Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
Roger Broome is in the city to sell the woodenwares he and his brother handcrafted in their shop upstate -- and he does so with stunning success. To celebrate, he goes out to enjoy the fruits of his labor and winds up in a bar, where he meets Molly. They have a few drinks and then head back to his room.

Now Molly is dead, and only Roger knows what happened.
The men at the 87th would surely love to get that information from Roger... if they even knew he had it. While Roger wants to report what he knows to the detectives, he struggles to reach out to them when a Spanish beauty named Amelia makes him forget everything else in his life. And with each missed opportunity, Roger delays justice from being served.

One of the 87th Precinct series' more gripping and psychologically intense installments, He Who Hesitates is bestselling author Ed McBain at his finest as he delivers a brooding, suspenseful thriller Newsday hails as "a tour de force!"

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates. A Matthew Hope Mystery. Thomas & Mercer, ISBN: 9781612181653 (March, 2012), 166 p., $13.95.

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates (USA 1996)

From the Publisher:
THE 87TH PRECINCT
In this city the innocent rub shoulders with the malevolent. Madmen and Samaritans cross paths. Sometimes the cops of the 87th Precinct come between the criminal and his crime. Sometimes they get there too late...

HE WHO HESITATES
Outside the 87th Precinct a stranger stands in the falling snow. A big man with big hands, Roger hesitates: He knows he should go in and tell a policeman about what happened the night before; about Molly, the homely girl he met in a bar and brought back to his rented room. But then again...

The snow falls on the city. Pushers, pimps, and working stiffs come and go. Roger tries to make up his mind. And every second that he hesitates takes him one step farther away from the 87th Precinct station, as another second ticks away on an innocent woman's life...

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates. 87th Precinct. Warner Books, ISBN: 0446601470 (November, 1996), 151 p., $5.99.

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates (USA 1986)

From the Publisher:
BLOODY VALENTINE
It was the beginning of February when Roger Broome came into the city from upstate to sell his woodenwares to the retail stores. And on the eve of Valentine's Day the big, overgrown country boy was still trying to get up his nerve to talk to one of the cops at the 87th Precinct. In the meantime, he'd met Amelia, a pretty, dark-skinned Spanish girl who gave him plenty of reason to forget his intention to visit the 87th -- and discuss another romantic encounter with a warmhearted woman named Molly... and a very cold corpse waiting to be discovered.

"AN OFFBEAT 87TH PRECINCT STORY, NEATLY CONTRIVED AND EXECUTED." -- BOOK WEEK
"HIGHLY READABLE!" -- THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"A TOUR DE FORCE!" -- NEWSDAY

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates. An 87th Precinct Novel. Avon Books, ISBN: 0380700840 (July, 1986), 151 p., $3.50.

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates (USA 1982)

From the Publisher:
OVER 50 MILLION MOBAINS SOLD WORLDWIDE!
"YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH MCBAIN!" -- CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

HE HAD SOMETHING MURDEROUS TO GET OFF HIS CHEST
Roger Broome made friends easily-men and women, winners and losers. He was a big, lovable guy detoured by big, deadly trouble. Now he was ready to turn himself in, and Detective Steve Carella looked like just the cop to turn to. But somehow, Roger never got around to it...

BRILLIANT... EXCITING... CONVINCING... AUTHENTIC FROM START TO FINISH." -- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates. He had the nerve to commit the crime. But it took real guts to confess. 87th Precinct. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 034529291X (January, 1982), 151 p., $2.25.

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates (UK 1976)

From the Publisher:
'Gripping all the way...' -- IRISH TIMES
It looked like all the cops in 87th Precinct were running down the seven flat steps to the sidewalk - but Roger didn't want a uniformed cop, he wanted a detective.

He met Detective Parker - Parker was a son of a bitch.
How could he tell a man like that about going to bed with Molly... and not getting excited... and everything...
Head down against the snow, Roger began to follow Detective Steve Carella...

ED MCBAIN's 87th Precinct mysteries are 'the best of today's procedural school of police stories - lively, inventive, convincing, suspenseful, and wholly satisfactory' -- NEW YORK TIMES

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates. An 87th Precinct Mystery. Pan Books, ISBN: 0330025937 (December, 1975), 157 p., 50p.

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates (USA 1975)

From the Publisher:
"DON'T LOOK AT ME THAT WAY," HE SAID.
"What way?"
"As if... you're afraid of me all at once."
"Don't be silly. Why should I be afraid of you?"
"You have no reason to..."
"Right," she agreed. "You could strangle me or drown me or beat me to death and nobody'd know about it for the next ten years."
"If ever," Roger said.

Roger Broome was a stranger, a small-lown peddler, who had had something important important to tell the police. But things kept getting in his way: like, meeting-up with Clyde the park bum or Ralph the con-man; getting involved with Amelia from the drugstore or worst of all, Molly, the sleazy tramp from the bar.

Then he spotted Detective Steve Carella coming out of the 87th Precinct station. He decided to follow Carella. A desperate man who would stop at nothing to do what he had to do!

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates. An 87th Precinct Mystery. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0345247574 (December, 1975), 151 p., $1.25.

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates (USA 1965)

From the Publisher:
Ed McBain, creator of one of the most successful detective-suspense series of the decade, has here written his most original 87th Precinct mystery novel.

Meet Roger Broome, a young man with an innocent face, a guilty conscience, and an incredible streak of good luck.

Watch the 87th Precinct bump its head against the most extraordinary, most perfect crime in fact or fiction.

Relax, if you can, as Broome and the 87th Precinct move together toward a climax as shocking as it is unorthodox.

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates. An 87th Precinct Mystery. New York: Delacorte Press, 1965, 218 p., $3.50.