McBain had master his 87th Percinct approach by this point, this being the last one, master class in investigatory technique ( )

The last novel of the 87th Precinct. Number 55. I can't believe the series is over for me. I'm gonna miss this town, and these people...

“Q: Why did you kill these people?
A: They fiddled with my life.”

“The Glock Murders” - first a blind violin player outside a nightclub, and then a woman cooking an omelet in her own apartment.

Fat Ollie gets the last sentence of the last book in the series:
“Hey, Patricia,” he said, “come on in.”

“The city in these pages is imaginary.
The people, the places are all fictions.”

Not for me they weren’t. Not for me. ( )

I feel I've read this one before. I enjoyed mostly the occasional appearance of other McBain characters in the telling of the story. A serial killer is shooting a wide variety of victims twice in the face. The solving of the case really seems to wander, but still enjoyable to listen to. ( )

My first McBain, a series of murders happen and through gun forensics, they are linked. Steve Carella and the 87th precinct realize they have a serial killer, but how and why are the victims chosen? Since this is the 57th book in the 87th precinct line, I'm thinking there was gold here at one time. This particular book was okay, I read it mostly to watch and learn about dialogue.

I will give Ed McBain the benefit of the doubt. I don't think a publisher would have hung in there with Ed if he wasn't good. I'm chalking this one up as a clunker. Not horrible, but not fantastic. Average. ( )

Every time I think I've exhausted the Ed McBain canon, I find another one. This one is another classic novel of the 87th Precinct. ( )

Still very dry; very procedural; limited characterization ( )

EXCELLENT

The 87th Precinct detectives are stumped by a serial killer who doesn't fit the profile. A blind violinist taking a smoke break, a cosmetics sales rep cooking an omelet in her own kitchen, a college professor trudging home from class, a priest contemplating retirement in the rectory garden, an old woman out walking her dog - these are the seemingly random _targets shot twice in the face. But most serial killers don't use guns. Most serial killers don't strike five times in two weeks. And most serial killers' prey share something more than being over fifty years of age. Now it falls to Detective Steve Carella and his colleagues in the 87th Precinct to find out what the victims had in common - before another body is found. ( )