This, the eighth book in the legendary 87th Precinct series, was written over the course of just nine days, according to author Ed McBain. It’s a concise, tense account of just a few hours in the lives of the detectives who have to find a man who has threatened to kill “The Lady” at eight o’clock that night. Because it’s a police procedural, a genre of crime fiction that McBain basically invented, it’s full of the painstaking detail that would be involved for a real police force — though one has to wonder if the simple arrival of a threatening note at a police station would trigger such a large scale manhunt. As always in these books, weather plays an important role, and as the cops pound the hot streets for hours, walking up steaming staircases in tenements, one feels real relief when finally air conditioning appears at one point in the story. The mystery of who is the intended target (“The Lady”) is revealed at the end, and you’ll be the judge of whether it is convincing. For me, not so much. ( )

Another great procedural mystery from McBain. This one I'd read before, but even then it was a joy to watch the plot unfold. ( )

“The note read: I will kill the lady tonight at 8 what can you do about it?”

This is the plot of the fourth consecutive 87th Precinct book with the word “killer” in the title! Twelve hours to stop the crime with only that note for a clue! And the whole city of Isola to cover! Good luck boys!

A good mystery, and a quick read! There is only the one plot, as opposed to the usual two in these books. But this one is good enough to stand on it's on! ( )

A young boy delivers a letter to the desk sergeant at the 87th Precinct, which has newspaper words that state "the Lady" will be killed at 8 PM that night. Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes and the rest of the squad try to figure out the identity of the victim and the perpetrator through acccelerated police work. The highlight of this story are the sequential sketches created from Cotton and an 8-year old's brief sightings. At 7:57, they finally figure out the mystery and rocket off to avert the murder. ( )

A quick read providing interesting glimpses into everyday life in the summer in the city in the 1950s: cold beer from an icebox with melting ice, kids opening fire hydrants to cool off in the water, more hockshops than book stores. "He was a hot sketch." - one of my favorite lines. I haven't heard that in ages. The police investigation following the arrival of an ominous note ["I will kill the Lady tonight at 8. What can you do about it?"] richly details methods used at the time (sketches of the suspect, fingerprints, interrogations). Seems these methods were not so different to now, just much more rudimentary. ( )