Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial

Hardcover
from $37.00

Paperback
$24.10

Buy used:

$24.10

FREE delivery May 20 - 29. Details

Or fastest delivery May 20 - 21. Details

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Fast Cat Books

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Other sellers on Amazon

Used (9) from $16.98 & FREE Shipping

Follow the author

Ed McBain

+ Follow

More books from this author

The Empty Hours Paperback – January 1, 2005

by Ed McBain (Author)

4.1 810 ratings

Book 15 of 52: 87th Precinct Mysteries

See all formats and editions

She was young, wealthy - and dead. Strangled to death in a slum apartment. All they had to go on was her name and some cancelled cheques. As Steve Carella said, 'Those cheques are the diary of her life. We'll find the answer there.' But how was he to know that they would reveal something much stranger than murder? On Passover the rabbi bled to death. Someone had brutally stabbed him and painted a J on the synagogue wall. Everyone knew who the killer was - it had to be Finch, the Jew-hater. Or did it...? The snow was pure white except where Cotton Hawes stared down at the bright red pool of blood spreading away from the dead girl's body. Hawes was supposed to be on a skiing holiday, but he couldn't just stand by and watch the local cops make a mess of the case. He had to catch the ski-slope slayer before he killed again.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orion Paperbacks (January 1, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0752864114
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0752864112
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.52 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.33 x 0.67 x 7.01 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.1 810 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Ed McBain

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Ed McBain was one of the many pen names of the successful and prolific crime fiction author Evan Hunter (1926 – 2005). Born Salvatore Lambino in New York, McBain served aboard a destroyer in the US Navy during World War II and then earned a degree from Hunter College in English and Psychology. After a short stint teaching in a high school, McBain went to work for a literary agency in New York, working with authors such as Arthur C. Clarke and P.G. Wodehouse all the while working on his own writing on nights and weekends. He had his first breakthrough in 1954 with the novel The Blackboard Jungle, which was published under his newly legal name Evan Hunter and based on his time teaching in the Bronx.

Perhaps his most popular work, the 87th Precinct series (released mainly under the name Ed McBain) is one of the longest running crime series ever published, debuting in 1956 with Cop Hater and featuring over fifty novels. The series is set in a fictional locale called Isola and features a wide cast of detectives including the prevalent Detective Steve Carella.

McBain was also known as a screenwriter. Most famously he adapted a short story from Daphne Du Maurier into the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963). In addition to writing for the silver screen, he wrote for many television series, including Columbo and the NBC series 87th Precinct (1961-1962), based on his popular novels.

McBain was awarded the Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement in 1986 by the Mystery Writers of America and was the first American to receive the Cartier Diamond Dagger award from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. He passed away in 2005 in his home in Connecticut after a battle with larynx cancer.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

810 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Mac Blair

THE EMPTY HOURS WILL FILL A FEW FOR YOU!!!!!!

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2002

Verified Purchase

As I ordered this book I did not know it is really three stores in one book until I received it. As McBain books are, to me, the three are good. The first one is "The Empty Hours" about a young wealthy woman who is found dead. Who is she and is she who you think she is? Why was she killed? Carella and friends run down clues until they find out. You will be surprised. The second one is simply "J". A Rabbi is found killed. Who would want to kill a Rabbi? There is a Jew-hater, was it him? Meyer Meyer leds the search to find the killer and finds something out about himself while doing. Again a surprise. The last one is "Storm". This one features Cotton Hawes and his sweetie going to a ski resort and an instructor ending up dead. Cotton is afraid the local police will mess up the investigation and trys to get involved. The locals resent him being there. He still gets involved and the killer is finally found. As three are three stories in one book they are all pretty short so it make for each one to ba a quick read. McBain will hold your attention and you won't want to put the book down.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Michael S.

Three good stories.

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2021

Verified Purchase

Maybe I’ve read too many Detective books or thrillers but I figured out the killer in each, about half way through, these good stories.

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

3 novellas, mixed bag.

