Ed McBain: Bread (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
The dog days of August are making the 87th Precinct feel like the inside of an oven. But things can always get hotter. With nearly half the squadroom on vacation, Detectives Carella and Hawes look into what appears to be an ordinary warehouse fire -- but Carella and Hawes rarely see anything ordinary, and this is no different. The trail from the warehouse leads uptown to the murders of a junkie and a suspected prostitute. They soon discover a shady ghetto redevelopment deal may have gruesome ties that run deep into the city's underbelly.

Full of fascinating characters and dialogue that tears up the pages, Bread follows a bloody money trail through the city's back alleys and dark corners. This installment of the 87th Precinct series is bestselling author Ed McBain at his grittiest.

Ed McBain: Bread. An 87th Precinct Novel. Thomas & Mercer, ISBN: 9781612181585 (March, 2012), 214 p., $13.95.

Ed McBain: Bread (USA 1997)

From the Publisher:
THE 87TH PRECINCT
It's the heat of summer. Kids are playing in open hydrants. The water pressure is sinking, and tempers are rising. The cops of the 87th Precinct know that someone out there is fighting fire with fire. And as usual, it's all about...

BREAD
The bread in this case is money. Lots of money. Money lost in a warehouse fire. Money gained in an extraordinarily successful, important business. Money waiting in the check-printing machine of an insurance company. Carella and Cotton Hawes have taken over the arson case from indolent Andy Parker. But what the find behind a tale of fire and money is murder. Lots of it...

Ed McBain: Bread. 87th Precinct. Warner Books, ISBN: 0446604259 (July, 1997), 210 p., $5.99.

Ed McBain: Bread (UK 1995)

From the Publisher:
'THERE ARE VERY REAL REASONS FOR ARSON, AND EVERY COP IN THE WORLD KNOWS THEM BY HEART
Under the summer sun crimes are being committed which the 87th Precinct must extinguish. Detective Steve Carella leads an investigation into why Roger Grimm's business and home have been reduced to ashes.

The search for motives and clues uncovers a complex web of arson, dope, homicide and porn. And when a key witness is silenced permanently, Carella must deliver the goods - to ensure justice is done.

'Lively, inventive, convincing, suspenseful, and wholly satisfactory' -- New York Times

Ed McBain: Bread. A Novel of the 87th Precinct. Mandarin, ISBN: 0749309253 (February, 1995), 190 p., £4.99.

Ed McBain: Bread (USA 1987)

From the Publisher:
HOT GOODS
A heat wave was making a blast furnace of the city streets, but that wasn't what burned up a warehouse filled with imported wooden figurines. It looked like a case of arson, and Detective Steve Carella didn't like the smell of it. And when one of the warehouse guards turned up with a bullet between the eyes, it sure looked like murder.

Another body soon linked up Carella with fat Ollie Weeks of the city's ghetto 83rd Precinct, a flamboyant redheaded call girl, and a slum redevelopment company that seemed to be giving the police the business. But only cool, calculating investigative work could ice the white-hot secrets ready to ignite a tinderbox city under the summer sun.

"EXCEPTIONALLY INTRICATE AND ABSORBING... A BAFFLING MYSTERY" -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"THE BEST OF TODAY'S PROCEDURAL SCHOOL OF POLICE STORIES -- lively, inventive, convincing, suspenseful, and wholly satisfactory" -- THE NEW YORK TIMES

Ed McBain: Bread. An 87th Precinct Novel. New York: Avon Books, 1987, ISBN: 0380703688, 175 p., $3.50.

Ed McBain: Bread (UK 1976)

From the Publisher:
'Exceptionally intricate and absorbing a bathing mystery' -- AMERICAN PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Elizabeth screamed again, a long blood-curdling scream that echoed through the squadroom. The horror of it gut-wrenched even the detectives of 87th Precinct...

Yet they played the tape of the mass assault again and again. It could be their best clue yet to a mess of arson, dope, homicide and porn.

Like the August weather, everything was red-hot -- and Steve Carella began putting the heat on...

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: Bread. An 87th Precinct Mystery. Pan, ISBN: 0330248502 (August, 1976), 191 p., 50p.

Ed McBain: Bread (UK 1974)

From the Publisher:
It was a miserable day in August in the 87th Precinct. Detective Steve Carella was hot and tired and his shirt was sticking to his back, and now this dumpy little man named Roger Grimm was sitting across from him in the squadroom demanding to know if they were going to catch the arsonist who had burned down his warehouse.

"We'll see what we can do," Carella sighed.

In the next few days Carella and his partner, Cotton Hawes, find themselves in the middle of an astonishing case, one which quickly proves to contain not one, but two arsons -- -and two murders. Assisted by a rather unfortunate personality named "Fat Ollie" Weeks of the 83rd Precinct-coarse, bigoted, and given to terrible W.C. Fields imitations, but, they have to admit, a first-rate cop Carella and Hawes roam across the city from the waterfront to the heart of the black ghetto, following e deadly trail of greed and violence. Their path leads them directly to a gallery of very unpleasant suspects and to a most unusual afternoon poker game, complete with high stakes, fast company-and a wild card.

Ed McBain builds the suspense with a master's touch, expertly evoking the atmosphere of the squadroom and the street. Written with humor and absolute authenticity, Bread is a crackling tale of cupidity and double-dealing. that proves once again McBain's talent for intriguing characterization, fast-paced action, and first-class entertainment. This is his twenty-ninth story of the 87th Precinct-and one of his best.

Ed McBain: Bread. An 87th Precinct Mystery Novel. Random House, ISBN: 0394485807 (October, 1974), 215 p., $5.95.