DOLL - Ed McBain


A woman, model Tina Sachs, is killed, brutally slashed to death while her young daughter sat in another room, quietly playing with her doll.

In the squad room of the 87th Precinct, Steve Carella asks his lieutenant to assign Bert Kling to the case. Kling has been a bit belligerent since the loss of his fiancé. He's about to get booted out of the squad but Carella still believes in him and thinks he just needs the chance to prove his worth. But Kling and Carella have an argument during the investigation and Carella orders Kling to go home.

Shortly after Kling leaves, Carella makes a discovery in his investigation and heads off to follow up on his lead. Unfortunately Carella never calls in to report on what he's discovered and the criminal(s) behind the crime surprise and subdue the officer.

Stripped naked and bound to a radiator, the killers torture (mentally and with doses of drugs) Carella to try and force him to tell them how he discovered them as they believed they had covered their tracks. As the torture gets more intense, Carella's only hope to survive is that the men at the 87th precinct can find him.

I've never read an Ed McBain book but I recognize his name from my browsing of bookstores. I'm quite sure I never knew about his 87th Precinct series but after reading this I am more curious to read more.

What I liked here was the absolute tension that McBain provides. The mystery of 'who dunnit' took a back seat to 'is Carella going to survive'? We also wonder (along with the killers) how Carella figured it out.

Being just one in a long series of books about the precinct, I do wonder what kind of relationships there are among the men. Are the books mostly about solving crimes, or are they about the men who work there (or a bit of both)? This is what has me curious to read more.

What doesn't work here for me is how quickly the book ends.  We have so much tension built up and then it's over in a couple of pages and hardly any denouement (and what there was made almost no sense unless, perhaps, we're more familiar with the series).

Looking for a good book? Doll is a good (but not great) introduction to Ed McBain and the 87th Precinct series. Excellent for fans of dark, police thrillers.

4 stars

* * * * * *

Doll

author: Ed McBain

series: 87th Precinct #20

publisher: Delacorte

hardcover, 190 pages

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