Ed McBain: The Last Dance (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
In this city, you have to pay attention. In this city, things are happening all the time, all over the place, and you don't have to be a detective to smell evil in the wind.

In this city, you can get anything done for a price. If you want someone's eyeglasses smashed, it'll cost you a subway token. You want his fingernails pulled out? His legs broken? You want him hurt so bad he's an invalid his whole life? You want him... killed? Let me talk to someone. It can be done.

The hanging death of a nondescript old man in a shabby little apartment in a meager section of the 87th Precinct is nothing much in this city, especially to detectives Carella and Meyer. But everyone has a story, and this old man's story stood to make some people a lot of money. His story takes Carella, Meyer, Brown, and Weeks on a search through Isola's seedy strip clubs and to the bright lights of the theater district. There they discover an upcoming musical with ties to a mysterious drug - and a killer who stays until the last dance.

Ed McBain: The Last Dance. A Novel of the 87th Precinct. Pocket Books, ISBN: 0671025708 (November, 2000), 269 p., $7.99.

Ed McBain: The Last Dance (UK 2000)

From the Publisher:
Set in Isola, the city that both is and is not New York City, it features his world-reknowned squadroom of heroes and anti-heroes, joined together by a tough and often unrewarding job.

This time a man with no enemies is found hanging in what appears to be a suicide. But Carella and Brown soon discover that, drugged and unconscious, he could not possibly have hanged himself. They are dealing with murder. The investigation takes them into the politics and passions of a musical in preparation. Or rather two: one that happened half a century ago and one that is happening now...

Ed McBain: The Last Dance. The new 87th Precinct Novel. Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 034072806X (July, 2000), 279 p., £6.99.

Ed McBain: The Last Dance (UK 2000)

From the Publisher:
The fiftieth novel in the 87th Precinct series is a gritty, witty tour-de force combining violence, fear and treachery with Ed McBain's inimitable leavening of laughter and selfless heroism.

Set in Isola, the city that both is and is not New York City, it features his world-renowned squadroom of heroes and anti-heroes, joined together by a tough and often unrewarding job.

This time a man with no enemies is found hanging in what appears to be a suicide. But Carella and company soon discover that, drugged and unconscious, he could not possibly have hanged himself. They are dealing with murder. The investigation takes them into the politics and passions of a musical in preparation. Or rather two: one that happened half a century ago and one that is happening now.

The author who redefined crime fiction and created a genre has written a novel that will be acclaimed as one of his best.

Ed McBain: The Last Dance. The new 87th Precinct Novel. Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 0340728051 (January, 2000), 279 p., £16.99.

Ed McBain: The Last Dance (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
The fiftieth is pure gold: from the author The New York Times calls "the man with the golden ear" comes the fiftieth novel in the 87th Precinct series.

In this city, you can get anything done for a price. If you want someone's eyeglasses smashed, it'll cost you a subway token. You want his fingernails pulled out? His legs broken? You want him more seriously injured? You want him hurt so he's an invalid his whole life? You want him skinned, you want him burned, you want him-don't even mention it in a whisper-killed? It can be done. Let me talk to someone. It can be done.

The hanging death of a nondescript old man in a shabby little apartment in a meager section of the 87th Precinct was nothing much in this city, especially to detectives Carella and Meyer. But everyone has a story, and this old man's story stood to make some people a lot of money. His story takes Carella, Meyer, Brown, and Weeks on a search through Isola's seedy strip clubs and to the bright lights of the theater district. There they discover an upcoming musical with ties to a mysterious drug and a killer who stays until the last dance.

The Last Dance is Ed McBain's fiftieth novel of the 87th Precinct and certainly one of his best. The series began in 1956 with Cop Hater and proves him to be the man who has been called "so good he should be arrested."

Ed McBain: The Last Dance. A Novel of the 87th Precinct. Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 0684855135 (January, 2000), 269 p., $25.00.