A "gripping" collection of crime stories from the author of the acclaimed 87th Precinct novels ( People).Ed McBain's 87th Precinct is "perhaps the finest police procedural series of all time" ( Publishers Weekly). But before he turned to novels, McBain wrote short crime fiction under various names, for pulp magazines including Manhunt and Argosy. Collected in this anthology are twenty-five of these early stories, organized under ...

He'd been a promising piano prodigy, once. Now he was just an addict, scraping to get by, letting his hunger for drugs consume him. But a man's life can always get worse - as Ray Stone discovers when he wakes up beside a beautiful nightclub singer only to find her dead... and 16 ounces of pure heroin missing. On the run from the law, desperate to prove his innocence and find a killer, Ray also faces another foe, merciless and unforgiving: his growing craving for a fix...

Johnny Lane is outside the Apollo when he sees Luis, and rage floods his veins. Every tough in Harlem knows that Luis tried to rape Johnny's girl, and that means he has to die. Johnny comes out swinging, but Luis is wearing brass knuckles, and he almost kills Johnny before the fight gets broken up. A few weeks later, as a brutal winter settles over New York, Johnny is walking down the street when he hears the gunfire. Luis has been shot dead. Johnny runs without thinking, because it's bad ...

Andrew Mullaney has the money to get to Aqueduct Racetrack, but nothing to bet once he gets there. It's a tragedy, because today he's got a sure thing: a filly named Jawbone who's guaranteed to win. Desperate, Andrew asks every hood he knows to spot him fifty bucks, tapping chess hustlers, pool sharks, and hoodlums of every stripe, until, finally, he asks the wrong man—who responds by tossing Andrew out the door and down a flight of stairs. For this degenerate gambler, life is hard . . . a...

Phil Colby is just cruising into Sullivan's Corners when the motorcycle cop flags him down. Phil isn't worried;he wasn't speeding, and as a city cop on holiday in a neighboring state, he expects a certain amount of understanding. But the local cop is unimpressed by his brother in blue, and he doesn't buy the story that he borrowed the car from a fellow detective. He drags Phil in for questioning, and a relaxing vacation becomes a nightmare. When Phil and his fiancée, Ann Grafton, finally g...

Sonny Hemkar is a doctor in a rough part of Los Angeles, a resident whose days and nights are an endless parade of bullet wounds, cracked skulls, knife-wielding addicts, and innocent victims who don't understand what's happening to their neighborhood. Sonny is just as frightened as they are, but he can't let it show. The son of Indian immigrants, he's dedicated to his studies, and determined to escape this neighborhood before it drags him down. . . . At least, that's what he tells women. I...

When Claire Cole meets a sailor at the hospital, he's just another enlisted man in need of her care . . . until he mistakes a nurse's compassion for true love, and a few dates as the beginning of a grand romance. But then Claire visits the USS Sykes to tell him that it's over, and something in him snaps. He curses. He begs. And when that doesn't work, he gets angry, wrapping his hands around her throat and squeezing until he sees the life leave her eyes. The nurse's death sends a shockwave...

For the first time since their daughter was born, Zachary and Mary Blake are taking a trip alone, calling it it their second honeymoon. After months of vicious infighting at his broadcasting job, Zach is looking forward to a relaxing vacation on Martha's Vineyard, a paradise untouched by time. But the respite won't last for long. When Mary's body is discovered, the coroner deems it accidental drowning, but Zach can't accept that. One year later, he returns to the island to find proof that ...

After an intense heat wave, storms threaten to blanket New York City, and three boys walk across town with knives in their pockets and murder on their minds. They're tough kids in combat boots, crossing into Spanish Harlem to pick a fight. And when they see one of their intended victims, they surround him, draw their knives, and plunge their weapons into the poor boy's gut. The attackers flee, and blood pours down the victim's lifeless body, mingling with the sudden rain. But despite the s...

Her name is Nanny, and she's the most cutthroat woman in New York. Prim, slender, and dangerously English, she's responsible for the care of Lewis Ganucci, a spoiled brat whose father just happens to control the city's largest crime syndicate. Working on Mr. Ganucci's sprawling Westchester estate is a dream . . . until Lewis disappears. Mr. Ganucci is vacationing in Capri, and Nanny sees no reason to inform him that she lost his boy. The kidnappers want $50,000, and if she can scrape it to...

For three generations, footwear company Julian Kahn has been synonymous with high fashion. And for Raymond "Griff" Griffin, head of Kahn's cost department, it would be a perfect place to work were it not for Mr. Kurz. A petty tyrant installed by the bank when ownership's grip on the company began to slip, Kurz has made the life hell for every one of his employees. When he's fired, Griff and the other executives rejoice, unaware that things are about to get a whole lot worse. The Kahns are ...

Inside the concrete walls of Bernard High, brutal young men scrap for survival, fighting with their wits, their knives, and their guns. Brawls are common in the hallways, and more than one student has been carried out on a stretcher this year. Now, Mr. Kemp is the next target. A mild-mannered teacher in far over his head, he's about to be thrust into the middle of a string of muggings happening right inside the school. It's a jungle in there, and Kemp is at the bottom of the food chain. A ...