Guns

Rating:
Summary: 70's McBain-Hard-Boiled and From The Criminal's POV
Review: Another winning recommendation from a member of the Rara-Avis hardboiled book mailing list. Up to this point I've avoided Mystery Writers of America Grand Master McBain (too popular and too many other books waiting to be read) but this little 1976, non-87th Precinct, gem was time well spent. The story is about the aftermath, told from the perspective of a small time New York City armed-robber, of a Bronx liquor store robbery gone bad. The writing is fairly fast-paced, the story unsentimental and the attitude hard-boiled. McBain, best known for his police procedural 87th Precinct series (54 books since 1956 and still counting) is worth a look if your literary tastes tend towards this genre.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant crime fiction--mean, lean, tough, and violent
Review: Ed McBain made a very welcome departure from his 87th Precinct novels--police procedurals, almost all of which begin with a murder to be solved--and wrote one of the toughest American crime novels up to that time (1976). In fact this reads like it could have been written two weeks ago, not over 25 years ago: a contemporary crime novel from the criminal's perspective with enough emphasis on psychology to keep the reader hooked straight through to the end.

The key phrase here is, "He who lives by the gun, dies by the gun." Prophetic words for the protagonist, Nicholas "Colley" Donato, a criminal whose expertise is the heist. McBain puts Colley through a whole set of stuff including successful jobs, a violent partner, and an equally violent woman who lusts and murders more intensely than any man in the story--and of course the knockout ending at a small town gun shop.

This is hardboiled crime writing at its finest, and very highly recommended.