcoming titles.

The last scene in the book made me laugh as Brown reaches for a Nancy Drew book to read to his daughter while confessing that he "doesn't like mysteries."

This has to be one of my least favorites of the series so far.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this quick read and will dip back into the pond for more 87th Precinct in the future. I wasn't tuned into these books when published and was rather busy running around DC and Maryland with my two towheaded toddler girls at the time, teaching them how to cut the eyes off soft-shell crabs, for example.
And the other factor that could have kept me from being attracted to the books was the very real tension going on in DC during "race riots" of that time. Those were stressful times.
Forty years later it seems ok to read of the black detective in this series calling himself racial slurs in the interest of catching the crooks. Times do change, Bob Dylan.
This is a daft review. My excuse is old age and heat exhaustion in 90 degree temps hiking the urban landscape from train to library to loft to train. The End.

[Colin Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arthur Brown catches the case of the two bodies found dead in an apartment. The Medical Examiner thinks it's an open and shut case of one man shooting another as he is fatally stabbed in the throat. A visit to the 87th squadroom by an insurance investigator with the unlikely name of Irving Krutch, leads to a trail of missing pieces of a photograph that could be the hiding place of a $750,000 stash from a bank robbery 6 years previously, four members of the gang had been shot dead but the money never recovered. Needless to recount the trail leads to more bodies and the eventual arrest of the main culprit.

This adventure is in the well tried and tested format of McBain's 87th Precinct novels, novellas really, and featuring Arthur Brown paired with Steve Carella. Meyer Meyer and Cotton Hawes also make an appearance. This is everything that you can expect from this series.

I decided on 4 stars as it is a good quick read.

[Sandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arthur Brown gets to take the lead in this entry in the 87th Precinct series which had a nicely complicated plot and was quick entertaining read.

[Roman Psota · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skladačka (Jigsaw) - 24. príbeh (z celkového počtu 55) o policajnej práci oddelenia vrážd 87. obvodu s detektívmi Stevom Carellom, Arthurom Brownom a ďalšími. Tentoraz nás dej zavedie k ôsmym kúskom skladačky, ktorá určuje miesto, kde je ukrytý veľký lup z bankovej lúpeže. Tento príbeh sa objavil aj v televíznom spracovaní a to v seriály Columbo s Petrom Falkom (Columbo v prestrojení, S10E09 😉).

[Kev Ruiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

★★★½

I enjoyed this entry in the 87th Precinct series, which moves the setting firmly into the 1970s and continues to reflect the shifts in American society of the time. One of the highlights is that it spotlights Detective Arthur Brown, the precinct’s only Black detective, giving him a more central role. This brings a fresh angle to the usual line-up of familiar characters and allows McBain to touch on race and social tensions, though some of the language and attitudes feel uncomfortable by today’s standards.

The plot is a good bit of fun, built around a mystery and treasure hunt idea that runs alongside darker subplots. The city’s darker side is painted in brief, matter-of-fact sentences listing brutal crimes without much ceremony. It creates a curious contrast between the lightness of the central mystery and the rough realities lurking in the background.

I particularly liked the visual device of the torn photograph. McBain has used diagrams and illustrations before, but this time the torn picture acts as a literal jigsaw, with new pieces appearing as the investigation moves forward. It is an entertaining touch that adds something extra to what might otherwise have been a fairly simple case.

This one might not be the most convincing or polished plot in the series, but it is still enjoyable to revisit this group of detectives, each with their familiar habits and ways of working. The book is a short, entertaining read, and the puzzle element gives it a slightly different feel compared to some of the others.

Overall, a decent addition to the series. Not a standout, but solid and worth a read for long-time followers.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you don't mind dead bodies piling up, this was kind of a fun story. The location of the loot from a bank robbery seven years ago is shown in a photograph that was cut up into small jigsaw puzzle pieces. Each of the crooks in on the bank robbery gave their piece to someone - just in case. Good thing too - as all the crooks died in the failed getaway plan, but the $750,000 take was never found. Detectives Carella and Brown get drawn into trying to solve the puzzle along with the insurance adjustor who had to pay out the claim for the bank's loss. Meanwhile, Detectives Meyer and Hawes are investigating the assorted murders piling up as the puzzle pieces are discovered. A creative story, very well written. A fun (well, sort of - we are dealing with multiple murders) read.