The first novella, the titular “Empty Hours” is pretty good! It’s like a strong A plot from the main books without a B or C plot, and feels very focused. The mystery takes enough turns and resolves logically even if I think you will see the killer coming when a certain chapter is too obvious.

The second novella, “J” is an interesting exploration of Meyer’s character - one he has needed beyond being a punchline - but I think the mystery feels very obvious and I’m not sure if the “message” the story ends up forming is all that good of a one.

The third novella is pretty good but probably too short- we get a second victim we know mere pages before she dies, a suspect like one chapter before he’s ruled out, and the climax while logical in terms of who/how sort of just falls into the detective’s lap.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

adel

Nothing Fancy

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2016

Verified Purchase

There is nothing fancy about the 87th Precinct. The straight talking homicide detectives start their shifts on time, stay late and break cases by wearing out shoe leather. The series dates from the 1970s, before cell phones, DNA analysis or computers; back when an answering machine stood out as high-tech. The throwback to old fashioned adds a certain charm and a ton of substance. No need to suspend disbelief, these stories are as real as real can be. The only device that feels like fiction is that the names of the locations have been changed. (This is the one extraneous aspect of the writing, especially since referring to the Bowery as "Vineland" or replacing Alphabet City with "Cambel's" does little to conceal identity). If you are in the mood to chomp on a satisfying police procedural, the 87th Precinct books are the meatloaf of murder - a welcome antidote to modern dishes about glamorous cops in expensive suits engaging in high speed chases that end with gratuitous explosions. These "tough" guys treat their wives to Chinese more often than they flash their guns. In the gritty 87th, the homicide cops solve crimes by pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, and chasing down every lead without gimmicks or gadgets. When the answers don't add up, they go back the next day and ask the same people the sames questions all over again. Very little disrupts the methodical routines of the 87th, and yet, each book has a unique feel depending on which detective in the squad pulls the case. There is nothing fancy about the 87th Precinct series. Someone dies, someone killed them. And that's all it takes to roll out a page turner.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

James L. Thane

The Detectives of the 87th Star in Three Novellas

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2013

Verified Purchase

The fifteenth entry in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series consists of three novellas featuring the precinct's detectives. In the first, a wealthy young woman is found murdered in a room in a run-down boarding house. Why in the world was she living there, when she had loads of money and a very upscale home at her disposal? There's precious little evidence to go on, and Detective Steve Carella is reduced to going through her cancelled checks, grasping at straws in an effort to find her killer.

In the second story, a rabbi is viciously stabbed to death on Passover. The precinct's Jewish detective, Meyer Meyer, interrupts his own observation of the holiday to help Carella investigate the killing. The trail leads to a rabid anti-Semite, but can the detectives make a case?

In the third story, Detective Cotton Hawes is off for a weekend skiing vacation with a tall, limber showgirl. He's reserved two rooms, but things are definitely looking up when she asks to stay in his. Then some inconsiderate jerk commits a murder...

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Nancie

A great read anytime any where...

Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2016

Verified Purchase

This series is always good, this particular book is a great mix of characters and situations that's entertaining. I especially liked the last one set in a ski lodge the comedy of events in one particular setting is memorable. He is one of my favorite authors I'm saddened that he is no longer alive to continue on with his writing.

Helpful

Deb

A good light fast read

Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2012

Verified Purchase

All of his 87th precinct mysteries are a delight. They read very fast, and you root for the good guys. So sorry that the author passed away. But this legacy is a wonderful read for the beach or anytime you want a fast short nicely paced read.

Helpful

John S

Book with three short stories

Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2023

Verified Purchase

I'm a fan of the 87th Precinct but I didn't find this book as enjoyable as others in this series. This could be because I prefer novels to short stories, but I feel this series works better in novel form as it gives more time for the mystery to slowly unwind.

The one story I found interesting was the last story which centered on Cotton Hawes. Instead of playing out in the city Hawes and a girlfriend travel to the mountains to a ski lodge for a ski weekend. A blizzard sets in trapping them for several days and then there is a murder. Hawes upset about the lackadaisical way the local police are investigating the murder decides to investigate himself.

Helpful