The McBain Brief

by Ed McBain

Twenty stories from the man who created the 87th Precinct. Stories of the street and the city, stories of the cops and their prey. Life in a Chinese lobster-shop, the making of a porn queen, and the agony of being jailed with a non-stop talking cellmate. Places and people only he could describe.

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery, Crime, Noir, Anthologies, Thriller, Detective

283 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

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

[Betsy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of detective stories by Ed McBain that had previously been published under other names. Most of them date back to the middle of the last century and it shows. I read and enjoyed the 87th precinct novels way back when, but, after reading this I am not sure I would enjoy re reading them. First, and most importantly, most of the victims are women and many of them involve a great deal of violence. My impression is that the women themselves are unimportant. They just provide the motivation for the detectives to operate or, in some cases, they are victims of violence inflicted by the detectives themselves. Second, most of the mysteries aren't very good. After 60+ years of reading this type of book it may be that I have seen all the permutations of detection and am not so easily fooled. However, since I still enjoy reading this type of book, it may be that the genre has improved over the years. In any case, unless you are a completist, skip this one.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of tales, mostly cop and crime stories. The main story is a 60 page novella about a plane crash due to an explosion, being investigated by a PI that's a solid read. Again most are good, McBain is good with shorts since he has less pages to throw up his word salad hack writing that he seems to get into. However there is one short that is probably the worst short story I've ever read. It's a PI parody, at least I hope it's a parody, that is not funny or interesting. Just a silly mess of a tale, lucky it's less than 10 pages.

I do recommend it, it's a nice collection overall with some really good stories included.

[Juan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book at the excellent "1616 books", a book and stationery story with a nice book swap section. After my last read, I got hooked on this author, and this book, although it spans a good number of years (and several different seudonyms), is keeping me hooked.
It's not part of any of his series: it's a collection of short stories, one of them as long as a novella, having as protagonists cops, private eyes, or criminals; every one of them deals with a crime; all of them are tightly plotted and following to the letter the conventions of the genre. So, highly recommendable, even more as an introduction to the author.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall rating 4
Individual stories ranged from 2.5 to 4.5

Hadn’t read any EMcB story fiction before, no reason just hadn’t run across any.
Majority of these were good to very good hard boiled crime stories. The longer stories especially worked really well I thought.
A couple of them didn’t really work for me, well written but didn’t like them.

Overall a solid collection that anyone who enjoys hard boiled crime stories should definitely read. Also definite recommendation for any one who likes the 87th Precinct stories but haven’t read any further into the authors works.

[Pip Karlsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's all readable but some of the plots or endings are weak. These are the good ones:
1. First Offense
2. Skin Flick
8. The Interview
10. Hot Cars
11. Eye Witness
14. A Very Merry Christmas
15. Small Homicide

Had to leave the book behind so I didn't get as far as these ones:
16. Hot
17. Kid Kill
18. Death Flight
19. The Confession
20. The Last Spin

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories are quite different from full length novels. Some of these are excellent examples of his writing while others not quite as much. They strip away everything leaving the essence of what made Ed McBain such a popular author of mid-century noir.

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

great set of short stories from my most-read author. #77 McBain book

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

20 short stories by the master of the police procedural.
Great for McBain Fans!

[Gerard C. Klug · Rating 5 out of 5]

powerful author

Love his work. Gritty characters, real situations, interesting psychology. A little dated at this point, however. Doesn’t wear its age well.

[Debbie Stirling]

audiobook

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stories with several being quite excellent.

[Aaron Martz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of fairly predictable crime stories. Ed McBain finding his footing in the world of cops and robbers. The most interesting of the bunch is a comedy about two guys trying to talk a girl into doing a porn film. McBain experiments a little with the style he'd come to employ in the 87th Precinct; one story for instance is presented as a written confession. The last story, although its conclusion is inevitable, is an interesting and fairly dramatic take on a Russian roulette scene.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Ed Mc Bain's books and I miss him. He writes with great insight into the human character. He made you like the bad guys as well as the good guys. This book showed how he could also pack a lot of insight into the short story.

[Charles Bodenheimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

McBain has a great way of telling short stories, in a way that feels like a brief look into a characters life - just a small taste. A few favorites were Skin Flick, Chinese Puzzle, The Interview and Hot Cars... The Last Spin was tense.

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

From "The McBain Brief": "Hot Cars" (published in Italian in the collection titled: "L'universo del crimine"

[Dark-Draco · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this book, although some of the stories I found a bit predictable.

My favourite story was 'Death Flight' about a PI investigating a bomb that brought down a plane.