And we’re off!!!
I’ve dropped into the habit of starting off my reading for our club weeks with a revisit to an Agatha Christie; she’s one of those authors, much like Maigret, who seems to have a book published in just about every year we choose! The novel she published in 1956 was “Dead Man’s Folly”, a book I probably haven’t read in decades; but I thought I would add a slight twist to my reading by also revisiting a very different crime writer – Ed McBain.
In 1956, Christie was probably at the height of her repuration; she had numerous classic titles like “Murder on the Orient Express”, “Death on the Nile” and “And Then There Were None” (with its former “Ten Little….” titles) behind her, and many more great mysteries to come. In contrast, Ed McBain, although an experienced author, would make his first step into releasing his police procedural series featuring the detectives of the 87th Precinct with the book “Cop Hater”; and his work is very different from Christie’s, just showing the range there can be in crime writing.
Christie needs no introduction; McBain may well do, because I actually don’t know how much he’s read or how he’s viewed nowadays. He was born Salvatore Albert Lombino, but legally changed his name to Evan Hunter in 1952; under that name, he’s probably best known as the author of “The Blackboard Jungle” and he continued to write as Hunter (as well as other aliases). However, as Ed McBain he produced a series of 56 books featuring the 87th Precinct squad and I confess to owning them all… (plus several other little spinoffs…)
The 87th Precinct was located in an unnamed fictional city (generally reckoned to represent New York) and was a real ensemble series which inspired the hit TV show, “Hill Street Blues” (as well as an earlier black and white TV series which is very sweet but not as hard edged as the books!) I read them all decades ago; so I did wonder how I would find a re-encounter, and whether my tastes would have changed or I would find the books dated…
Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie
This particular Christie was published about two-thirds of the way into the writer’s career, and her famous detective Hercule Poirot was well-established. “Dead Man’s Folly” sees him partnered again with the crime novelist Ariadne Oliver, a character generally agreed to be based on Christie herself and who would often share the spotlight with Poirot in later books. Mrs. Oliver has been invited down to Nasse House in Devon to stage a murder hunt at a summer fete held by the lord of the manor, Sir George Stubbs; however, her woman’s instincts tell her something is not as it seems and she summons Poirot down to help. Under the guise of visiting celebrity prize-giver, Poirot is introduced to the motley crew of what will become suspects, including Mrs. Folliat, the previous owner of the house; the Legges, a couple experiencing marriage difficulties who are staying nearby; locals including the MP Mr. Masterton; and Sir George’s vacant and fickle wife, Hattie. Inevitably, there is a murder, which Poirot is chastened not to have prevented; and the tangled plot, with alibis and secrets stretching long into the past, will take all his ingenuity to untangle.
One of the joys of reading this book (apart from knowing you’re in the hands of the Queen of Crime!) is the portrait she paints of Nasse House; because this was based on Christie’s own beloved Greenway in Devon, and her love for the location shines through (and is perhaps reflected in the attitudes and behaviour of one of the characters…) The mystery itself zips along entertainingly, and it’s the kind of plot she does so well; she’s so brilliant at building those twisty-turny stories where everything links into past events and it takes all her detective’s power to unravel them. This is no exception, and I had forgotten the plot completely so the reveal was a treat. What I also loved being reminded of was how funny an author Christie is; she’s not afraid to send up her characters and detectives, and so reading “Dead Man’s Folly” was just perfect. It probably doesn’t rank among her top mysteries, but even lesser Christie is good in my book!
Cop Hater by Ed McBain
Impressively enough, McBain published *three* 87th Precinct books in 1956, but this was the first and introduced readers not only to the setting but also to some of the regular characters. The main detective, who will feature all through the series, is Steve Carella, and as a seasoned reader I recognise several names who will recur! The setting is a July in the city, where the heat is oppressive and tempers short. In these days of primitive air conditioning, everyone is suffering and matters are not helped when someone begins to kill cops…
These are hard crimes to solve; is it a maniac who just hates the police? Is there a connection with a criminal who’s had dealings with each victim? Or is this the work of one of the teenage gangs causing havoc in the streets? Carella and those close to him will be put in danger trying to solve the case, and things will get very tense before any resolution is found.
