Ed McBain: Heat (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
In the middle of a stifling heat wave, why would an artist intent on committing suicide turn his air conditioning off before taking his life? That's the question troubling Detectives Steve Carella and Bert Kling until more personal -- and deadly -- questions threaten to tear Kling's life apart.

Certain his wife, Augusta, is cheating on him, Kling sets out on a course from which there is no turning back. Meanwhile a dangerous killer from his past begins a similar path destined to end in retribution. As Carella's case of the mysterious suicide unravels, Kling's personal life explodes in pain and violence.

An Ed McBain classic, this installment of his famed 87th Precinct series is a triple threat as the three storylines weave together with relentless momentum, culminating in a shattering climax that tears open the heart of one of the precinct's finest.

Ed McBain: Heat. A Novel of the 87th Precinct. Thomas & Mercer / Amazon Publ., ISBN: 9781612181660 (March, 2012), 250 p., $13.95.

Ed McBain: Heat (USA 1992)

From the Publisher:
The dead man lay reeking of alcohol. No forced entry... no visible wounds... an empty bottle of Seconal. It all added up to simple suicide. Or did it? There were too many unanswered questions in the setup for Detective Steve Carella's taste.

Why would an alcoholic artist, who was terrified of drugs in any form, end his life with sleeping pills? Why didn't he leave a note? And why in the middle of the worst heat wave to hit the city in years was his air conditioner shut off?

With partner Burt Kling struggling to hold on to his beautiful wife while dodging a psychopath with revenge on his whacked-out mind, it's all up to Carella to uncover the real story.

Ed McBain: Heat. An 87th Precinct Mystery. Signet, ISBN: 0451170784 (April, 1992), 227 p., $4.99.

Ed McBain: Heat (USA 1990)

From the Publisher:
Summer is no season for suicide. But murder happens all year round
"MCBAIN AT HIS BEST - TOUGH, TERSE AND TERRIFIC, A SURE CURE FOR THE BLAHS." Los Angeles Times

When it's ninety-nine in the shade, every corner of the precinct goes crazy. But this case was crazier than most. Why did the alcoholic artist, who hated drugs in all forms, end it all with an overdose of sleeping pills? And why did he turn off his air conditioner in the middle of a killing heat wave? With partner Bert Kling fighting to hold on to a too-beautiful wife while dodging a psychopath with a murderous grudge, it's all up to Detective Steve Carella to dig up the cold truth.

Ed McBain: Heat. An 87th Precinct Mystery. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0345345975 (January, 1990), 227 p., $3.95.

Ed McBain: Heat (USA 1981)

From the Publisher:
Why would any man, however deranged, take an overdose of sleeping pills and then calmly turn off his air conditioner with the city sweltering through a backbreaking heat wave? This question nags at Detectives Bert Kling and Steve Carella. Kling's got other problems: his startlingly beautiful wife is almost certainly cheating on him, and he is being stalked by a psychopathic ex-con bent on getting Kling for having sent him up. While Carella scratches away like a terrier at the "suicide," Kling grows less and less capable of coping.

In a shattering triple climax, the tinderbox elements converge, Ed McBain makes it clear that there can be no real winners here, except for the reader.

In this, his thirty-fifth 87th Precinct novel, Ed McBain reaffirms his mastery of the police procedural story.

Ed McBain: Heat. An 87th Precinct Novel. Vinking Press, ISBN: 0670364797 (November, 1981), 227 p., $12.95 (?).