Yesterday I reread Ed McBain's "The Frumious Bandersnatch", which he got from a Lewis Carroll poem out of one of his Alice in Wonderland books (which I read and didn't like). Anyway, this one is about a pop singer on the verge of stardom who is kidnapped off a boat during the launch party of her debut album. This is probably the saddest 87th precinct book, for several reasons, the main one being McBain's untimely death in 2005. He had so many different things going that will never be finished. Carella is disenchanted with the job. Ollie is becoming human and dating a nice girl (what in the world is she thinking?!). I wish I knew where those long arc plots were going. Oh, well. Another reason it's so sad is the ending--the singer, Tamar, was set up by the CEO of her record company. He staged the kidnapping with some guys he met to generate publicity, and then they double-crossed him and raped and murdered her. Ow.
Today it was "The Last Dance" by Ed McBain, also a reread. This isn't one of my favorites. It's not bad, it just isn't great. An elderly man is found dead by his daughter. Turns out he owned the rights to a play that some producer wanted to revive and make a hit out of, only Hale wouldn't sign over the rights. So his daughter hires a hit man to kill her dad. Poor guy, didn't have anything in the world, hell, his daughter freely admits she didn't like him that much. Just a lonely old retired, divorced guy living all alone, no friends, no family other than a daughter who hates to visit, and she has him killed. It's just depressing. I think toward the end of his life McBain was getting more and more cynical, and it shows.
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