Cop Hater

⚖The case for it

McBain writes women like someone who never met one, and a seasoned mystery reader will often be a step ahead of the squad room. Read past both. The 87th Precinct runs on ordinary detectives who split the work, canvass tired neighborhoods, wait out lab results, and log the dull hours no hero admits to. Every squad-room show that followed took its shape from this and rarely added anything McBain didn't already have. Finish it in a night, then notice how much television has been quietly living off this small, unglamorous invention.

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

Template is the right word, and templates show their age. Women here exist as wives, victims, or anatomy the narrator appraises; the killer's motive is a groaner by modern standards; the heat-wave prose repeats itself like a sweaty refrain. Historically important, briskly readable, and thinner than the thousand shows it spawned would suggest.

— the honest librarian