Ed McBain: Romance (UK 1996)

From the Publisher:
Romance can be murder...
- for Detective Bert Kling, who's worried that his new love outranks him in the police department.
- for Chief Inspector Sharyn Cooke. Who's worried that Bert Kling is white.
- for the cast of the new play, 'Romance', whose pretty but untalented lead actress Michelle Cassidy has been stabbed.
- for Steve Carella, who has to find out who stabbed her.

'Snappy dialogue, realism laced with urban humour Romance delivers the usual satisfying mixture.' -- Wall Street Journal
'Tough, tight and tense, Romance is as good as McBain gets, which is plenty good.' -- New York Daily News

Ed McBain: Romance. The new 87th Precinct Novel. New English Library, ISBN: 0340638168 (May, 1996), 321 p., £5.99.

Ed McBain: Romance (USA 1996)

From the Publisher:
THE 87TH PRECINCT
is where criminals and cops share secrets, tricks, and truths, where strangers meet, fall in love, and sometimes kill.

ROMANCE
is a would-be hit play about an actress in a hit play pursued by a knife-wielding stalker. Until the leading lady is stabbed outside the theater. Before the detectives of the 87th Precinct can solve that crime, the actress is stabbed again. This time for keeps.

A.D.A. Nellie Brand moves in for a murder conviction, but Carella is sure the wrong guy is taking the rap. While blond Bert Kling grills suspects ranging from the show's producers to the leading lady's lovely understudy, he's falling in love with a doctor-who happens to be black. Romance is in the air. And only a very determined killer doesn't seem to care.

Ed McBain: Romance. A Novel of the 87th Precinct. Warner Books, ISBN: 0446602809 (March, 1996), 352 p., $6.50.

Ed McBain: Romance (UK 1995)

From the Publisher:
In Ed McBain's brilliant new 87th Precinct novel spring is in the air, romance is everywhere... and so is murder.
First to fall in love is Detective Bert Kling, smitten by a Deputy Chief in the police department. He's worried about her rank. She's much more worried about telling her mother that she's going out with a white man.

But "Romance" is also a new play, all about an actress who gets stabbed. It isn't really a good play, and pretty, red-headed has been Michelle Cassidy isn't really a good actress. So when Michelle comes in to the squadroom of the 87th Precinct to report that an anonymous telephoner is threatening to stab her, the detectives are a bit sceptical.

Even when she gets stabbed in the real alley behind the theatre with a real knife, they have doubts... it was a very small wound. And a lot of television reporters come to talk to her in the hospital.

Then the real corpses start to appear, and Steve Carella starts to take Michelle's story seriously.

This is McBain on top form, in an unputdownable novel that cunningly intertwines a truly baffling murder mystery story with the timeless mysteries of the human heart.

Ed McBain: Romance. The new 87th Precinct Novel. Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 034063815X (May, 1995), 321 p., £15.99.

Ed McBain: Romance (USA 1995)

From the Publisher:
The 87th Precinct is an American literary institution. Created by the grand master of mystery, Ed McBain, the 87th Precinct is where criminals and cops share secrets, tricks, and truths, where strangers meet, fall in love, and sometimes kill. Now, Ed McBain presents the 46th novel in a series that gets better all the time.

ROMANCE
It's not a mystery, it's a story of survival and triumph. That's what some people say about Romance, a would-be hit play about an actress pursued by a knife-wielding stalker. But isn't it romantic! Before the show can open, the leading lady is really attacked, outside the theater. And before the detectives of the 87th can solve that crime, the same actress is stabbed again. This time for keeps.

A.D.A. Nellie Brand moves in for a murder con-viction, but Detective Steve Carella is sure she's got the wrong guy, and wrestles for the case with Fat Ollie Weeks, Isola's foulest cop. While Bert Kling interviews witnesses and suspects ranging from the show's producers to the author-who has written novels about cops and knows how it's done to the lead's lovely understudy, he can't keep his mind off what's happening to him. He's falling in love. With a doctor. Who happens to be a deputy chief surgeon. Who happens to be a black woman.

In the city of Isola, nothing is black and white. In the play Romance, no one is guilty or innocent. And in the gritty reality of the 87th Precinct, everyone is in love with something even if it's only murder.

Ed McBain: Romance. A Novel of the 87th Precinct. Warner Books, ISBN: 0446518042 (April, 1995), 321 p., $22.95.