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Title: ‘Til Death
Series: 87th Precinct
Author: Ed McBain
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 139
Words: 46K
How does an author manage to pack such an exciting and thrilling story into just 139 pages? Magic. That is the only explanation that I can logically come up with for how McBain tells this taut thriller, keeping me on the edge of my seat the entire time and yet not making me feel like I ever missed out on something.
Part of this is that it is not a “normal” situation for the officers of the 87th Precinct. It’s all off duty, at the wedding of the sister of one of the main characters. Somebody wants to kill the groom and it’s up to the off duty officers to figure out who and prevent it. The kicker is, and while this is a spoiler, none of you are ever going to read this so I’m not too worried, there is actually more than one wanna-be killer. I totally did not see that coming.
It is amazing how McBain can turn little circumstances at a wedding into incidents that hold a lot more meaning. And the obsessed ex-boyfriend? Whoo boy, that guy kept getting worse and worse through the story and by the end, I had to wonder how he had avoided doing something before this that landed him in jail. He would be every girl’s nightmare and the kind of guy a big brother would have to squash to make him leave his sister alone. It was sad to see him living in such a delusional state, convinced the bride should be his and that she would be happy with him instead of with her fiance. And he’s not the guy who is trying to shoot the groom either!
See what I mean about McBain packing stuff in? It was fantastic.
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher
Synopsis – Click to Open
The wedding day of Detective Steve Carella’s sister Angela should be the most romantic, special day of her life. But it might turn out to be the worst if her brother can’t figure out which man on the guest list has come to murder the groom.
Carella and the men from the 87th Precinct find themselves on the clock as they desperately hunt amongst the name cards and catered dinners for the would-be assailant. Trouble is, the crowd has numerous people with viable motives: the best man who stands to inherit everything the groom owns, the ex-boyfriend with a homicidal crush, and even an ex-GI with a score to settle. But time is ticking, and if they don’t act fast, Angela will become a bride—and a widow—on the same day.
Another riveting installment of the 87th Precinct series, ‘Til Death is one of bestseller Ed McBain’s finest, an intense, life-and-death nerve-wracker hailed by the Literary Review as “zestful, inventive, and utterly compulsive.”
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