Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
Her name is Virginia Dodge. And she's here to kill Detective Steve Carella.
An ordinary day at the 87th Precinct is about to take a turn for the worse when Dodge shows up to put a bullet in Carella's head. And she doesn't care if she has to take all the men in the 87th with her to do it.

Armed with a homemade bomb, handgun, and a bottle of nitroglycerine hidden in her purse, Virginia holds the entire squadroom hostage as she waits for Carella. And no one is leaving until he shows up to meet his maker. With all the men of the 87th save one held prisoner, they engage in a battle of wits to save their colleague from their deadly captor.

A classic in Ed McBain's groundbreaking 87th Precinct series, Killer's Wedge is a mesmerizing, profoundly relevant thriller where terrorism strikes deep into the heart of the house, putting everyone's life on the line in a tense standoff with an enemy who cannot be reasoned with.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge. An 87th Precinct Novel. Thomas & Mercer, ISBN: 9781612181707 (March, 2012), 188 p., $13.95.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge (UK 2007)

From the Publisher:
The lady looked like Death personified. She had a black coat, black shoes and her face was the white of a corpse. She had death in her hand and death in her handbag, in the form of a .38 and a jar of nitro-glycerine. She sat in the squad room, waiting for Carella.

Virginia Dodge is out to put a bullet through Steve Carella's brain, and she doesn't care if she has to kill all the boys in the 87th Precinct to do it. So, armed with a gun and a bottle of nitro-glycerine, she spends a quiet afternoon in the precinct house, terrorising everyone there with her homemade bomb. Helpless prisoners in their own station, all they can do is wait for Steve Carella to arrive for his rendezvous with Death...

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge. An 87th Precinct Novel. Allison & Busby, ISBN: 074908023X (December, 2007), 233 p., £6.99.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge (UK 2000)

From the Publisher:
Virginia Dodge is determined to put a bullet through Steve Carella's brain -- and she doesn't care if she has to kill all of the boys in the 87th Precinct in the process...

Armed with a gun and a bottle of nitro-glycerine she spends an afternoon terrorising Lieutenant Byrnes and his men with her clever little home-made bomb. Is there nothing the boys at the 87th can do to save Carella or will this crazy broad achieve her goal?

"Familiarity with the cops of 87th Precinct breeds something like devotion: the more we know about them, the more we want to know. Their puzzles are our nightmares." Newsweek

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge. Classic 87th Prcecinct. Allison & Busby, ISBN: 0749004568 (November, 2000), 160 p., £6.99.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge (USA 1993)

From the Publisher:
HER GAME WAS DEATH
Virginia Dodge was out to put a bullet through Steve Carella's brain, and she didn't care if she had to kill all the cops in the 87th precinct to do it.

Armed with a gun and a bottle of nitroglycerin, Virginia spent a quiet afternoon in the stationhouse, holding Lieutenant Byrnes and his detectives hostage with her clever little homemade bomb. They all sat there waiting for Steve Carella, powerless to save him from a rendezvous with death...

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge. An 87th Precinct Mystery. Signet, ISBN: 0451163362 (March, 1993), 160 p., $3.99.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge (UK 1988)

From the Publisher:
The lady looked like Death personified. She had a black coat, black shoes and her face was the white of a corpse. She had death in her hand and death in her handbag. In the form of a .38 and a jar of nitro-glycerine. She sat in the squad-room, waiting for Carella.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1988, ISBN: 0140021493, 141 p., £1.95.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge (UK 1978)

From the Publisher:
The lady looked like Death personified. She had a black coat, black shoes and her face was the white of a corpse. She had death in her hand and death in her handbag. In the form of a .38 and a jar of nitro-glycerine. She sat in the squad-room, waiting for Carella.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1978, ISBN: 0140021493, 141 p., 65p.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge (USA 1974)

From the Publisher:
HER GAME WAS DEATH-
and her name was Virginia Dodge. She was out to put a bullet through Steve Carella's brain and she didn't care if she had to kill all the boys in the 87th Precinct to do it.

So Virginia, armed with gun and bottle of nitroglycerin, spent a quiet afternoon in the precinct house, terror-izing Lieutenant Byrnes and his detectives with her clever little homemade bomb. They all sat there waiting for Steve Carella. Could all the men of the 87th, prisoners of one crazy broad, be powerless to save Carella from his rendezvous with death...?

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge. An explosive sizzling 87th Precinct Mystery. Signet / New American Library, Signet Q6219 (December, 1974), 160 p., ¢95.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge (UK 1970)

From the Publisher:
It was an October afternoon. Steve Carella was out on the locked-room murder case (unless it was suicide). The other detectives were manning the squad-room when the woman slipped in and took over. She locked up their guns, gingerly placed a bottle of nitro-glycerine on the desk beside her, and with a 38 in one bony fist settled in to wait. With the patience of death and the best of intentions. She was going to kill Steve Carella. Hadn't he killed her man? Killer's Wedge, dominated by a mad she-devil sworn to the creed of an eye for an eye', is as tuned-up, as shrill as the E-string on an electric guitar.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge. Classic 87th Prcecinct. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1970, Penguin Books #2149, 141 p., 25p, 5/-.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge (UK 1964)

From the Publisher:
It was an October afternoon. Steve Carella was out on the locked-room murder case (unless it was suicide). The other detectives were manning the squad-room when the woman slipped in and took over. She locked up their guns, gingerly placed a bottle of nitro-glycerine on the desk beside her, and with a 38 in one bony fist settled in to wait. With the patience of death and the best of intentions. She was going to kill Steve Carella. Hadn't he killed her man?

Have you read Cop Hater or The Con Man? All Ed McBain's documentaries of crime and police work in a big American city are told with a mixture of tough reality and grim humour. Killer's Wedge, dominated by a mad she-devil sworn to the creed of an eye for an eye', is as tuned-up, as shrill as the E-string on an electric guitar.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1964, Penguin Books #2149, 141 p., 2'6.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge (USA 1959)

From the Publisher:
IT was an ordinary, routine day in the detectives squadroom of the 87th Precinct. Then Virginia Dodge came in looking for Detective Steve Carella. She wanted to see Steve because she intended to kill him.

Virginia's convict husband had died in prison. It was Carella who had sent him there. And now Carella was going to die, too. Anyone who tried to stop her would also die. She would kill every man in the squadroom if necessary and she was prepared to do exactly that.

She had a loaded .38 and a bottle of something she said was nitroglycerine. She might have been bluffing about that. But if it was nitro and if she put a bullet into it before they could get her gun...

The problem, Captain Byrnes thought, is that we can't communicate with each other. I'm in my own squadroom with three capable detectives, and we can't sit down and discuss ways and means of getting that gun and that nitro - if it is nitro.

And so, lacking communication, I also lack command. In effect, Virginia Dodge now commands the 87th Squad.
She'll continue to command it until one of two things happens:
a) We disarm her.
b) Steve Carella arrives and she shoots him.

Ed McBain: Killer's Wedge. An Inner Sanctum Mystery. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1959, 181 p., $2.95.