Ed McBain: The Empty Hours (USA 2011)

From the Publisher:
Three different stories, one prolific author.
She was young and wealthy... and now she's dead. With only a name and a pile of cancelled checks to go on, Detective Steve Carella has his work cut out for him in finding her killer. But he's in for a shocking surprise when the checks lead to more than just murder in "The Empty Hours".

In "J," Passover is supposed to be a day of celebration. This year, however, it is a day of murder when the rabbi is found stabbed to death, and the only evidence is a "J" painted on the synagogue's wall. A local anti-Semite is assumed to be the perpetrator, but if Detective Carella thinks the case is going to be that easy he's got another thing coming.

A ski vacation with a beautiful blonde is just what the doctor ordered for Detective Cotton Hawes in "Storm"... until he stumbles upon the body of a young woman beneath the crystalline snow. And with the local cops bungling the investigation, Hawes is on the clock to find a mountainside killer before he strikes again.

The Empty Hours is another spine-tingling addition to the 87th Precinct series, a riveting collection of which the New York Times comments, "Ed McBain owns this turf."

Ed McBain: The Empty Hours. An 87th Precinct Novel. Thomas & Mercer, ISBN: 9781612181851 (December, 2011), 254 p., $13.95.

Ed McBain: The Empty Hours (UK 2005)

From the Publisher:
She was young, wealthy - and dead. Strangled to death in a slum apartment. All they had to go on was her name and some cancelled cheques. As Steve Carella said, 'Those cheques are the diary of her life. We'll find the answer there.' But how was he to know that they would reveal something much stranger than murder?

On Passover the rabbi bled to death. Someone had brutally stabbed him and painted a J on the synagogue wall. Everyone knew who the killer was - it had to be Finch, the Jew-hater. Or did it...?

The snow was pure white except where Cotton Hawes stared down at the bright red pool of blood spreading away from the dead girl's body. Hawes was supposed to be on a skiing holiday, but he couldn't just stand by and watch the local cops make a mess of the case. He had to catch the ski-slope slayer before he killed again.

Ed McBain: The Empty Hours. Three chillers from the files of the 87th Precinct. Orion, ISBN: 0752864114 (January, 2005), 232 p., £6.99.

Ed McBain: The Empty Hours (USA 1982)

From the Publisher:
THE 87TH PRECINCT:
THE EMPTY HOURS
She was young, wealthy, and dead-strangled to death in a slum apartment. All they had to go on was her name, some cancelled checks, and an unknown killer. As Steve Carella said. "Those checks are a diary of her life. We'll find the answer there." How was he to know the checks would reveal something much stranger than murder...?

"J"
On Passover, the rabbi bled to death. Someone had brutally stabbed him, painted a big, ugly "J" on the synagogue wall. and scrammed. Everyone knew who the killer was. It had to be Finch, the Jew-hater. Or did it? It was up to Meyer Mever and the boys of the 87th to decipher the "J" and find the murderer...!

STORM
The snow was pure white except where Cotton Hawes stared down at the bright red pool of blood spreading away from the dead girl's body. Hawes was supposed to be enjoying a quiet ski weekend with a beautiful blonde. But he couldn't ignore the body that had suddenly been "put on ice." Nor could he stand by and watch the local tops make a mess of the case. He had to catch the ski-slope slayer before he killed again....

Ed McBain: The Empty Hours. 87th Precinct Mystery. Signet, ISBN: 0451146018 (October, 1982), 165 p., $2.95.

Ed McBain: The Empty Hours (UK 1981)

From the Publisher:
THE EMPTY HOURS
Claudia Davis was young and rich. And dead. Carella had nothing to go on except a bunch of cancelled cheques. But they would turn out to reveal something much stranger than murder...

'J'
When someone stabs a Rabbi in a dark alley and leaves a calling-card -- a big, red painted 'J'-splattered on the wall, it has to be a weirdo. Like Finch, the Jew-hater. The Precinct had to find out...

STORM
Skiing holidays are no fun when you come across a dead girl in the snow, skewered with a ski-pole. Cotton Hawes couldn't stand by and watch the local police make a mess of the case. He had to find the ski-slope slayer before he killed again...

"The best of today's procedural school of police stories - lively, inventive, convincing, suspenseful, and wholly satisfactory" NEW YORK TIMES

Ed McBain: The Empty Hours. 87th Precinct Mysteries. London: Pan Books, 1981, ISBN: 0330262793, 190 p., £1.25.

Ed McBain: The Empty Hours (USA 1963)

From the Publisher:
3 BRAND-NEW 87TH PRECINCT STORIES!
STRANGLED
Her body was found in a fur-nished room in a poor neigh borhood where no one knew who she was. She was 30 "poor" that she wore panties trimmed with Belgian lace and had sixty-four thousand bucks in the bank.
THE EMPTY HOURS

STABBED
Two dozen times! A young man wearing mourning lay dead in an alley. On the wall above his head, in bright white, someone had painted the single letter J.
"J"

IMPALED
A Swedish ski instructor, slumped in a ski-lift chair with a ski pole thrust through her parka like an oversized sword.
STORM

THREE murders and as usual for the 87th Precinct Squad -- almost no clues. All with Ed McBain's special brand of suspense, driving narrative pace and tough realism.

Ed McBain: The Empty Hours. 87th Precinct Mystery. Pocket Books M4271 (June, 1963), 214 p., ¢35.