Downtown

If you like Ed BcBain novels, don't listen to this early one. I did so on BOT and if I hadn't already enjoyed some of his later ones,I would NEVER have read another . There are lists and lists and lists. The segment regarding stolen goods states what items are on each table....which lasted over 1 mile of walk/listen time. Most sentences come in pairs and the second repeats up to 50% of the words in the preceding one. Each character is a stereotype. There are flashbacks to Viet Nam ... which have no relation to the story at hand, even by a long and generous stretch. The elements of a McBain story are there. They just don't connect.

Besides the excellent 87th Precinct novels, Ed McBain has also written several crime and detective novels. Of these, "Downtown" is the best, as well as one of his best, period.

"Downtown" starts on Christmas Eve as Florida orange grower Michael Barnes, in New York on business, runs afoul of bogus cops, thieves, the mob, and a slimy movie producer. McBain piles on the action and absurdity at a furious pace as Barnes sinks deeper and deeper into the worst New York has to offer. McBain has always been adept at infusing his hard-boiled fiction with a sardonic humor that borders on the ludicrous. In "Downtown," he proves he can still walk that tightrope as he balances the hilarity of Barnes' situation with a lean, hard-hitting narrative style.

In fact, McBain's humor is so deliberately distracting, you don't realize it when he turns deadly serious. Michael Barnes may be bounced from one jam to another, but he too has a dark side, like most McBain characters. When pushed enough, he too becomes as deadly as his foes and as hard-boiled as any Raymond Chandler creation. "Downtown" is another example of Ed McBain at his best. Highly recommended.

Reminiscent of the "Out of Towners," this business trip to New York is tough on the hero but endlessly entertaining for the reader. Definitely one of McBain's best