Ed McBain's famed police procedural series about the 87th Precinct is, on the surface, easily mistaken for a relatively superficial set of cops-and-robbers stories. Yet McBain actually digs pretty deep into societal issues and human foibles in most of his stories, none more deeply than in this, a story ostensibly about a gunman held at bay by surrounding policemen. In reality, McBain uses this situation to pursue one of his most inquisitive excavations of human relations. The entire novel takes place on one day in the Puerto Rican ghetto of the unnamed city where the 87th precinct functions. The lives of the familiar detectives of the 87th are but a segment of the populace at play in this story. Gangbangers (long before the term was popularized), small business owners, sailors on leave, and fresh-off-the-boat immigrants all have pertinent portions of the mosaic McBain pieces together, and it's a remarkably affecting story about race, poverty, hero-worship, revenge, and loneliness. It's one of the very best of the 87th novels I've read so far, which means it's a very good book indeed. ( )

Enkel men ändå intressant historia som är lite naivt berättad. Men det funkar ungefär som ett bättre avsnitt av en 70-tals tv-deckare. Underhållande för stunden men ingenting som kommer leva kvar i minnet speciellt länge. ( )

“Heat, like love, is no good unless you can talk about it.”

This book is about a lot of things. It's about racism, it's about love, it's about needing to belong. And in the center of it all, it's about Pepe Miranda. The detectives don’t show up until page 26 in this one!

It feels like a departure from the other 87th precinct books I've read so far, but a good one! It was nice having the focus on a different aspect of the city. And I liked the way it was written! Chapter twelve, when all of the plot lines smash together, is really well executed!

I also found it interesting how much some of the plot lines reminded me of "West Side Story", which I just saw on the big screen last week. I wonder if this book was influenced by the play? ( )

One of the weaker books in the 87st Street Precinct series, primarily because most of the story is about a desperado and some kids in a bad section of Isola. Little happens involving the main characters of the series -- in fact, there is one important thing, but I ain't saying. ( )

The 13th in McBain's long-running (55 books!) series about the copy of the 87th Precinct in Isola, a fictional New York City. This entry takes place over the course of a long, hot July day as the police face off against a murderer who has taken refuge above a brothel in the Puerto Rican neighborhood of the precinct. There are some interesting (and for the 1960 time period fairly progressive) observations about the disconnect the Puerto Rican community feels with the larger city and the cops who patrol their neighborhood, as well as the self-imposed class divisions between the Puerto Ricans who were born in New York Isola and the "Marine Tigers" who are newly arrived immigrants from the island. Unfortunately, the gender issues are not handled with the same progressiveness as the ethnic, and the few women who appear in the book are almost cartoonish in their beauty and sexuality. One of the subplots involves a group of teenagers who dub themselves a gang, The Latin Purples, in an attempt to appear tough and the trouble their posturing gets them into. Not one of the series' best, but not terrible. ( )