Til Death

Always quick reads, I love how different characters take center stage in different books. The precinct is the main character throughout the series.

"'Til Death", Ed McBain's ninth 87th Precinct novel, is a bit of a departure for the series, introducing Steve Carella's parents and sister for the first time as more than one person is about to join their family. Steve and his pregnant wife, Teddy, attend the wedding of Steve's sister Angela to Tommy Giordano, a good-natured young man whom someone apparently wants dead. A poisonous spider is delivered to his house that morning; his limo is sabotaged, resulting in a potential accident; and a mysterious sniper observes the festivities. But who wants to make Steve's sister a widow before she becomes a bride? Could it be the weak, hulking man with the blond bombshell girlfriend who blames Tommy for his buddy's death in Korea? Angela's old flame, who is in denial that she actually loves someone else? Or Tommy's best friend, the sole beneficiary of his will? Whoever the culprit is, not every member of the wedding party will make it through the day alive... "'Til Death" continues McBain's practice of keeping us interested in his characters by gradually revealing more about them in each book. In the previous story, "Killer's Wedge", we learned that Carella's father is a baker; now we meet the whole family. "'Til Death" can, in fact, be criticized for revealing too much too quickly; it's something of a shock for these characters to appear all at once after their total absence from the previous books, even when Steve was married ("Cop Hater") and seriously wounded ("The Pusher"). There's also a return appearance by Christine Maxwell, the bookstore manager from "Lady Killer", now in a relationship with Cotton Hawes; and, for the first time ever in the series, we get a complete list of the sixteen detectives assigned to the 87th Squad, nine of whom we have never met yet. "'Til Death" makes excellent use of McBain's ensemble cast. Brown and Byrnes never appear, and Hal Willis only gets one scene, but Carella, Kling, Hawes, Meyer and the recently-introduced Bob O'Brien are all integral parts of the story. While "'Til Death" may not rank among McBain's absolute best, it is, like all the 87th Precinct novels, a gripping read.

I think only Ed McBain could take only one day and write a whole book that would hold my attention. Steve Carella's sister is getting married and maybe, just maybe someone is trying to kill the groom. Who and why? It could be one of several people but Steve and his buddies from the 87th are running out of time to find the killer. Bert Kling and Cotton Hawes are off duty but agree to come to the wedding to help. Myer Myer and the ones on duty are working on another angle. Also, Teddy, Steve's wife is expecting a baby any time. Does she have it in this book or maybe the next one, have to read to find out. You will not want to put this one down when you start it. A quick easy to read good book.

This is one of my favorites of the 87th precinct. McBain changes his usual venue and direction a bit in this one. We get to see Carella's loving relationship with his family. With his sister's wedding and his wife's pregnancy, Steve's got lots of family concerns to worry about. That doesn't mean "Til Death" in anyway lacks suspense. The pleasantries of a big Italian wedding continue in the backgroud while Carella must play cat and mouse with a killer.