Short Story Collections

A collection of twenty short stories from the legendary crime author and creator of the 87th Precinct series. Ed McBain was one of the most admired and prolific crime writers of the twentieth century. His long-running 87th Precinct series helped define the gritty police procedural. In The McBain Brief , he presents a series of short stories where desperation, greed, and violence lead to bad ends. A collector who loves his porcelain more than his daughter; a hooker who melts the heart of a tough cop; an ex-fighter who goes berserk at Christmas; an automobile dealer out for a funny business ride. In The McBain Brief, readers will meet these and other colorful characters who run afoul of, and then into, the arms of the law . . .

Ed McBain made his debut in 1956. In 2004, more than a hundred books later, he personally collected twenty-five of his stories written before he was Ed McBain. All but five of them were first published in the detective magazine Manhunt and none of them appeared under the Ed McBain byline. They were written by Evan Hunter (McBain's legal name as of 1952), Richard Marsten (a pseudonym derived from the names of his three sons), or Hunt Collins (in honor of his alma mater, Hunter College). Here are kids in trouble and women in jeopardy. Here are private eyes and gangs. Here are loose cannons and innocent bystanders. Here, too, are cops and robbers. These are the stories that prepared Evan Hunter to become Ed McBain, and that prepared Ed McBain to write the beloved 87th Precinct novels. In individual introductions, McBain tells how and why he wrote these stories that were the start of his legendary career.

New York Times bestsellers Lawrence Block and Jeffrey Deaver each provided a brand-new, never-before-published tale for this unique collection of stories, Transgressions Vol. 1 , edited by New York Times bestselling author and mystery legend Ed McBain. "Keller's Adjustment," by Lawrence Block: Block returns to everyone's favorite hitman, Keller, from his bestsellers The Hit Man and The Hit List. In the Aftermath of 9/11, Keller is questioning his life and the choices he's made, dealing out philosophy and murder on a meandering road trip from one end of the America to the other. "Forever" by Jeffery Deaver: Talbot Simms is an unusual cop. He's a statistician with the Westbrook County Sheriff's Department. When wealthy county resident's begin killing themselves one after another, Simms begins to believe that there is something more at play. And what he discovers will change his life . . . forever.