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book surprised me by being a bit more complicated than most of the other 87th Precinct novels. The $700,000 loot from a Savings and Loan robbery was hidden shortly after the robbery with the location only known to the gang leader. He took a photograph of the hiding spot, cut it up into 8 pieces and distributed them among several people. The recipients he listed on a piece of paper and then tore that in two and gave half to each of the women in his life.
Not a bad story although I did get a little lost on who was who and who had what in some places.

[Tom Stamper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insurance man come to the 87th precinct to get help on a cold case heist from 6 years earlier. The bandits were all killed but the money was never recovered and the insurance man thinks he has a lead to get it all back. The detectives are their usual skeptical but as you’d guess a case starts to materialize and our heroes go through their usual head beatings to get to it.

This was a nice change of pace with Detective Brown taking the lead on the investigation with Carella helping along the way. Written in 1970, Brown is the only black detective in the 87th and although I remember him being prominent in an earlier book, he is usually a bit player that you won’t hear about several books in a row. The reader gets to see how Brown navigates the white world as a professional while still feeling the sting of his otherness. It also gives us to a chance to see how the other detectives dance around his otherness. Some things never change. Brown and Carella are the least quirky and most assured of the detectives in the unit. It shows how much better of a cop Brown needed to be make detective.

I like how McBain uses contemporary movies or books to give it a sense of time. At one point Detective Brown breaks into a gallery to find evidence and notices a copy of The Story of O and gets caught up in it for several pages before realizing he has a job to do. It’s those little moments of life that McBain writes so well.

[Graham Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Ed McBain. I think I would have fitted in well with Carella and the gang of the 87th precinct. Obviously that was never going to happen as a. I don’t live anywhere near them b. I’m not suitably trained c. The books are set in a different era to my working life and d. It’s all fictitious anyway, so simply couldn’t happen

[Keith Astbury · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm. Not one of my favourite 87th Precinct books if I'm honest.

I can't quite put my finger on why. Sure most of the usual ingredients were there but this didn't quite grab me in the same way as most of the others I've read.

[Conor Tannam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the language has not aged well. Too many derogatory words that we would not use anymore. This took away from what was a fun if barely credible robbery/murder tale. This book cost me £1.50 from a charity shop so it was hardly a major investment. Would read more!

[wally · Rating 4 out of 5]

just now finished this one, evening of the 2nd, thursday, right at five aye em and what book report would be complete without a snow report: 248.8" to date...20.733333 feet, not counting the dusting we received earlier this afternoon. add another half-inch to the total, give or take.

no snow in this story. nothing major in the way of weather as sometimes happens in mcbain. usually the heat. a few stories that are hot. described well. this one, jigsaw puzzle pieces of a photo they need to gather and put together to find the loot. good read. i really liked it. 4-stars.

[Oliver Clarke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this and more crime and thriller reviews on CriminOlly.wordpress.com

‘Jigsaw’ is the 24th book in Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series. They remain my favourite mysteries, even if ‘Jigsaw’ fell a bit flat for me.
This time, the 87th’s bulls are approached by an insurance investigator trying to track down $750,000 from a robbery that took place in the city 6 years earlier. The criminals were all killed in a shootout but the proceeds of their crime have never been recovered. The only clues are a torn scrap of paper which appears to come from a list of names, and a fragment of a photograph cut in the shape of a jigsaw piece. The book follows detectives Arthur Brown and Steve Carella as they try to find the other pieces of the photograph and locate the missing loot.
The mystery element here felt a bit too contrived to me, and massively at odds with other elements of the book. Like some of the previous novels it has interludes where McBain details other crimes happening in the city. These include murders and a particularly brutal gang rape and I couldn’t help feeling that the treasure hunt the detectives were on shouldn’t have been their priority.
That’s probably missing the point a bit, and the mystery is kind of fun. McBain uses visuals to show the jigsaw slowly assembling as more pieces are found and I enjoyed trying to figure out what it was showing alongside Brown and Carella. There’s no secondary case to back the main one up though, and it didn’t really have the weight to carry a whole book.
Black detective Arthur Brown takes the lead in this book, I think for the first time in the series. The focus on him is both a strength and a weakness for ‘Jigsaw’. As you’d expect from an author who has shown himself to be as socially conscious as McBain has in previous books, he uses Brown’s ethnicity to comment on racism and for the most part this works well. The ending of the book turns on it as well, and that’s where it fell apart for me. We end up with a scene which was, I think, well intentioned, but which I found pretty uncomfortable.
Overall then, this is a weaker entry in the series. It has its moments, but its certainly not one I’d recommend for a first time reader.

