Ed McBain: Hark! (USA 2005)

From the Publisher:
I'm a Fathead, Men! I Am the Deaf Man!
Unscrambling the cryptic messages -- anagrams, Detective Carella called them -- delivered to the 87th Precinct confirmed that the master criminal who has eluded them time and again is not only alive and well, but may or may not be behind a deadly revenge shooting. For that matter, the Deaf Man may or may not be deaf. But he's getting through loud and clear with clues drawn from Shakespeare's works -- taunting hints and maddening riddles pointing to his next plan of attack. It doesn't take a literary scholar to know there's no room for misinterpretation. For when the Deaf Man talks, everybody listens... or somebody gets hurt.

Ed McBain: Hark! A Novel of the 87th Precinct. Pocket Star Books, ISBN: 0743476522 (October, 2005), 397 p., $7.99.

Ed McBain: Hark! (UK 2005)

From the Publisher:
The Deaf Man is back....
Gloria Stanford was very sexy, very rich and very, very dead. Found in her plush city apartment, she had been shot twice in the heart, and her credit cards and ID were taken. It's only when the 87th Precinct's Steve Carella starts to receive bizarre cryptic notes that he realises that something bigger than a simple homicide is going on. It seems that the Deaf Man is back, a notorious crook and killer from years before. Long thought dead, he's back on the loose and wants to make it big... the question is: what's he after?

'Fans of hard-boiled police novels will have to travel far to find anything better... They say you should leave them wanting more. McBain always does' -- Spectator

Ed McBain: Hark! An 87th Precinct Novel. Orion Books, ISBN: 0752865641 (June, 2005), 352 p.,£6.99.

Ed McBain: Hark! (UK 2004)

From the Publisher:
The Deaf Man is back...
Gloria Stanford was very sexy, very rich and very, very dead. Found in her plush city apartment, she had been shot twice in the heart. All her credit cards and i.d. were gone but apart from that there seemed no motive at all. It's only when the detective-in-charge, Steve Carella, starts to receive bizarre cryptic notes in the mail that he realises that something bigger than a simple homicide is going on. For it quickly emerges that the Deaf Man is back, a notorious crook and killer from years before, and he seems to have acquired a morbid fascination with the works of William Shakespeare in the interim. Long thought dead, he's back on the loose and wants to make it big. The question is: what's he after?

But as the notes flood into Steve Carella's office each more convoluted than the last the 87th Precinct get no closer to the truth. Perhaps the answer lies with a beautiful prostitute who seems to be organizing the deliveries? Or with the brutal murder of a notorious pimp? Either way, the clock is ticking and this is one puzzle that Carella must solve...

HARK! is the new masterpiece from one of crime writing's true greats. Absorbing, powerful and layered, it shows an author at his best and a great criminal at his worst

Ed McBain: Hark! An 87th Precinct Novel. Orion Books, ISBN: 0752855867 (September, 2004), 293 p.,£12.99.

Ed McBain: Hark! (USA 2004)

From the Publisher:
Ed McBain concocts a brilliant and intri-cate thriller about a master criminal who E haunts the city with cryptic passages from Shakespeare, directing the detectives of the 87th Precinct to a future crime if only they can figure out what he means.

The 87th Precinct gets a visit from one of the city's most accomplished criminals-a thief known as the Deaf Man. Because he might be deaf. Or he might not. So little is known about the man who is harassing Detec-tive Steve Carella with puzzling messages that it is hard to tell. But as soon as a pattern emerges, the detectives of the 87th are forced to hit the books and brush up on their Shakespeare-because each new clue contains a line from one of his works. Unless they can crack the complicated riddles and beat the Deaf Man at his own cat-and-mouse game, someone is going to end up hurt, or something will be stolen-or both. It's always so hard to tell with the Deaf Man.

Ed McBain brings his most intelligent and devious criminal back to the 87th Precinct with a richly plotted and literary crime.

Ed McBain: Hark! A Novel of the 87th Precinct. Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 0743250354 (July, 2004), 293 p.,$24.95.