During a long after-dinner meal with my friend Maj Sjöwall, the deceased Swedish novelist, she told me that she had met Ed McBain in New York. He told me that he was the author he admired most of the crime novel writers of his generation. Sjöwall had crossed the Atlantic because Hollywood was working on a film version of one of his novels. On that trip, he met Walter Matthau, the film’s protagonist, and had dinner with McBain in Manhattan in 1973, the year in which ‘San Francisco, the Naked City’, directed by Stuart Rosenberg and inspired by one of his works, was filmed.« McBain was deaf and barely spoke. He was a man of few words. His wife chattered incessantly. He drank and was silent. “I had learned a lot by reading his novels, but he seemed elusive in conversation, although very kind,” said Sjöwall when asked about his preferences in the genre. Ed Mc Bain was not only one of the most prolific authors in the history of the crime novel, but also had a great influence on the writers of the 70s and 80s, who imitated his style. He was sober, realistic, concise and a master in the structure of plots, always designed with the precision of a clockwork mechanism. He was born in New York in 1926 with the name Salvatore Lombino. Eight of his novels were made into films and some of them became best sellers. In his hundred works, he signed under the pseudonyms Ed McBain, Evan Hunter, Richard Marsten and others. Eight of his novels were made into films and some of them became best sellers in the United States and Europe. It is very difficult to select one of his creations, but I am leaning towards ‘The mugger’, published in 1956 and edited in Spain by Bruguera in the early 80s. It is the second novel in the series about the District 87, an imaginary police station in the peripheral neighborhood of a big city that could be New York or Boston. McBain made 55 installments between 1956 and 2005 in which the action takes place in that District 87, whose people and places are fictitious but based on real events, as he was careful to specify. ‘The mugger’ tells the story of a robber who prowls through the streets and assaults lonely women, from whom he robs. After taking their purse, he always says, “Clifford thanks you, ma’am.” The Police are unable to catch him, but they use all the means at their disposal when a 17-year-old girl is found murdered. The agents of District 87 suspect that Clifford is responsible. A patrolman named Bert Kling, recently joined the force, will solve the case even though his bosses forbid him to investigate. Kling falls in love with the victim’s friend and gets into a remarkable mess from which he will emerge successfully thanks to his good fortune. We see in this novel other characters such as Lieutenant Byrnes, Detective Steve Carelia, Agent Hal Willis and other police officers from Precinct 87 who reappear in his later books. Ed McBain was, perhaps, the first writer who gave importance to his plots. to the work of the Scientific Police, which analyzes the biological traces, fingerprints and evidence from the crime scene, which, on many occasions, lead to the final outcome. But, beyond that, McBain delves into the personality of the agents, who are poorly paid people and little recognized by their bosses who, despite this, fulfill their obligation in a hostile environment. ‘The Mugger’ is a novel that describes the atmosphere of a big city through the eyes of several agents, who work eight-hour shifts, walk the streets and mix with criminals to pursue crime, with the awareness that criminals always have the upper hand. There is also In this novel, a sordid family story of sexual abuse and infidelity, which leads the reader to a dark underworld club, frequented by minors. McBain does not intend to give moral lessons, but he shows the dark side of a city in which the rich and powerful can act with impunity. Quite a few of McBain’s novels are translated into Spanish and are accessible, even if they are out of print. I recommend reading it to lovers of the genre who do not know this author whom Maj Sjöwall praised.
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