One thing I remembered straight away was just what a good writer McBain generally was. His prose is economic yet often evocative; he can nail character brilliantly in a few words; and his characters and the city quickly come alive for the reader. The crime itself is an interesting one and I shan’t say too much about it except to note that McBain uses a particular crime-writing trope which appears in a very famous Christie book so there’s a strange connection between two very different authors! The narrative was often spare and effective, the denouement came along more quickly than I expected (in those days McBain wasted no words, though that did change later), and the characters in peril didn’t suffer too much fortunately!
This is of course a first novel in a series, and in many ways it’s a gentle introduction to his writing but it also lays out a template for where the series will go. The police are human and flawed; there are no black and white lines of good and evil; and the city will be as much a character in the stories as the various players. Already, in what is something of a scene-setting book, the various detectives are starting to fall into the roles they’ll mostly stay with during the series; and I do think I would love to re-read the books in publication order one day (rather as I would like to with Christie!)
There was, I have to say, one element I thought I might struggle a little with, and I was right; McBain’s portrayal of women is not something with which I feel entirely comfortable. It has to be borne in mind that this book was written a *long* time ago, when attitudes were different; nevertheless his women are very objectified, defined often by their physical attributes and in relation to their sexuality; and towards the end of the book this element becomes even more pronounced. I was probably less sensitive to this when I was younger but I find it less easy to deal with nowadays. It won’t stop me reading McBain, but it’s something I wish he’d toned down a little.
So, my first reads for 1956 were an excellent pair of very different crime books, and I loved re-encountering both authors. Re-reading can be a dangerous thing; you never quite know if an author will live up to your memory of them and their books. Fortunately, though, Christie never fails to please, and “Cop Hater” has reminded me how much I love Ed McBain’s writing. Now, if we’d made this Club a fortnight long, I might even have been able to read the other two 1956 87th Precinct books! ;D
Chocoviv
Oct 05, 2020 @ 07:06:39
I love Agatha Christie !
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 09:19:34
Me too! Always such a joy to read her!
Chocoviv
Oct 05, 2020 @ 09:25:45
Agree!
cirtnecce
Oct 05, 2020 @ 07:55:17
We read the same book!! Lol! I agree with every word you said about Christie and I will post my review soon! I remember my Dad owning quite a few Ed McBain but I have not read them; time to dig them out. I had no idea Hill Street Blues was based off this series.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 09:17:50
Hurrah! It’s such a wonderful read and I’ll look forward to your thoughts. McBain is a great writer, although very different – and Hill Street was such a great series too!
TravellinPenguin
Oct 05, 2020 @ 08:15:00
My mother owned every book in paperback that Agatha Christie wrote as well as many of those by Ed McBain. She loved her crime.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 09:15:37
She was obviously a woman of good taste – I have complete collections of both too!
louloureads
Oct 05, 2020 @ 08:21:12
Dead Man’s Folly is one of my favourite Christies because she clearly had so much fun writing it (that and I love all the Ariadne Oliver books, where she’s poking fun at mystery writers). I agree with you that it’s not one of her superlative works but I enjoy it very much.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 09:15:11
It *is* really enjoyable, I agree. And I do love Mrs. Oliver – she’s a wonderful creation and the interactions between her and Poirot are pure joy!
Simon T
Oct 05, 2020 @ 10:41:33
I love Dead Man’s Folly, largely because – like others here – I love Ariadne Oliver so much! Miss Marple over Poirot for me, as characters, but he has the best companions in the form of Hastings and Oliver.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 11:05:36
She’s a wonderful creation! And yes, I love Hastings too – such a shame she didn’t use him more!
BookerTalk
Oct 05, 2020 @ 10:55:48
I may well be joining you. I had planned to read The Fall by Camus but when I opened it last night I just wasn’t in the mood…..
