Hark! Book

I recently reviewed Cop Hater the first of the 87th Precinct novels. Hark! is the author's penultimate effort. I was interested in how it would compare to his early work.

Why is this something that would appeal to me? Let me quote from a review of Cop Hater by my GR friend Bobby Underwood. "Gritty, lean, and at times surprisingly romantic, the first entry in the 87th Precinct series remains one of the best…It seems old-hat today, tagging along with Carella, Kling, Meyer Meyer, Hawes and the rest of the 87th Precinct cops as they tried to solve multiple crimes so they could make it home to their sweethearts or go find one, but when Cop Hater was written, it stood alone as something unique. Despite it being imitated over the decades in various ways by a lot of authors, some of them very good in their own right, it still does. Reading it now, it needs to be judged within that context, and when it is, it shines."

There is a lot in Hark! of what I liked in Cop Hater: the multiple storylines; the dynamics of the 87th personalities; the mixture of the urgent and mundane. Yet, this effort comes up a bit short. Except for a few references to contemporary celebrities and events, it still has a 1950s vibe even though it was written in the 21st century.

The central plot involves a familiar criminal, The Deaf Man, and he is again intent on making life miserable for the precinct's detectives while showing what a brilliant mind he possesses. McBain has put a lot of work into this aspect of the plot, but it didn't connect with me the way some of his other books did. Some of the other subplots worked well. Ollie Weeks shows up for a nice turn. Cotton Hawes has a lot to think about as he dodges a sniper's bullets. But, Carella's thoughts about the impending second marriages of his mother and sister are awkward at best and poorly developed at worst.

Am I a grumpy old man? Or just an old dog, now less amused by another old dog's usual bag of tricks?