Library's review
The 13th in McBain's long-running (55 books!) series about the copy of the 87th Precinct in Isola, a fictional New York City. This entry takes place over the course of a long, hot July day as the police face off against a murderer who has taken refuge above a brothel in the Puerto Rican New York Isola and the "Marine Tigers" who are newly arrived immigrants from the island. Unfortunately, the gender issues are not handled with the same progressiveness as the ethnic, and the few women who appear in the book are almost cartoonish in their beauty and sexuality. One of the subplots involves a group of teenagers who dub themselves a gang, The Latin Purples, in an attempt to appear tough and the trouble their posturing gets them into. Not one of the series' best, but not terrible.
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neighborhood of the precinct. There are some interesting (and for the 1960 time period fairly progressive) observations about the disconnect the Puerto Rican community feels with the larger city and the cops who patrol their neighborhood, as well as the self-imposed class divisions between the Puerto Ricans who were born in Show Less
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Description
The eyes of the neighborhood are on the detectives of the 87th and the criminal who challenged them as the city simmers with escalating gang violence. "The 87th Precinct is] one of the great literary accomplishments of the last half-century." --Pete Hamill, Newsday "McBain forces us to think twice about every character we meet...even those we thought we already knew." --New York Times Book Review
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1960