Ed McBain: Vespers (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
There are a lot of unspeakable things that happen in the big city, and the murder of St. Catherine's Father Birney is one of them. For Detectives Carella and Hawes of the 87th Precinct, finding the killer means taking a journey into the darkest corners of the city's soul.

The satanic cult near St. Catherine's parish is the obvious first suspect -- but not necessarily the right one. As the detectives investigate the priest's life, they uncover blackmail, old grudges, and hidden motives. When everyone has a secret and the truth hides within the lies, Carella and Hawes must rely on their premier detective work to find the killer.

This installment of the author's famed 87th Precinct series is as deep and rich as they come, delivering the goods with unparalleled, brute emotional force.

Ed McBain: Vespers. An 87th Precinct Novel. Thomas & Mercer, ISBN: 9781612181899 (March, 2012), 362 p., $13.95.

Ed McBain: Vespers (USA 2004)

From the Publisher:
The priest lay on the bloodstained stones, his life drained from the wounds in his back...
In a walled garden surrounded by skyscrapers, Father Michael Birney met an unholy end, stabbed by an assailant who invaded his vespers prayers and then vanished as twilight overtook the big city. A stone's throw from the crime scene, a congregation of Satan worshipers chants its disturbing incantations -- an irony not lost on Detectives Carella and Hawes, who search among the cultists for a killer. But it will take more than a leap of faith for the cops of the 87th Precinct to expose the truth behind the deadliest -- and bloodiest -- of sins.

Ed McBain: Vespers. A Novel of the 87th Precinct. Pocket Books, ISBN: 0743470753 (October, 2004), 417 p., $7.99.

Ed McBain: Vespers (USA 1991)

From the Publisher:
"A MASTER CLEARLY IS AT WORK!" -- CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Who butchered a troubled young priest in his own church? Did an overzealous gang of neighborhood Satanists have a hand in the bloody business? Or were there even darker doings behind the ornate closed doors of St. Catherine's? In a parish tom by sin, violence, drugs, racial tension and poverty, the cops of the 87th Precinct must throw the first stone -- and hope it makes ripples in a bizarre and baffling case that will test their faith, their powers of deduction... and their skill at survival.

"ONE OF THE BEST IN THE 87TH SAGA... FEW WRITERS UNDERSTAND COPS AND CRIME AS WELL AS McBAIN." -- PEOPLE
"I NEVER READ ED McBAIN WITHOUT THE AWFUL THOUGHT THAT I STILL HAVE A LOT TO LEARN. AND WHEN YOU THINK YOU'RE CATCHING UP, HE GETS BETTER" -- TONY HILLERMAN

Ed McBain: Vespers. An 87th Precinct Novel. Avon Books, ISBN: 0380703858 (February, 1991), 344 p., $4.95.

Ed McBain: Vespers (UK 1991)

From the Publisher:
THE STILL OF TWILIGHT, ONE MAN IS PRAYING... FOR HIS LIFE
"A priest is stabbed in the garden behind the church rectory.
Teenage crack barons do battle in the street.
Four blocks away the Black Mass is being celebrated over a naked female altar.
A husband assaults his wife.
Marilyn, the reformed whore, buys a Walther PPK to scare off 'heavies'.
Situation normal for the 87th Precinct as McBain knits each strand into a narrative as snug as a jumpsuit.
A master operating on top form"
Philip Oakes, Literary Review

Ed McBain: Vespers. The new Novel of the 87th Precinct. Mandarin, ISBN: 0749305967 (February, 1991), 335 p., £3.99.

Ed McBain: Vespers (UK 1990)

From the Publisher:
Since the publication of his first 87th Precinct novel, Cop Hater, in 1956. Ed McBain's international reputation and fame have acquired the momentum of a rollerball. Newsweek has called him, 'A master, a superior stylist and a spinner of artfully designed and sometimes macabre plots. Familiarity with the cops of the 87th Precinct breeds something like devotion: the more we know about them, the more we want to know.' For Robert B. Parker, 'It's hard to think of anyone better at what he does. In fact, it's impossible.'

Vespers is the shining jewel in Ed MeBain's illustrious crown.
On a beautiful evening in May, a young Catholic priest is brutally stabbed to death in his garden. A church practising satanism is not four blocks away, and the cult sign of Baphomet is found scrawled on the garden gate in bright red paint.

There are racial tensions in this part of the city. The illicit drugs trade is running rampant. There are rumours of broken vows and shattered hopes.

For detectives Steve Carella and Hal Willis and their team, it is a peculiarly tricky case. There are at least six plausible alibis and they are working in a city where corruption, danger and death are commonplace.

The trail of blood leads back to a beautiful Easter Sunday, and to events that are bewildering, frightening and contradictory.
Vespers is not merely a dazzling thriller, but an honest and engrossing picture of what it is like to live in these times.

Ed McBain: Vespers. A Novel of the 87th Precinct. Heinemann, ISBN: 0434441090 (August, 1990), 331 p., £12.95.

Ed McBain: Vespers (USA 1990)

From the Publisher:
In 1956, when Cop Hater was published, the course of mystery fiction changed forever and "transcending the genre" became an expression premised upon the high standard of quality Ed McBain had set with his new 87th Precinct series.

In 1985, Newsweek magazine chose his novel Ice as one of the ten best mystery novels of the twentieth century, and a year later he was awarded the title of Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. With the publication last year of Lullaby, People magazine declared, "He is, by far, the best at what he does. Case closed."

Vespers, the new 87th Precinct novel, is the shining jewel in Ed McBain's illustrious crown.
On a beautiful evening in May, a young Catholic priest is brutally stabbed to death in his garden. A church practicing satanism is not four blocks away, and the cult sign of Baphomet is found scrawled on the garden gate in bright red paint. There are racial tensions in this part of the city. There are rumors of broken vows and shattered hopes. The trail of blood leads back to a shadowy Easter Sunday, and events that are bewildering, frightening, and contradictory...

People summed up McBain's most recent work by saying, "The later McBain is much more complex, his writing leaner, his sense of story sharper, clearer. His cops have become seasoned men with eyes that have seen too much madness, the crime and the victim no longer clear portraits sketched in black and white."

His new novel, Vespers, is not merely a dazzling thriller, but an honest and engrossing picture of what it is like to live in these times.

Ed McBain: Vespers. A Novel of the 87th Precinct. William Morrow, ISBN: 0877959870 (December, 1989), 331 p., $18.95.