Fat Ollie's Book

Author:   Ed McBain
Publisher:   Orion Publishing Co
Edition:   Digital original
ISBN:  

9780752842769


Pages:   336
Publication Date:   04 December 2003
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Our Price $24.99 Quantity:  
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Fat Ollie's Book


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Overview

Full Product Details

Author:   Ed McBain
Publisher:   Orion Publishing Co
Imprint:   Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
Edition:   Digital original
Dimensions:   Width: 11.00cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 17.80cm
Weight:   0.220kg
ISBN:  

9780752842769


ISBN 10:   0752842765
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   04 December 2003
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Reviews

Detective Oliver Wendell Weeks, the equal-opportunity bigot of the 88th Precinct who thinks of himself as discerning, gets his own case when someone assassinates Isola City Councilman Lester Henderson as his crew's setting up a political rally inside Martin Luther King Memorial Hall. Recovering the weapon just creates a bigger problem: How could the perp have shot Henderson from stage right and then cannoned into a sozzled Vietnam vet outside stage left, dropping the gun as he ran? Apart from making a careful diagram of stage right and stage left he shares with Steve Carella and the other detectives of the 87th Precinct, where the Hendersons made their home, Fat Ollie can't be bothered with such niceties, because he's on the trail of a much more heinous crime: the theft of his just-completed police novel, Report to the Commissioner, from his locked car outside King Hall. The thief, transvestite prostitute Emilio Herrera, who's even dimmer than Ollie, thinks he's reading a real report to the commissioner by one Olivia Wesley Watts whose name, like all the untraceable names in the report, is obviously in code. While Carella & Co. are busy running down the Councilman's killer and Ollie and impressionable Officer Patricia Gomez are following the trail of the Report, Emilio, a.k.a. Emmy, toils to identify the principals and find the diamonds they're all seeking. A neatly turned pair of cases leavened by some obvious but very funny satire of cop novels, including McBain's own (Money, Money, Money, 2001, etc.), courtesy of some extended peeks at Ollie's opus. (Kirkus Reviews)


After more than 50 years, the unnamed American city in which McBain's 87th Police Precinct stories are set must be as familiar to regular readers as their own neighbourhoods, and the Precinct irrevocably imprinted on their imaginations. We're back there now on the eve of a Mayoral election. Lester Henderson is about to make his final campaign speech. As he steps on to the podium of the Martin Luther King Memorial Hall he's full of confidence. Seconds later a series of shots from Stage Right cuts short his aspirations. Nobody saw who held the gun. Detective Oliver Wendell Weeks of the 88th Precinct ('Fat Ollie' for short) just happens to be in the area and first on the scene, which technically makes it his case. But Ollie very soon has other, more important, things on his mind. In the back of his car was a dispatch case containing the draft of his first novel, on its way to a final check before being printed, published and unleashed on an awestruck public. But when he returns to his car after a preliminary investigation into Henderson's murder it is to find the car window smashed, and the dispatch case with its precious contents stolen; obviously a much greater crime than the death of a mere local politician. Ollie, having turned over that case to Detective Steve Carella of the 87th, heads off in pursuit. So we have two crimes - one straightforward, another which gradually develops into near-farce, for not surprisingly Ollie's novel is a crime story by the name of A Report to the Commissioner, written in the first person under a female nom-de-plume: Olivia Wesley Watts. The not-very-bright junkie thief, who'd been in search of drugs or money, is at first disappointed, then intrigued. Skimming through the typescript he naively takes it at face value as a genuine report to a Police Commissioner from a female police officer, about a secret stash of diamonds hidden in a cellar... with hilarious results. Even after such a vast output McBain's energy is undiminished; the plots are still adroitly conceived, the writing as pacy and racy, as ever, the characterization as finely honed. Ollie is not easy to love; he's fat because he's monstrously greedy. He's bigoted, a bit of a bully and pompously confident of his own status and abilities - yet he's oddly endearing. Ed McBain obviously enjoyed writing about him, and readers will equally enjoy reading this melange of mystery and fun. (Kirkus UK)


Author Information

Author Website:   www.edmcbain.com

Ed McBain (1926--) was born Salvatore Lambino in New York. He changed his name to Evan Hunter and under that name is known as the author of The Blackboard Jungle and as the writer of the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. The 87th Precinct series numbers over fifty novels. McBain is a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America and is the only American writer to be awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement.

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Author Website:   www.edmcbain.com

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