Ed McBain is a pen name of Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Evan Hunter, who wrote the screenplays for Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” and “Strangers When We Meet,” and the novel The Blackboard Jungle. As Ed McBain, he has written fifty 87th Precinct novels, the blueprint series for every successful police procedural series. This original collection of eleven short stories takes you onto the gritty and violent streets of the city, and into the darkest places in the human mind. “First Offense” is narrated from behind bars by a cocky young man who stabbed a storeowner in a robbery attempt. In “To Break the Wall,” a high school teacher has a violent encounter with several punks. And a Kim Novak look-alike blurs the line between fantasy and reality in “The Movie Star.” These and eight more stories showcase the mastery for which the San Diego Union-Tribune dubbed McBain “the unquestioned king.”

Ed McBain is a pen name of Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Evan Hunter, who wrote The Blackboard Jungle. As Ed McBain, he has written fifty 87th Precinct novels, the blueprint series for every successful police procedural series. In this original short story collection, you’ll see that McBain’s stories are not neat little plot pieces; just as in real life, the characters’ messy problems aren’t cleared up at the end with pat solutions. In “The Interview,” an egotistical director manages to antagonize and alienate everyone connected to the movie industry when he is grilled about a drowning that occurred during a film shoot. A circus owner hires an aerialist in “The Fallen Angel,” and gets more than he bargained for. The most affecting, famous story in the collection is “The Last Spin,” in which two opposing gang members play a game of Russian roulette. The eleven stories in this collection serve to remind us of how versatile and unique a writer Ed McBain a.k.a. Evan Hunter can be