87th Precinct

Books are a big part of my life, so it was only a matter of time before that started to be reflected in this blog. If nothing else, it is a theme to try to capture on dull days when I don't go out, like today.

I'm currently working my way through Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels. I'm fifteen volumes in, and still some way short of the ones that were published in my lifetime. This leaves me about forty to go, which at current rate of reading should last me another 15-20 years.

Even at this stage it's easy to see how influential these books have been on the development of US TV crime drama, from Dragnet through to Hill Street Blues and Homicide. The recent popularity of The Wire brought a further call for recognition. To close the circle, Stanley Tucci and Steve Buscemi have now optioned the 87th Precinct works for their own TV series.

As with much US crime fiction of all generations, there is a strong social and liberal conscience running through the work, and as the sequence runs through forty years, the changes in society are reflected within them. Not that these are intended to be anything but popular fiction (McBain being a pen name for Evan Hunter, who wrote more serious, psychological work under his own name - not unlike the split Simenon made between his Maigrets and 'romans noirs.) As a body of work they are earning more of a literary reputation though.

This blip also reveals my weakness for collecting Penguin paperbacks, particularly the 50s/60s cover designs. This group of covers, from '63-'65, were all designed by Alan Spain.