Ed McBain: The Con Man

Ed McBain: The Con Man (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
A con man is plying his trade on the streets of Isola: conning a domestic for pocket change, businessmen for thousands, and even ladies in exchange for a little bit of love. You can see the world, meet a lot of nice people, imbibe some unique drinks, and make a ton of money... all by conning them for their cash.

The question is: How far is he willing to go?

When a young woman's body washes up in the Harb River, the answer to that question becomes tragically clear. Now Detective Steve Carella races against time to find him before another con turns deadly. The only clue he has to go on is the mysterious tattoo on the young woman's hand -- but it's enough. Carella takes to the streets, searching its darkest corners for a man who cons his victims out of their money... and their lives.

A crime fiction classic, The Con Man is the third book in the 87th Precinct series from Ed McBain, whom the Daily Mirror hails as "the undisputed master... There's nobody who does it better."

Ed McBain: The Con Man. An 87th Precinct Novel. Thomas & Mercer, ISBN: 9781612181844 (March, 2012), 214 p., $13.95.

Ed McBain: The Con Man (UK 2003)

From the Publisher:
You can see the world, drink a lot of cool drinks, meet a lot of nice people. and make a lot of money all by fooling people.

A trickster taking money from an old woman for his own private charity; a cheater fleecing businessmen of their thousands with the oldest gimmick in town; a lady-killer after the ladies' dollars with just a little bit of love. The guys at the 87th Precinct know every trick in the book, so why are bodies still washing up on the shore?

Handsome, charming, and deadly, the con man is out to get everything he can...

Ed McBain: The Con Man. An 87th Precinct Novel. Orion, ISBN: 0752857940 (December, 2003), 201 p., £5.99.

Ed McBain: The Con Man (USA 1974)

From the Publisher:
CON MAN -
A trickster taking money from an old woman for his own private charity....
CON MAN -
A cheater fleecing the businessmen of their thousands with the oldest gimmick in town....
CON MAN -
A lady-killer after the ladies' dollars with just a little bit of love....
AND THE BOYS OF THE 87th PRECINCT. They knew every trick in the book, so why were the bodies still washing up on the shore?
THE CON MAN -
handsome, charming, and the deadliest denizen of the city-out to get everything from the rich, the poor... and you!

Ed McBain: The Con Man. An explosive sizzling 87th precinct Mystery. New York: Signet / New American Library, 1974, Signet Q5863, 160 p., ¢95.

Ed McBain: The Con Man (UK 1964)

From the Publisher:
The con men were in town, plying the old diamond switch and all that jazz, when two floaters were fished out of the river. Decomposed, but definitely feminine, both corpses flourished the same tiny tattoo mark on the right hand, and an equal dose. of arsenic in the stomach. (A killer with a kink?) Steve Carella took the short cut through the tattoo parlours, but he was asleep when the game broke cover. It was his deaf and dumb wife, Teddy, who took up the hue without a cry.

in a few short years Ed McBain has come crashing into the front rank of crime writers, both in print and on television. With toughness, reality, and genuine compassion he exhibits the cosmopolitan quarter of a big American city under the criminal end of the microscope. His cops of the 87th Precinct cling precariously to a life made lighter by some of the best wise-cracking humour in American fiction, and made safer by the most modern police techniques. This is 'kick-the-door-down crime at its very best.

Ed McBain: The Con Man. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1964, Penguin Books #C1971, 165 p., 2'6.

Ed McBain: The Con Man (USA 1962)

From the Publisher:
DETECTIVE STEVE CARELLA OF THE 87 PRECINCT HAD A PRETTY COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF THE MAN HE WAS LOOKING FOR:
The man was tall, blond, handsome a powerhouse of strength and sex. Women gave him whatever he wanted.
And he made some strange requests.
After seducing a woman he would ask her to have a small heart tattooed on her hand, to show the world that she belonged to him.
When the woman had been thus branded as his property - he murdered her.

Ed McBain: The Con Man. He gave the police a clue by having his women tattooed before he poisoned them. The new 87th precinct crime novel. New York: Permabook, 1962, Permabooks #M4264, 161 p., ¢35.

Ed McBain: The Con Man (USA 1957)

Ed McBain: The Con Man. He gave the police a clue by having his women tattooed before he poisoned them. The new 87th precinct crime novel. New York: Permabook, 1957, Permabooks #M3055, 161 p., ¢25.