[Skip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arthur Brown, as squeal, catches a double murder: one shot dead, one stabbed in the carotid artery. He finds a piece of a photo clutched in one of the dead man's hands. Then, an insurance investigator shows up to tie the deaths and photo to a six year-old bank robbery, where the loot ($750,000) was never found. Brown goes undercover to ferret out the remaining seven pieces. Taut police thriller, with double dealing galore.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three-and-a-half. Thought this one plodded along a bit, but I liked the star turn by Arthur Brown. However, I thought that the age of the book showed itself a bit when it came to the race relation stuff.

[Mike O'connell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read. Entertaining and fast. I really enjoyed the intergation dialogues. I went to the library this morning and checked two more.

[Susan Chamberlain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the epitome of an old-fashioned, cop and robber type mystery. Great airport reading.

[doug bowman · Rating 4 out of 5]

First McBain I ever read

[Helen (Helena/Nell) · Rating 3 out of 5]

In places I was uncomfortable. In places I was bored.

The idea of the photograph divided into eight pieces, only the eighth of which reveals the place where the stolen money is buried -- it's fine. But the business of getting hold of one piece, then the next, and the next and the next? That didn't really do it for me. Also there was no logic to why the piece with the cross (where the treasure is buried) was the very last one to come to light.

Then there were the uncomfortable bits. Me squirming in my seat is partly to do with social changes. When I first read this book I would have been in my teens probably, and now I'm 72. Things have changed. Now we call African Americans 'black' and it's a term of respect. When Evan Hunter (as Ed McBain) wrote this novel, it made complete sense to write as an opening sentence: "Detective Arthur Brown did not like being called black." Arthur Brown is the only member of the squad who is black, just as Hernandez (who already went to meet his maker in See Them Die) was the only Puerto Rican on the team.

So McBain plays with the irony of Brown's name just as he plays with the ridiculousness of 'Meyer Meyer'. He's interested in names. But he also uses Brown and Hernandez to explore racism. People are always being abusive to Brown and by and large he gives as good as he gets. The guys he works with treat him as an equal, so everything's okay, right?

Not really. It still gets uncomfortable. Here Brown plays an undercover role some of the time, and towards the end, he's sent to intimidate a female suspect. Carella comes up with the plan: "... let's say about two o'clock in the morning, somebody knocks on li'l Suzie's door and starts getting rough with her."

That comes as a surprise, especially since it's the reasonable, level-headed, procedural Carella who suggests it. In fact, it's Brown who objects: "Come on, Steve, we can't do that."

"I don't mean we actually push her around," Carella explains and adds, "... we just let her think we're getting rough."

Then it gets interesting, but also uncomfortable.

"Well, why would she think that?" Brown asked. "If we're not going to push her around?"

Carella comes up with a three-word reply: "She's from Georgia."

Georgia, where the second Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1915. Georgia where white slave owners beat black slaves, sometimes to death. Georgia where Jim Crow laws mandated racial segregation. Georgia, second only to Mississippi in its tally of lynchings.

So when the guys discuss 'who'll go scare Suzie?', the white woman from Georgia, and the squadroom falls silent, the answer is obvious.

"'Don't tell me,' Brown said, and broke into a wide grin. 'Man, I love it.'
Hawes glanced at Carella uncertainly.
'Oh, man, I love it,' Brown said, and fell into a deliberately broad dialect. 'We goan send a big black nigger man to scare our Georgia peach out'n her skin! Oh man, it's delicious.'"

Why is it uncomfortable? The author is surely correct in exposing institutionalised racism where the minority race joins in the joke. But the joke still isn't funny. It's horrible.

Things change. At one point I might have thought that deliberate expose of the way things were was brave. Now I'm just appalled by the situation.

And earlier, McBain gives a glimpse of violent events in the city that happened daily. Things that were practically 'normal', and certainly not unusual. One of them is the gang rape of a twelve-year-old girl, graphically described. Four boys (age not disclosed) and one little girl -- the same age, as it happens, as my granddaughter. The boy named 'Doc', "the one who had taken off her panties and who now stood over her, tall and large against the blinding sun, unzipped his fly, displayed his masculinity to her terror-ridden eyes, and then plunged himself deep inside her, against the protest of her tearing flesh."

Things have changed. You can write a rape scene now, but I don't think you can write one that features children. You could suggest the rape had happened, but you couldn't show it, could you? Or somehow diminish its reality with phrases like "terror-ridden eyes" and "the protest of her tearing flesh". Something about the way this is described neutralises its horror and in so doing makes it, to a contemporary reader, even more appalling. At least something like that.

