Critically examines the 87th Precinct series of police procedural novels and stories written by Ed McBain (pseudonym of Evan Hunter).

As every detective novel addict knows, there's no greater high than figuring out "whodunit" before the final revelation, resulting in the kind of intellectual s

Explores the interrelations between the development of detective novels and the codification of scientific methods from the mid- 19th to the mid-20th centuries.

Others concentrate more on analysis of the subject novel itself, indicating more briefly how that book relates to those which follow it. Some discuss such quest