Rating: 
Summary: Terrific again! Typical McBain!
Review: I've read ALL of the 87th Precinct books to date and have loved and reread all of them. This one was unique and captivating, as is typical Ed McBain style. Keep them coming!!
Rating:
Summary: Fat Ollie and friends in the big bad city.
Review: In his fifty-second 87th Precinct novel, Ed McBain features the loathsome and obese sexist bigot, Fat Ollie, who has finally finished his own police procedural, "Report to the Commissioner." Oliver Weeks sees himself as a literary lion in the making. The protagonist of his rather brief novel is Ollie's female and slim alter ego, whom he names Olivia Wesley Watts. Unfortunately, Fat Ollie never got around to making a copy of his manuscript, which he composed on an old fashioned typewriter. When Ollie leaves the novel in a dispatch case in his car, a junkie steals the case and its precious contents. "Fat Ollie's Book" has many of McBain's trademark touches. It is politically incorrect and filled with flippant dialogue. The author seamlessly threads three main plot lines throughout the book and they cleverly overlap at times. A prominent councilman who may be planning to run for mayor is shot while preparing for a rally. A pair of cops is hoping to interrupt a big drug sale. And, of course, Ollie is determined to find the perp who ripped off his precious book. McBain's 87th precinct novels are always entertaining, and "Fat Ollie's Book" gets high marks for its large and colorful cast of characters, its fast moving story and its self-mockery. McBain quotes large sections of Ollie's book, and through Ollie, McBain makes fun of the conventions of the police procedural. McBain's fictional city of Isola is a homage to New York City, with its high-octane excitement, its political pressure and the desperation and chutzpah of its criminal element. Ed McBain has won every award that is available to a mystery writer. "Fat Ollie's Book" makes it clear why McBain has remained successful for so many years, while lesser talents have fallen by the wayside. This novel, like so many others in this series, is witty, smart and irreverent, and I recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: They're going dancing
Review: In MONEY, MONEY, MONEY we first learn that Fat Ollie Weeks is writing a book. In this one, he's completed the tome and is on his way to the copier, when he is called to the scene of a murder. A councilman has been murdered in the 88th Precinct and the case belongs to Ollie since he was the first detective on the scene. While he's conducting interviews, the valise in which he's placed his masterpiece is stolen from his car. When Ollie finds out his manuscript is missing, he passes the case off to Steve Carella, whose life he'd saved, twice, in MONEY, MONEY, MONEY.
The fun part of this work for me was how McBain describes Ollie's process of writing. We get a short lecture about "voice."
Ollie reads the best-sellers and arrives at the conclusion that most readers are women and that it might be a good idea for him to assume a female nom de plume. His book is entitled REPORT TO THE COMMISSIONER, and he's become Olivia Wesley Watts.
Every once in a while McBain gives us a glimpse of Ollie's novel, which has been stolen by a transvestite prostitute, who believes the report is real and that there really is a fortune in diamonds to be had if he can only find the basement where Livvy is being held captive. As in most 87th Precinct novels, there's also a subplot involving Bert Kling's former lover, Detective Second Grade Eileen Burke, who with Andy Parker, is investigating a potential drug transaction during which $300,000 is supposed to change hands.
Maybe I'm just getting old, but I had a hard time keeping all of these plot threads straight. When Eileen and Andy appear after side trips to visit Carella and his councilman murder case and Ollie's attempt to track down his book, I had forgotten what their case was about. The councilman's murder is as predictable as dust in a bachelor pad. The drug bust seems like an after thought. The one thing that saved it for me was when Ollie gets a girlfriend. Her name is Patricia Gomez and she's a rookie patrolwoman who helps to crack the councilman's murder. She doesn't see an obese bigot when she talks to Ollie. She wonders at the pain that's causing him to overeat. They make a date to go dancing; Ollie, being Ollie, tries to throw a wrench into the works by besmirching her Puerto Rican ancestry. She sees right through him; she's bought a new dress and they're going dancing.
Rating:
Summary: fantastic police procedural
Review: Known for his dissing every race and religion, Detective Fat Ollie Weeks is proud of his first police procedural, "Report to the Commissioner. However, the 88th Precinct cop finds official business interfering with the more important matters of authorship as he is assigned to investigate the assassination of City Councilman Lester Henderson, the leading candidate for mayor. Ironically at least in Ollie's feeble brain, the murder occurs while the victim was preparing for a major political rally inside the Martin Luther King Memorial Hall. Ollie has a second more important case to solve when someone steals his manuscript from his car as he wasted time looking at the Henderson crime scene. Transvestite prostitute "Emmy" believes he has found an authentic report by Officer Olivia Wesley Watts. Emmy plans to locate the diamonds mentioned in the report while Ollie aided by Officer Patricia Gomez seeks to recover his novel. FAT OLLIE'S BOOK is a fantastic police procedural that focuses on two investigations and contains hilarious excerpts from the "bad" book. The story line satirizes the police procedural sub-genre leaves no one standing and especially skinned is Ed McBain. The 87th precinct cops play key roles and the introduction of Officer Gomez actually takes Ollie a few steps away from his normal range of bigotry, but not totally. In the fifty-second 87th precinct novel (think alphabet two times), Mr. McBain shows his wit with one of the series best novels ever and surely will be recognized as one of the year's finest sub-genre entries. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: McBain has done it again with his latest 87th Precinct book, although this time the primary character is Oliver Wendell Weeks, aka Fat Ollie. Fat Ollie is a fun character - his inner thoughts about those other than himself are hilarious to the extreme. Love the fact that he doesn't think he's biased against anyone - just discerning. The way he constantly debates with himself the rules of grammar (he's a writer now) was just funny as heck. I'd like to see more books featuring this character. Carella and Kling are only on the periphery here and there's not much of a mystery, but Fat Ollie takes up the slack and does it well.
