Which Ed McBain book should I buy?

[acellis]

Buy any McBain book. You certainly can't go wrong with him.

[docnoir]

October 2008? Ancient history in the eBook world. Was your kindle the size of a truck?

Ha. Reminds me of Bill & Ted: "Everything is...bigger, yet...smaller. It's all...computers."

San Dimas High Football Rules!

[Ty Johnston]

I just finished "Ghosts," and I have to say, it blew me away. It had one of the spookiest scenes I've ever read, right up there with the best of Shirley Jackson. Makes me wish Ed (or Evan) had written more speculative material. I've read more than a dozen 87th Precinct novels, and this might be my favorite so far.

[ChadWilliamson]

I just finished "Ghosts," and I have to say, it blew me away. It had one of the spookiest scenes I've ever read, right up there with the best of Shirley Jackson. Makes me wish Ed (or Evan) had written more speculative material. I've read more than a dozen 87th Precinct novels, and this might be my favorite so far.

First McBain I ever read, when I was about 13. I picked it up because I was looking for mystery books with ghosts (my reading was still rather immature, obviously). I remember reading it and just being enthralled by it but just waiting and waiting and WAITING for the ghost to show up!

It completely changed everything I would read from that point on, and still influences my own writing.

[mgohearn]

McBain scripted a couple of the last Columbo TV movies in the late Nineties and based them on 87th Precinct novels. They didn't follow the Columbo format (the inverted detective story), and Columbo had to stand in for an entire squadroom of characters from the 87th.

I reread the series in order over a fairly short period of time and noticed an Easter Egg I missed the first time around. A major character in one book makes a walk-on in a later one, and the first one is completely overturned. McBain just throws it away, which makes you appreciate it all the more if you catch it. Without a spoiler alert, I Can Say No More.

And then there's the 87th Precinct's hilarious political roman a clef.

Read as many as you can find!