Ax

In this 1964 addition to the series, an eighty-seven years old janitor is found murdered in the basement of his apartment building. He has an ax stuck in his head, and cuts on his hands and neck. When Carella and Hawes start to look into his background, they find that he owns a mock-Tudor house in an upscale neighborhood. Twenty-five years earlier, his son had been sent to a private school, and his wife to a private sanitarium. How did he afford the above, all on a janitors salary. Something doesn't quite add up. Good outing.

I am trying to read these in order so this is the 18th one I have read. I think I gave all the others a five. A body is found with an axe sticking out of the mans head. Who would kill an 86 year old man? Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes are the main ones working on this case. They do the usual of asking questions but turn up nothing. Could it have been the man's son, who has not been out of their house in years, the man's wife, who is crazy as a loon? How about Allie the Shark Spedino, who is brought in for questioning? Then a cop is killed, that makes a big difference in the case. Cotton and Carella cannot turn up anything to solve the mystery, then, and this is why I gave it a four, the murderer is handed to them on a platter. I like the 87th Precinct series very much and will continue to read them, however, wish this could have been solved by them and not handed to them. A quick read, will hold your attention, and if you are into McBain you will like it enough to read it.

This is one of the great books of the 87th. McBain is at his gritty best describing the reprucussions of a brutal ax murder. The finale is shocking and disheartening. Also an interesting one to read because McBain drops refrences to this one in several of his other books.