LIKE LOVE (19 november 2004)
If you read these weblogs regularly, it will be no secret to you that Ed McBain is one of my favorite writers.
I thought I had read about all his 87th Precinct Mysteries, but recently I discovered a forty-year-old representative of this series, named Like Love.
The blurb at the back of the books reads:
A young girl jumps to her death, a salesman gets blown apart, and two semi-nude bodies are found dead on a bed with all the earmarks of a love pact.
Spring was really here for the 87th Precinct.
Carella and Hawes thought the double suicide stank of homicide, but they couldn't get a break.
Fortunately, Hawes had something going with Christine - like love ...
If you read books mainly for their stories, Like Love is not the first book to choose. One murder remains unsolved at the end of the book, and the story is continuously interrupted by all kinds of irrelevant observations.
However, if it is poignant observations that you go for and if you appreciate subtle humour, this is definitely a book you should read.
McBain wrote this book in 1964. While reading it I became more and more convinced that McBain's mind was brimming with all kinds of original ideas when he wrote this book.
He experiments freely with all kinds of literary techniques, For instance, when the salesman is nearing his death, McBain makes use of a technique which is sometimes called prospective aspect. He literally counts down the seconds that separate the salesman from his imminent death.
McBain manages to construct some amusing contrasts, for instance when he begins an observation like this: In police work, a 'routine check' is very often something that can hardly be considered routine ...
I get the impression McBain considers The Birds one of his principal achievements. Reading Like Love, I think the wealth of ideas he displays there makes it a masterpieces he can be more proud of.