So I'm going to move on to the next novel in the series, and see what awaits me there. Often McBain is wittily clever, and the plot dances its way from one twist to another. But not here, I think.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well now, this is more like it. There are two types of 87th Precinct novels: good ones, and great ones. Well, I might be overstating things a bit, but this is one of the better stories, mostly because it's a true murder-mystery; not just a police procedural with a murder involved.

The plot revolves around a bank robbery that occurred six years prior. Four men knocked off a bank, but a shootout with the cops left them dead. However, the money (3/4 of a million, by the way-- serious money), was never recovered. Apparently, it was stashed in a secret location, and a photograph taken of that spot. The photo was then cut up, jigsaw puzzle fashion, into pieces that were distributed among a number of trusted acquaintances, as safekeeping should something go wrong with the heist.

Detectives Carella and Brown catch a case of two men who apparently killed one another in what appears, at first anyway, like a simple case of a burglar caught by the resident, and mutual violence resulted in both deaths. But when the detectives discover one of the photograph pieces in the hand of the apparent burglar, things become interesting. They discover that along with photograph pieces, there is a list of names, each name tied to a murder, and each murder tied to the bank robbery. The detectives reason that the complete picture will lead them to the money. But finding the remaining pieces of the puzzle proves rather difficult.

As luck would have it, an insurance investigator whose company had paid the bank's claim approaches the detectives with another piece of the photo. He tells them how he's been working (on his own time) to solve this mystery, and wishes to collaborate. Supplied with two of the pieces of the jigsaw, the detectives follow up several leads, and little by little, collect additional pieces of the puzzle. But along the way, folks who had these little gems seem to be getting themselves killed, and Carella and Brown need to get ahead of the killer.

The pacing, dialogue, characters are all classic McBain and yield a wonderfully entertaining story. There are some rough patches with some racist dialogue, so if you're overly sensitive, be forewarned. Otherwise, jump in-- it's a quick read, well told, and one of the better of the entries into this consistently rewarding series.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Figured I'd read the 1968-70 McBain 87th Precinct novels, just to see if there was any worthwhile content to mine for NYC vibes at the time. And also since I hadn't read any of these since HS, when my sense of fiction more generally was, er, not all that developed, I was curious to see how it read now.

I hadn't recalled, or had the frame of reference to grasp, how much NYC Yiddish shtick there is in a lot of the absurdist byplay--you can see one place Barney Miller got that wry interplay among its cast. (Just looked him up to see if McBain, an alias for Evan Hunter was Jewish; turns out he was Italian and that was another mask, original name Salvatore Lombino, which, considering Steve Carella is one of the more central characters here, makes sense.) The sensibility is droll and surprisingly meta, a detective procedural that acknowledges it's a procedural and drops in comments about what you see in the movies and on TV, and at one point a minor character even bites on a ruse (there's, ahem, quite a bit of non-legal conduct by the police here) because the detectives act like TV detectives when a suspect screws up. The leanness of the prose and dialogue-heavy exposition remind me of Richard Stark and George V. Higgins, and the plot these techniques gallop you through is an enjoyable post-caper treasure hunt, since the robbers all got shot, but not before dropping the money somewhere, though there's an assortment of scraps of the photo showing exactly where scattered among a range of character types. (We get an art gallery, some nubile young things, an ex-prostitute, a very funny dead end with a suburban couple, a pretty homophobic bit in a gay bar...the usual urban sights as of the late 60s.)

The ending, though...relies on kind of the same trick as Gene Wilder pulls with Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles, which is to say that it absolutely would not pass muster these days. Reminds me of that bit from Broad City where Abbi tells Ilana, "you're so anti-racist sometimes that you're actually really racist." Like that. I get what McBain is after, since one of his central characters is Black detective Arthur Brown, who's depicted as a thoughtful, sensitive family man. But...yeah, just a little challenging to enjoy this kind of plot device nowadays.

