Fiddlers By Ed McBain

Fiddlers is the 52nd and the last instalment in the 87th Precinct series of police procedural novels written by Ed McBain (pseudonym of Evan Hunter). The author, hailed as the father of police procedural and one of the greats of crime fiction, died in July 2005 from cancer and this novel was published posthumously in the same year.

Fiddlers by Ed McBain

A blind violinist. A cosmetic sales rep. A priest.  A female college professor. An old woman walking her dog. All over fifty and all shot twice point blank in the face. This series of killings stump the detectives of the 87th Precinct. Apart from the relative old age of the victims and that each victim was shot twice in the face, the only other thing in common is that all the victims have been shot by the same Glock pistol.

With no obvious clues, the detectives of the Eighty-Seventh Precinct work painstakingly to try to piece together the puzzle. The detectives are stumped as the killer doesn’t fit the profile of a serial killer. Most serial killers don’t use guns or strike five times in two weeks. Most serials target a group with obvious similarities.

The squad is broken up to investigate the shootings separately. The detectives do their footwork by the book, narrowing their suspects bit by bit in their quest to find out who is behind these murders, dubbed the Glock murders because they are all committed with the same Glock gun. The trail leads one way, then another, but they can’t get a fix on the motive for the killings. This story very cleverly interweaves the separate investigations that all finally arrive at the same perpetrator.

I bought this book for a steal (RM5) at Popular Bookstore recently and I was able to finish reading within a day as it is only 229 pages in length. This is the first McBain book I have ever read and I must admit that  it is very fast-paced with light comic touches and compassionate characterisation.