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 11:04:49
It’s a very different book from these, that’s for sure!
MarinaSofia
Oct 05, 2020 @ 11:10:47
Two brilliant and very different writers there. But you are right, McBain is very much a man’s writer (at least in the earlier books, I think he gets a bit more nuanced later).
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 11:40:14
Agreed – from my memory of the books (admittedly a bit fuzzy) I seem to recall that the portrayal of women did improve as the books went on.
A Life in Books
Oct 05, 2020 @ 11:27:09
I’m not a crime reader but I do know you couldn’t get much further apart than these two!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 11:39:41
No, I don’t think you could! It was an interesting contrast!
Liz Dexter
Oct 05, 2020 @ 12:14:15
What a great pairing, two crime novels but SO different!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 14:33:49
Very different, and both enjoyable – just shows the variety of crime writing I suppose!
ellenandjim
Oct 05, 2020 @ 12:36:09
Have you watched Andrew Marr’s Spies, sleuths, sorcerers. I strongly recommend it. The three parts can nowadays be found on YouTube. He is really illuminating on the patterns, uses, ways of functioning. He talks to individual authors too.
By the way how have you coped with the switch of WordPress to block editor? I send panicked cries of distress and got back doable instructions for carrying on with classic editor.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 14:33:28
I think I did watch it when it first came out – but might have a revisit!
As for the block editor, it’s hideous. However, you can get round it by going into WP admin and creating your posts from there. There’s a little drop down next to the New Post button and lets you choose classic – what a relief!!!! There’s been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about this on Twitter!!
Claire (The Captive Reader)
Oct 05, 2020 @ 14:58:45
Shame of shames, I don’t think I’ve ever read any of the books with Ariadne Oliver. Clearly I need to remedy that as this one sounds so fun.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 17:10:55
She’s a marvellous addition to the Poirot stories – a wonderful send-up of Christie herself and makes the perfect foil to Poirot.
WordsAndPeace
Oct 05, 2020 @ 15:13:06
Thanks for introducing me to Ed McBain. I’ve added #1 in the series to my TBR. I love reading classics mysteries. I don’t think I have read this one by AG, but I will eventually listen to it, as it’s #33 with Hercule Poirot. I’m in a project to listen to them all. I just finished #6
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 17:10:12
Ah, he’s great. Totally different from Christie but wonderfully readable. My retirement ambition (if I ever get the chance to retire…) is to read all the Christies from beginning to end – bliss!
hopewellslibraryoflife
Oct 05, 2020 @ 15:39:12
I like this! Cop Hater–very timely title for today as is the flawed cops theme (at least here in the USA). I read Dead Man’s Folly, too, for the first book.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 17:09:30
Ah, the Christie is a good one. And McBain is, yes, surprisingly relevant…
JacquiWine
Oct 05, 2020 @ 15:48:26
Well, it wouldn’t be a Club week without a post or two about Agatha Christie! I’m sure I must have read this back in the days of my youth; but like you, I could probably go back to it ‘fresh’ without any recollection of the plot or denouement. The plotting is always very impressive in any Christie mystery. She is so good on detail – it’s one of the things I remember most about reading her books.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 17:08:42
No, it wouldn’t! It must be a long time since I read this because I really couldn’t remember the ending at all. It was a great read though – very cleverly plotted and such wonderful humour!
heavenali
Oct 05, 2020 @ 16:25:15
I love Agatha Christie and Dead Man’s Folly is a favourite of mine. I have never read Ed Mcbain though, and had no idea his novel inspired Hill Street Blues, I loved that. What a great pairing to start the 1956 club with.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 17:07:56
The Christie is a great read! And yes, the whole precinct based ensemble cast thing came from McBain and I think Steve Bochco acknowledged the inspiration at one point.
Julé Cunningham
Oct 05, 2020 @ 16:27:24
Ariadne Oliver is such a fun character and Zoë Wanamaker’s portrayal of her in the TV series is priceless – the perfect foil for David Suchet’s Poirot. Ed McBain is still well-known here, particularly for his NY setting.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 05, 2020 @ 17:07:02
She’s wonderful, isn’t she? And I loved Wanamaker and Suchet together – perfect casting. Glad to know McBain is still being read – he deserves to be!
