More than any of the books so far, this book reminded me of an episode from Homicide, Life on the Streets, with two separate storylines that are set to converge.

In one story line, we have Virginia Dodge, who has taken the squad room hostage, waiting for Steve Carella to arrive back at the station so she can kill him. Her husband, Frank, had murdered a store clerk, and when he was convicted and sentenced to prison, she blamed Steve Carella. When Frank died of tuberculosis, her blame became hate, and she decided to exact revenge.

Steve Carella, on the other hand, is out at the scene of a suicide, trying to determine if it might have been murder. This part of the story is a classic locked room mystery that could've come straight out of a John Dickson Carr book. It's delightful.

Unfortunately, the Virginia Dodge story drove me nuts. I simply wasn't convinced that this particular woman could have managed to take a squad room full of trained police officers hostage for hours to simply wait for one of their colleagues to show up and be gunned down in cold blood. Rather than feeling tension, I felt annoyance.

Not one of my favorite entries so far. 

This is not the first 87th Precinct mystery that I've read - I bought a whole bunch of them when the kindle editions went on sale for .99 back in 2012. This one wasn't available at the time, so I skipped it. The first one, Cop Hater, also wasn't available at that time, a fact which I just realized sitting down to write this review. 

So, I've read The Mugger, #2, and The Con Man #4, and now this one. I will go back and pick up Cop Hater next, since it is available for the Kindle Unlimited library, which is how I read this one. I haven't really checked, but I think that all of the books are available through KU at this point. 

Having gotten that organizational explanation out of the way, let's talk about The Pusher, which was published in 1956. The fictional city of Isola is the setting for the series of police procedurals, which is a stand-in, apparently, for New York City, although I mentally put the books in Baltimore, probably because they remind me so much Homicide, Life on the Streets, and the work of David Simon generally. In my mind, at least, it's a straight line, and a five decades, between Steve Carella and Frank Pembleton (and let me just say right now that I live for the day that Homicide is available for streaming).

I've read that it's not necessary to read the books in order, since they do not always share characters. I'm just guessing here, though, when I say that with a series that is this long running, it will benefit the reader to read them as close to in order as possible, both because of the character arcs and also because McBain is writing about work that went through extraordinary changes between 1954, when the series began, and 2005, when the 55th and final book was published. This is a series that lasted for 49 years, and saw the development of forensic techniques that Steve Carella could only have dreamed of when he was trying to solve the murders that occurred in 1956. 

This is very much a book of its time. The few women who exist between its pages are either wives or sex workers - and McBain uses a much less value neutral word than sex workers to describe them. The writing itself is journalistic in tone, without frills or lyricism, but it works for a series that feels very real. Isola in the 1950's is a grungy, high crime place, where drug users are called junkies and drug dealers are called pushers, and there is little empathy for either. 

I expect that it will take me years to complete the series (and I need ANOTHER reading project like I need a hole in my head, lol), if I ever do, but I am interested to see how McBain handles the advancements in criminology, women entering the workforce and other background elements in the series almost more than I am interested in the series itself. It strikes me that this series is very nearly a time capsule of American law enforcement in the mid-twentieth century to early twenty-first century, and this idea fascinates me.

This is my first 87th Precinct book. Two crimes investigated by two precincts, probably by one serial sniper. Continue...

Geoffrey Christian was a privateer who had gutted the Maria Conception bur Geoffrey’s heart had been jolted by the beautiful senorita Magdalena who was on her way with her family to marry a rich widower. But Magdalena is as taken with Geoffrey as he is with her. Magdalene goes against her family to marry Geoffrey Even though Geoffrey is of a different faith and nationality Magdalena does not regret her decision. After seven years of no contact from her parents or sister her dad contacts Magdalena to let her know her mom is dying and wants to see Magdalena Geoffrey and Magdalena had a daughter named Lily and she was full of adventure like her dad. On the return trip home Magdalena's brother in law ambushes Geoffrey's ship and sinks it. Geoffrey had sent Magdalena , Lily, And Sir Basil who was his brother had been sent to a island near by where the ship sank. Valentine goes and rescues Lily and even though she was only fourteen she fell in love with Valentine He breaks her heart but life goes on. Sometime later their path crosses again……

I enjoyed this story although the story was a little long. This story had alot to it: pirates, adventure, royals, revenge, romance, treason, England, Caribbean, desert island, pet monkey, sassy parrot, intrigue, betrayal, heartbreak, a queen, and so much more. But it also gave you alot of information so you didn’t have a bunch of questions and I loved that. I liked the characters, the plot was very good as was the writing. I recommend.

I received an ARC of this story for an honest review.