Une île charmante et paisible apparemment. Sauf qu'il s'y passait des choses un peu bizarres. Une championne de natation s'y était noyée l'année précédente, on venait d'y assassiner la femme d'un pêcheur. À présent, voici qu'on kidnappait la petite fille d'un homme qui s'était montré un peu trop curieux d'éclaircir ces mystères. Il y avait pourtant un mobile à sa curiosité : la noyée n'était autre que son épouse.

Le dernier plongeon

Even after 13 years in the 87th Precinct, Bert Kling and Steve Carella had never seen such murders--six naked bodies, including an infant, and no one knows who any of them are. Then an anonymous phone call leads Kling and Carella to a private street war. Now the two veteran cops just might get caught in the crossfire of organized violence in the city's darkest corners.

Branle-bas Au 87 (87th Precinct, #28)

Réunit : "Vêpres rouges" ; "Les veuves" ; "Kiss" ; "Poissons d'avril"

87e District, tome 7

Tout est affaire de liens. Le violoniste aveugle retrouvé mort dans une ruelle, deux balles dans la figure, jouait dans une boîte tenue par un ex-taulard condamné pour trafic de drogue. Tiens...La représentante en produits de beauté abattue chez elle, de deux balles dans la figure, avait dans sa jeunesse goûté à tous les fruits défendus, y compris la dope. Et, surtout, les balles provenaient de la même arme. Tiens, tiens...Mais la troisième victime est un respectable professeur d'anglais à la retraite, et la quatrième un prêtre plus que septuagénaire. Ça ne colle plus.D'où la perplexité de Carella et de ses collègues du 87è District, qui ne savent plus par quel bout prendre cette affaire. L'arme est la même, d'accord, mais comment établir un rapport entre des milieux, des quartiers, des morts aussi différents?

Jouez violons

Last best hope

Quel est donc le lien qui réunit les deux affaires dont s'occupent les inspecteurs du 87? District ? D'une part, un comique de télé empoisonné sur le plateau. De l'autre, un obsédé inconnu qui persécute une jeune fille et risque de la tuer en lui témoignant sa flamme. Rien ne semble relier ces deux enquêtes. Sinon, en fait, la patience, la passion, l'ingéniosité, l'astuce des divers flics qui s'y sont attelés, pauvres types toujours harassés, mais qui ne s'avouent jamais vaincus.

80 millions de voyeurs

"Bloody palmprints. He would always remember seeing first the bloody prints, one on each side of the glass-paneled doors. And then the doors swinging open and the girl spilling into the room. Arms wide, hands imploring . . . blue dress torn open over white blood-smeared bra, she lurched toward the muster desk, beseeching Kling to help, for God's sake, help."The girl was Patricia Lowery, fifteen years old. She was the lucky one. Soon after, they found her cousin, Muriel Stark, seventeen, lying in a doorway, her body ripped with knife wounds. Hysterically, Patricia talked to Detectives Steve Carella and Bert Kling of the 87th Precinct, telling her brutal story of molestation and murder. The man was tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed, she said; he had a knife blade four inches long, she would never forget what he looked like, what he made them do.Immediately, Kling and Carella set out to find the killer, launching interrogations, file searches, laboratory analyses -- all the weapons of investigation at their command. The twisting, blood-spotted trail leads them deep into the warped world of the sex offender. Then, click. Tall, dark hair, blue eyes, phony alibi. And a positive identification from Patricia: "I said I'd never forget."There's only one problem. He's the wrong man.

Adieu Cousine... (87th Precinct, #32)

Ed McBain is the only American winner of the coveted Diamond Dagger Award, and he is also a past recipient of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award. So, when a reader picks up the latest installment of McBain's 87th Precinct series, the bar is set pretty high. But with The Big Bad City, McBain meets expectations.  In the opening pages, Steve Carella and Artie Brown return to the department with 9 basketball players (the 10th player was murdered) only to discover a knife fight erupting in a holding cell. It's a steamy August night, and Carella and Detective Parker end up having to shoot one of the fighters to cool things down. Then Meyer and Kling enter the scene; they're hot in pursuit of the Cookie Boy, a thief who leaves chocolate-chip cookies at every crime sight. Before the interminable day is done, Carella and Brown are called out to Grover Park to investigate a homicide. A nun has been strangled to death, but she's no ordinary Sister. She's got signs of a breast augmentation operation that hint at a sordid past. Finally, readers are privy to a conversation between Juju and Sonny. Sonny killed a cop's dad, and Juju is convinced that the police will bend the rules to see that Sonny winds up dead. Juju insists that the only way out of the death trap is to kill the cop first. The officer's name is Steve Carella. And all of this happens in the first 15 pages. McBain is one of the artists of the police procedural. Though his city is fictional, it breathes with the darkness and gritty reality of many American cities. He enters the minds and hearts of his characters to uncover the daily insecurities that accompany the work of policemen. Readers new to the 87th Precinct will want to venture back to such tales as 1956's Cop Hater, 1964's Ax, and 1965's Doll, among the 47 installments in this series. Those who've been along for the ride will be happy they did not give up their seat. --Patrick O'Kelley

La Cité Sans Sommeil (87th Precinct, #49)

Réunit : "On suicide" ; "Les heures creuses", suivi de "J" et "Tempête" ; "Dix plus un" ; "La hache" ; "Entre deux chaises" ; "Cause toujours, ma poupée" ; "80 millions de voyeurs".

Le dernier plongeon

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