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Hodnocení pro Brokovnici i Skládačku.)
Dva romány, ke kterým jen těžko můžu být objektivní. V mládí jsem je četl pořád dokola. Jedno je klasická detektivka, druhá má spíš našlápnuto k thrilleru postaveném na hledání pokladu. Zajímavé na tom je, že (pokud se nepletu), Brokovnice je první román, kde McBain použil to, co se rychle stalo trademarkem románů z 87. revíru – brutální epizodky. To jsou ty krátké a s dějem nesouvisející sekvence, kde autor na čtenáře vychrlí, k čemu ještě došlo ve městě, různá znásilnění, zabití z malicherných důvodů, brutální vraždy… prostě věci, které dodávají románům nelítostnou atmosféru. A pak si klidně autor může přijít (jako v případě Skládačky) se zápletkou, která by klidně mohla vyjít i v románu tak o padesát let starším.
Ani jedno nepřichází s nějakou šokující pointou, ale stylem, nápaditými popisy, živými dialogy a vůbec hravostí, s jakou k tomu McBain přistupuje, to boduje. (Mimochodem, u Brokovnice se dokonce vrací k jednomu ze starších románů, aby ho po létech uzavřel.) Jsem asi osobně zaujatý, ale podle mě tyhle věci patří k McBainové nejlepšímu období, kdy už přesně věděl, co dělá, a ještě se z toho nestala čirá macha.

[Elmer Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

A double dozen into the series and I really like the gang of detectives in the 87th. Nearly everyone is in this one helping solve crimes (don't think I saw Kling in this one.)

Jigsaw had a solid premise of bank robbery/treasure hunting after the fact via pieces of a photo showing the location of the money. The scenarios were laid out in concurrent fashion and had Det. Arthur Brown in the lead. One detractor was Brown's interactions between 2 different characters that revealed some poor writing (Al/ Gerry) over whether Brown is a cop or not. If one person could suspect as much, why wouldn't the criminal? Then to round out the stereotypes with Brown's end-run finale was a bit much.

The racial language is rampant in this one, some of it was addressed within the story, but doesn't age well overall.

The staging of the premise lays bare the ending, however, the ride is fairly quick and rounds out some decent storyline for the Carella, Brown, and interactions between Meyer and Hawes. Highly enjoyable.

Recommend.

Thanks for reading.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fun McBain story. The boys of the 87th precinct have to solve a puzzle- literally. A cold case bank robbery comes back to life as Carella, Meyer, Brown and Hawes try to piece together a puzzle from an old black and white photo to solve the crime ahead of "someone" who tries to get the $750,000 in stolen loot first. Is it the red headed thug? The sleazy art gallery owner? Her gay partner? Or maybe the hot dog stand owner or the 70 year old Sicilian Aunt? The curvy blond Georgia Peach girlfriend or her insurance investigator boyfriend who brought up the whole thing in the first place and is trying to save his job?

This one is your typical McBain police procedural crossed with an Agatha Christie who-dun-it.

[Huw Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's great about an Ed McBain novel is that when you pick it up, you know that you're going to get a tight, well written, easily accessible crime novel. The characters will be interesting, the plot will be revealed onion skin by onion skin and any line could surprise you with its creativity, presentation or its shock value.

He writes to a formula - but puts enough originality around it that you're never aware that you're following a recipe.

This book is different again - it contains illustrations, but for a very good reason - they help drive the narrative in a totally unique way. I won't say any more for fear of spoiling what is, as ever, a thoroughly entertaining bit of crime froth!

[Ronald Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ed McBain's (Evan Hunter) Jigsaw was a quick, entertaining read. It wasn't the best of the 87th Precinct novels I've read, but it was okay, even though I strongly suspected the perp when he first appeared. I didn't particularly like the stereotyping of blacks and gays, but I understood the context (I was a late teen, just out of high school in a small SW Virginia town, when the book was published). There are some quite vicious incidents, related almost in passing, in Jigsaw. I did like the fact that Arthur Brown is the central detective in this outing; he is an interesting character. I also like the way McBain treats social issue and the changing times. I think the series is definitely evolving, becoming a bit more like his Hunter mainstream novels.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this one, all involving the 87th in a case where people who have pieces of a photograph (cut up like a puzzle) start dying. They find out that the whole photograph shows where the loot from a bank robbery was located so the police are also on the hunt for the pieces trying to stop more murders. It's a fairly straightforward story that has a nice build up by using the finding of each piece, getting closer to the conclusion and who was a murderer.

I highly recommend, McBain can be a hack but he does plot a good story most of the time and his cast of characters are well done for the most part. Enjoyed Det. Arthur Brown getting a starring bill in this one, was a nice change of pace.

[Colby Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly thought that this book was just ok. I liked the many small twists throughout it. I also really liked how many different characters there were and how different they all were. However, it didn't really contain anything that would make it an amazing book. My recommendation is read it if you've got nothing else to read. It was a pretty good book overall. Also, for the two people that read this, I marked this review as having spoilers because I said that there were twists, and I feel like revealing that there are twists ruins them.