87th Precinct

87th Precinct series
Author Ed McBain
Country United States
Language English
Genre police procedural
Publisher E. P. Dutton
Published 1956-2005
Media type Print (Hardcover)

The 87th Precinct is a series of police procedural novels and stories written by Ed McBain (pseudonym of Evan Hunter). McBain's 87th Precinct works have been adapted, sometimes loosely, into movies and television on several occasions.

Setting

The series is based on the work of a group of police detectives in the 87th Precinct in Isola, a district of a large fictional city based on the New York City borough of Manhattan. Other districts in McBain's fictionalized version of Manhattan broadly correspond to NYC's other four boroughs, Calm's Point standing in for Brooklyn, Majesta representing Queens, Riverhead substituting for the Bronx, and Bethtown for Staten Island.

Relation to Dragnet

Each novel begins with the same disclaimer:

"The city in these pages is imaginary. The people, the places are all fictitious. Only the police routine is based on established investigatory technique."

In interviews and articles, McBain has freely admitted that his series was heavily influenced by the radio and TV series Dragnet. This introduction, simultaneously evoking and contradicting Dragnet's introductory phrase, "The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent," was apparently McBain's way of acknowledging the debt, yet announcing his intention to go his own way in every book.

Characters

The series focuses on the detectives of the 87th Precinct, and although different detectives "star" in different novels, most 87th Precinct novels feature a significant role for McBain's leading character, Detective 2nd Grade Stephen Louis "Steve" Carella.

The regular, re-occurring characters of the 87th Precinct novels are:

Detectives of the 87th

A number of other detectives are mentioned, or have smaller roles. In the first novel in the series, Cop Hater, Carella is partnered with a detective called Bush. Bush's wife has hired someone to murder Bush, as well as two other officers who are not mentioned in the other novels.

Some of McBain's cop's names, including Meyer Meyer, Bert Kling and Roger Havilland, are seen in a duty roster posted on a squad room wall in the original 1962 film version of Cape Fear. At the point the film was made, over a dozen 87th Precinct novels had already been published.

Other regulars at the 87th

Other regular characters

Ed McBain on writing an 87th Precinct novel

"I usually start with a corpse. I then ask myself how the corpse got to be that way and I try to find outjust as the cops would. I plot, loosely, usually a chapter or two ahead, going back to make sure that everything fitsall the clues are in the right places, all the bodies are accounted for...(I) believe strongly in the long arm of coincidence because I know cops well, I know how much it contributes to the solving of real police cases."

The 87th Precinct Mysteries

Short stories

The following books excerpted chapters from 87th Precinct novels:

Novelette

Other media

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/6/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.