Praise for Fiddlers

‘This is, sadly, the final 87th Precinct book from the recently deceased father of the police procedural; seldom has a series retained its vibrancy so well over half a century and 56 volumes . . . Detective Steve Carella and “Fat” Ollie Weeks are deceptively brilliant sleuths of the old school, and their flaws have made them even more sympathetic to generations of readers . . . never a lifeless page or wasted word. McBain’s series will remain a landmark achievement’

Guardian

‘Ed McBain makes the process fascinating, with the aid of electric dialogue and compassionate characterisation . . . I would rank Fiddlers somewhere in the middle of [Ed McBain’s] oeuvre, which means it is very good indeed’

Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph

“It moves at lightning speed . . . McBain’s trademark heavy irony and light comic touch are much in evidence. It is the 52nd novel to feature the precinct and provides a fitting end to a remarkable series’

Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard

‘McBain’s strength in all these novels is the police procedure, how they talk, act and behave, and there’s no lessening of this power in the present volume’

Irish Times

‘One of the most popular crime writers of all time . . . this book is still a reminder of one of the greats of crime fiction’

Susanna Yager, Daily Telegraph

‘Always immensely satisfying’

Irish Independent

‘This stylish, witty and exciting murder story with six victims and one mysterious killer is a reminder of a master of his craft, much admired, now much missed’

Literary Review

This is for my wife, DRAGICA – Here, now, forever

FIDDLERS

Ed McBain

An 87th Precinct novel

Ed McBain and The Murder Room

››› This title is part of The Murder Room, our series dedicated to making available out-of-print or hard-to-find titles by classic crime writers.

Crime fiction has always held up a mirror to society. The Victorians were fascinated by sensational murder and the emerging science of detection; now we are obsessed with the forensic detail of violent death. And no other genre has so captivated and enthralled readers.

Vast troves of classic crime writing have for a long time been unavailable to all but the most dedicated frequenters of second-hand bookshops. The advent of digital publishing means that we are now able to bring you the backlists of a huge range of titles by classic and contemporary crime writers, some of which have been out of print for decades.

From the genteel amateur private eyes of the Golden Age and the femmes fatales of pulp fiction, to the morally ambiguous hard-boiled detectives of mid twentieth-century America and their descendants who walk our twenty-first century streets, The Murder Room has it all. ›››

The Murder Room

Where Criminal Minds Meet

www.themurderroom.com

The city in these pages is imaginary.

The people, the places are all fictitious.

Only the police routine is based on established investigatory technique.