Rating: 
Summary: What is McBain's fascination with this character?
Review: Now a whole book featuring McBain's least likeable character, Ollie Weeks. Fat Ollie's written a book and during the investigation of a mayoral candidate's murder someone steals it from Ollie's car. now the hunt is on. The murder case is pushed to the back burner as we are punished with excerpts from Ollie's book, Ollie in lust,and meeting someone even more loathsome than Ollie, his snitch the pederast Fats Donner. Enough already! Coupled with a fairly simplistic mystery, this book is McBain at his weakest, scattered and barely able to hold the interest of the reader.
Rating: 
Summary: McBain shows no signs of wear or tear in his latest novel
Review: One of the bits of information bestowed upon the reader perusing FAT OLLIE'S BOOK is that Steve Carella is 40 years old. Given that he was around 25 when Ed McBain published COP HATER, the first 87th Precinct novel, in 1956, that certainly demonstrates an ability to age gracefully! Like Carella, the 87th Precinct series and McBain have aged well and, if FAT OLLIE'S BOOK is any indication, still have plenty of life. FAT OLLIE'S BOOK, while being "A Novel of the 87th Precinct" is also technically a novel of the 88th Precinct. FAT OLLIE is Fat Ollie Weeks, a detective assigned to that particular precinct house. He is held in good-natured contempt by his fellow officers for various reasons, most of them legitimate ones. Weeks becomes embroiled in the affairs of the 87th Precinct when he answers a call concerning the murder of Lester Henderson, a city councilman. Weeks' automobile is broken into while he is at the scene of the crime. The thief makes off with two of Weeks' possessions: an attaché case that he does not value much and the only copy of his manuscript, Report to the Commissioner, which he values very much. Weeks is, of course, incensed and spends almost as much time methodically tracking down the thief as he does Henderson's murderer. He is assisted in the latter endeavor by a couple of the lads of the 87th --- this is, after all, a novel of the 87th Precinct --- as well as by Officer Patricia Gomez, a newly minted cop who found the murder weapon in the Henderson case and who becomes, against all odds, the willing object of Weeks's love interest. With respect to his search for his erstwhile manuscript, well, Report to the Commissioner indirectly becomes the catalyst for the involvement of a couple of prostitutes in a cocaine rip-off. McBain, as always, brings all of this off so wonderfully that he makes it look easy --- which it isn't --- and makes it wonderful, which it always is. McBain also leaves some threads unraveling within the personal lives of some of his characters, just to be sure that the reader will be back for the next installment. Be back?! Hah! Read one and try to stay away! McBain shows no signs of wear, tear or rust as he approaches his half-century of chronicling the 87th Precinct. He seems incapable of writing badly, though there is an example in FAT OLLIE'S BOOK of what he is able to do in that regard, when he sets his mind to it. Let's just say that Weeks isn't half the writer that McBain is and count us the luckier for it. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Rating:
Summary: the master has not lost his touch
Review: One of the greatest police procedural series is the 87th Precinct novels of the legendary Ed McBain. The first one was written in 1956. It was a straightforward novel with one relatively simple storyline. Today's volumes are conciderably longer with several distinct subplots that intertwine with the various characters. They are much more complex and character rich novels. They might be rarely equaled by current writers but never surpassed in pure writing style.
In this, the 52nd book in the series, Fat Ollie Weeks, a crude and rude detective of the 88th Precinct has just completed a detective novel. He has the manuscript stolen off the back seat of his car while investigating a crime. The case he is given is the assasination of a politician who may very well have been a candidate for mayor. Fat Ollie solicits help on the high publicity case from Steve Carella of the 87th Precinct. Fat Ollie not only wants to solve the crime, he also wants to get his manuscript back.
McBain uses much humor in telling this multifaceted story. The murder of the politician is compelling enough. However, we also meet some of the dregs of society as Fat Ollie trails his book. Characters are superbly portrayed- many of which are old friends to those of us who have followed the series. McBain, once again proves that after almost a half century, he has not lost his touch.
Rating:
Summary: This is the Book I Have Been Waiting For
Review: So I haven't read it but for me Ollie Weeks has always been my favourite character. Fat, biggotted, racist, misogenist, you name it - Fat Ollie hates it. What appeals to me about Fat Ollie is against the grain he is actually a good and thorough cop - he's also saved Carella's life more than once. Unlike other writers (Patricia Cornwall to name one) where good guys are thin and handsome and bad guys are fat slobs, McBain isn't afraid to put a few rough dimonds into the cast. Please more of the same.
Rating:
Summary: "It's alright"
Review: Summer is when I get caught up on mystery/detective/crime novels on my list.. I have the time and the inclination then. Ed McBain usually has one novel on that list every summer. This one isn't bad--it just doesn't end up doing very much. It may strike McBain as interesting to base a whole novel around the weeknesses and prejudices of Fat Ollie Weeks. But seeing the world through his eyes is not a very pleasant journey. Even as a minor character he had little to offer except for his consumption of food and his prejudicial thoughts. In this novel he has a bag with his own police novel in progress stolen This comes very early in the novel--thus the title--and I, for one, didn't care about his novel and had little or no sympathy for his loss. There is a murder at the center of the book--but it's resolution is bland and dull. The novel does allow the reader to keep up with his/her " friends" at the 87th. But, all in all, I could have spent my time better--maybe a second Bartholomew Gill would have been better after all.
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