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    Lady Killer
    Lady Killer
    Lady Killer
    Audiobook5 hours

    Lady Killer

    Written by Ed McBain

    Narrated by Dick Hill

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    “I will kill the Lady tonight at 8. What can you do about it?”

    This is the message on a pasted-up letter handed to Desk Sergeant Dave Murchison at 8:00 a.m. The detectives at the 87th Precinct have gotten these types of threats before, but there’s something different about this one. Something ominous. Problem is, the city contains millions of women—finding the right one in twelve hours is like finding a needle in a haystack.

    Detectives Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes go down the list of likely suspects but in a city this big, it’s a best-guess scenario. And with the clock ticking and no other leads, guessing is the only card they have to play. All they need is one break—or they won’t get a second chance.

    A classic race-against-time thriller with relentless pacing and top-notch plotting, Lady Killer is a master class in detective fiction and a riveting addition to Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMar 27, 2012
    ISBN9781455873814
    Lady Killer
    Author

    Ed McBain

    Ed McBain has been the recipient of the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America. His 87th Precinct novels are international bestsellers. He lives in Connecticut.

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    Reviews for Lady Killer

    3.5/5

    81 ratings7 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Lady Killer is the second book in a row in the series to focus on a single crime, rather than one major case with minor ones in the background. The 87th receives an anonymous letter at 8AM on July 24th promising to kill "The Lady" at 8PM that night. With nothing to go on, and with doubts as to whether the threat is real, the boys race against time to try to solve a murder before it even happens. Strangely enough, the forced time limit of the plot doesn't quite push the suspense of the story beyond anything in the previous novels, possibly because despite the race against the clock, there are still plenty of stretches involving the kind of highly detailed leg work that drives McBains 87th Precinct books. The highest point of action almost seems to be the hour that all hell breaks loose at the station, forcing everyone to set aside the Lady Killer case to handle the other problems that errupt in the city on a regular basis. Perhaps this manic episode is including to help remind author and reader alike that these are not meant to be detective novels focusing on one crime, but glimpses into the daily routines and trials of the police detectives working the city. Carella and Hawes dominate the story once again, with Meyer, Willis, and Kling filling in the edges. Lieutenant Byrnes gets his hands in this one as he green lights the investigation and keeps a hand in throughout. Hawes' womanizing is on in full force as he crosses paths with an aging madame and her prostitute, a baudy lounge singer (with whom he makes a date), a suspect's barely dressed neighbor (whom he perceives as unattractive, but with a "disconcerting" bust), and a cold career woman who slaps him around verbally, knocking him down a peg. This also marks the first appearence of "Doomed Detective" Bob O'Brian, who has been forced to kill seven men in his ten year career, after each of which "He wept inside, where it hurts most." Also noteable is the few asides where Carella and Hawes tackle the moral dillemma of the need to turn a blind eye to some crimes in order to focus on others, and the rational behind keeping some illegal activities (like prostitution) penned in but active out in the open instead of widespread and underground. Previous novels have covered the trials and tribulations of being a cop in the city, but this might be the first one to actively dive into the gray area where justice and the law must sometimes exist.
    • 3/5
      Really enjoying the series. This is a week blank in, what was then, a groundbreaking police series. Onto the next one!
    • 4/5
      This, the eighth book in the legendary 87th Precinct series, was written over the course of just nine days, according to author Ed McBain. It’s a concise, tense account of just a few hours in the lives of the detectives who have to find a man who has threatened to kill “The Lady” at eight o’clock that night. Because it’s a police procedural, a genre of crime fiction that McBain basically invented, it’s full of the painstaking detail that would be involved for a real police force — though one has to wonder if the simple arrival of a threatening note at a police station would trigger such a large scale manhunt. As always in these books, weather plays an important role, and as the cops pound the hot streets for hours, walking up steaming staircases in tenements, one feels real relief when finally air conditioning appears at one point in the story. The mystery of who is the intended target (“The Lady”) is revealed at the end, and you’ll be the judge of whether it is convincing. For me, not so much.
    • 4/5
      “The note read: I will kill the lady tonight at 8 what can you do about it?”This is the plot of the fourth consecutive 87th Precinct book with the word “killer” in the title! Twelve hours to stop the crime with only that note for a clue! And the whole city of Isola to cover! Good luck boys!A good mystery, and a quick read! There is only the one plot, as opposed to the usual two in these books. But this one is good enough to stand on it's on!
    • 4/5
      A quick read providing interesting glimpses into everyday life in the summer in the city in the 1950s: cold beer from an icebox with melting ice, kids opening fire hydrants to cool off in the water, more hockshops than book stores. "He was a hot sketch." - one of my favorite lines. I haven't heard that in ages. The police investigation following the arrival of an ominous note ["I will kill the Lady tonight at 8. What can you do about it?"] richly details methods used at the time (sketches of the suspect, fingerprints, interrogations). Seems these methods were not so different to now, just much more rudimentary.
    • 3/5
      A quick, easy and enjoyable read, but light on characterisation and depth.
    • 4/5
      Lady Killer is the second book in a row in the series to focus on a single crime, rather than one major case with minor ones in the background. The 87th receives an anonymous letter at 8AM on July 24th promising to kill "The Lady" at 8PM that night. With nothing to go on, and with doubts as to whether the threat is real, the boys race against time to try to solve a murder before it even happens. Strangely enough, the forced time limit of the plot doesn't quite push the suspense of the story beyond anything in the previous novels, possibly because despite the race against the clock, there are still plenty of stretches involving the kind of highly detailed leg work that drives McBains 87th Precinct books. The highest point of action almost seems to be the hour that all hell breaks loose at the station, forcing everyone to set aside the Lady Killer case to handle the other problems that erupt in the city on a regular basis. Perhaps this manic episode is including to help remind author and reader alike that these are not meant to be detective novels focusing on one crime, but glimpses into the daily routines and trials of the police detectives working the city. Carella and Hawes dominate the story once again, with Meyer, Willis, and Kling filling in the edges. Lieutenant Byrnes gets his hands in this one as he green lights the investigation and keeps a hand in throughout. Hawes' womanizing is on in full force as he crosses paths with an aging madame and her prostitute, a bawdy lounge singer (with whom he makes a date), a suspect's barely dressed neighbor (whom he perceives as unattractive, but with a "disconcerting" bust), and a cold career woman who slaps him around verbally, knocking him down a peg. This also marks the first appearance of "Doomed Detective" Bob O'Brian, who has been forced to kill seven men in his ten year career, after each of which "He wept inside, where it hurts most." Also notable is the few asides where Carella and Hawes tackle the moral dilemma of the need to turn a blind eye to some crimes in order to focus on others, and the rational behind keeping some illegal activities (like prostitution) penned in but active out in the open instead of widespread and underground. Previous novels have covered the trials and tribulations of being a cop in the city, but this might be the first one to actively dive into the gray area where justice and the law must sometimes exist.