FIDDLERS (29 november 2006)
In 2002, crime novelist Ed McBain was diagnosed with throat cancer. Since then he wrote four of his so-called "87th Precinct novels".
The best of these is no doubt his last: Fiddlers.
What probably makes the book so special is that McBain has not just concentrated on the story. What McBain in fact describes is his own situation: a man who knows that he has only a short time to live and intends to spend what little there is left doing something he considers important.
In Fiddlers this has resulted in what in my view is McBain's best 87th Precinct novel. Page after page is filled with a rich mixture of wit, wisdom and humour.
If you want to know what the book is about, here is what the blurb at the back of the book says:
It started with the blind violinist -- shot twice through the head at point-blank range in the alley outside his dingy restaurant. It's only when the omelette lady gets shot with the same gun in the same way twenty-four hours later that the 87th Precinct really starts to sit up and take notice. But Steve Carella and the boys at the Precinct always seem to be one step behind the killer, and the death toll is rising. And why is the killer heard to introduce himself as 'Chuck' before pumping two bullets into their bodies?
But believe me: the story is hardly more than the glue that keeps a wealth of exceptional goodies together.
Ed McBain will be sorely missed. The wonderful books he has left deserve to be read by many generations to come.
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Ed McBain died on 6th June 2005. Fiddlers appeared in September of that year.