1streading
Oct 05, 2020 @ 20:21:43
What a great idea to compare the two books. Though it some ways it seems like the old (Christie) and the new (McBain), from some of your comments I wonder if you think Christie feels more in tune with the present?
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 06, 2020 @ 14:12:08
I thought it might be fun to look at these together, especially as they’re so unlike. But that’s a good point you make – somehow Christie’s characters are more universal and although there is sometimes terminology we wouldn’t use nowadays, there is what I perceive as more dated viewpoints in McBain.
whatmeread
Oct 05, 2020 @ 22:28:59
That’s interesting. I’ve read books by Evan Hunter but never knew he was also Ed McBain.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 06, 2020 @ 14:06:22
He was certainly a prolific author! 😀
Nancy B Pearl
Oct 05, 2020 @ 23:03:01
For me, one of the best parts of the McBain series is that Steve Carella’s wife Teddy is deaf and mute. There aren’t many deaf/mute characters in fiction published in the mid-20th century (I actually can’t remember any published in the 21st century either.) Best of all, her deafness is just part of who she is, not defining who she is. (And I haven’t reread these novels for many many decades, but still remember Teddy’s name.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 06, 2020 @ 14:06:07
I so agree – she was a strong and distinctive character in her own rights, and her deafness was just part of that. I have happy memories of the McBain books – one day I shall really have to embark on a re-reading project!
tracybham
Oct 06, 2020 @ 00:46:02
One of the things I love about these memes is the juxtaposition of so many books from the same year and seeing how different they can be. I have read about 4 or 5 of the early books in the 87th Precinct series. Since he continued them into the 21st century, I wonder if the portrayal of women improves in later books. That happened to a certain extent in Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series, written between 1934 and 1975.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 06, 2020 @ 14:03:52
Agreed – it’s particularly fascinating to see the different kinds of books around in this year – they really were varied. From my memory of the 87th Precinct books (and I read them *all* back in the day) his portrayal of women does improve. Oddly, I had hoped to read a Nero Wolfe this week too, but I think that one will escape… 😀
literarygitane
Oct 06, 2020 @ 02:13:36
I love Agatha Christie. I haven’t read McBain but certainly intrigued now. How long will the reading and blogging for the 1956 club last? I’m afraid I’m a little late for this challenge.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 06, 2020 @ 09:44:44
McBain is a wonderful writer, although very different to Christie! The 1956 Club will run for a week, like all our clubs do – so ends on 11th October. They happen every 6 months, so even if you can’t join in this time, there’s always the next one!
madamebibilophile
Oct 06, 2020 @ 14:55:33
A really interesting contrast between two such prolific authors! I’ve never read McBain but I remember my parents enjoying him (and they agree on very little!) I’ll have to give him a try.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 06, 2020 @ 15:44:39
He’s worth exploring, as long as you’re prepared to allow for some dated attitudes. But the whole police procedural thing is wonderfully done, even down to the inclusion of report documents inserted into the narrative!
Reese Warner
Oct 07, 2020 @ 18:55:40
I didn’t read yours until now because I was halfway through Cop Hater, just to be on the safe side. Very fun! It does have a certain relationship to that unnamed Agatha Christie novel, doesn’t it?
On the other hand, what I should have avoided was the Wikipedia article on the 87th precinct, which does have a spoiler for this one. Grr.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 07, 2020 @ 22:01:26
Oh no! Wikipedia *does* tend to give very detailed plots! But McBain’s writing is excellent and I was fascinated how his plot pivoted on something Christie had used! 🤣
The 1956 Club – The Man Who Japed by Philip K. Dick | Pining for the West
Oct 09, 2020 @ 00:00:34
#1956Club – ready, set, go! – Stuck in a Book
Oct 09, 2020 @ 11:39:40