Ed McBain Books in Order

The Deaf Man bombards the 87th Precinct with clues to a new scheme while detectives investigate murdered graffiti artists. Cases involving abandoned elderly people and rising racial tension further strain the squad's ability to recognize the danger ahead.

Assistant district attorney Michael Welles sees a drug dealer's information as a chance to strike at the Mafia. A major wiretap operation opens a path into organized crime, but its revelations threaten his family and challenge his private assumptions.

After Matthew Hope is shot outside a Florida bar, his friends retrace his recent investigation to discover why. His search into a circus performer's death reveals connections involving blackmail and murder while Hope lies unable to help them.

Psychiatrist David helps Broadway dancer Kate after a mugging in Central Park. With his wife away for the summer, their encounter becomes an affair, but Kate's mysterious life threatens the marriage and professional reputation David is risking.

An actress starring in a play about a stalker is attacked, then murdered. Steve Carella questions the prosecution's suspect while the 87th Precinct investigates theater-world rivalries, where performance and private ambition make the truth difficult to separate.

Toy designer Lainie Commins hires Matthew Hope to recover the rights to a profitable teddy bear. When her former employer is murdered aboard his yacht, Lainie becomes the chief suspect, turning a business lawsuit into a criminal defense.

Carella and Hawes investigate an elderly woman's murder and discover she was once a celebrated concert pianist. Across Isola, Fat Ollie Weeks pursues a separate brutal crime involving schoolboys and a drug dealer during the same troubled night.

Sixteen-year-old Rebecca Patton strikes and kills a pedestrian during a driving lesson. Detective Katie Logan initially faces what looks like negligent homicide, but the instructor's condition and evidence from the victim's handbag suggest something far more troubling.

Carella and Brown investigate a dead woman with an unusual past while the city follows a thief who leaves cookies behind. A separate threat stalks one of the detectives, bringing personal danger into the precinct's already crowded workload.

Jill Lawton hires Matthew Hope to find her missing husband, supposedly away looking for work. A corpse carrying the man's identification turns the search into a dangerous puzzle, prompting Hope to seek help from detectives farther north.

A man found hanging in Isola's theater district appears to have taken his own life. Evidence that he was drugged sends Carella and Meyer investigating murder, drawing them into the conflicts surrounding the opening of a musical.

These stories explore jealousy, obsession, and strained relationships, including a husband who resents his wife's dog and a woman determined to resemble a movie star. Everyday frustrations develop into disturbing conflicts as the characters' private desires grow harder to contain.

Businessman Benjamin Thorpe searches New York for sexual encounters during a restless night away from home. When a young sex worker is murdered, investigator Emma Boyle reconstructs the night's events and begins considering Thorpe as a possible suspect.

A violent case during Christmas draws Steve Carella and the 87th Precinct into a pursuit of dangerous money. Crooks, drug runners, federal agents, and terrorists converge in Isola, with competing interests making the investigation difficult to untangle.

Detective Ollie Weeks investigates a mayoral candidate's murder while someone steals the only copy of his novel. A thief mistakes the manuscript for a guide to real hidden diamonds, turning Ollie's fictional crime plot into another police problem.

This collection follows people caught between vulnerability and violence, from an accountant facing an intrusive commuter to rival gang members confronting a deadly challenge. Other stories examine uneasy relationships and encounters where ordinary conversation exposes deeper personal conflicts.

Andrew Gulliver's twin sister Annie disappears again, shortly after receiving a diagnosis their mother refuses to accept. During a desperate search in New York, the family confronts its history and fears Annie may hurt herself or someone else.

Masked kidnappers seize rising singer Tamar Valparaiso during a lavish yacht party promoting her debut album. Steve Carella and the 87th Precinct detectives face an urgent search, even though the abduction happened before a crowd of witnesses.

Widowed Alice Glendenning struggles while waiting for her husband's life-insurance payment, then learns her children have been kidnapped. A ransom matching that unpaid amount forces her to seek help while questioning who knows enough to exploit her situation.

Cryptic anagrams and Shakespearean clues announce the Deaf Man's return to the 87th Precinct. Steve Carella and his colleagues must untangle the criminal's messages, determine his connection to a shooting, and anticipate the dangerous scheme hidden behind his taunts.

Several victims over fifty are shot twice in the face, but their lives appear unrelated. Steve Carella and the 87th Precinct detectives must uncover the connection behind an unusual killing spree before another person is targeted.

Ed McBain recounts the persistent throat trouble that eventually led to a cancer diagnosis and removal of his larynx. This memoir follows treatment, the loss of his voice, and his efforts to recover with humor amid difficult changes.

This collection gathers twenty-five early crime stories written before Evan Hunter adopted the Ed McBain name. Troubled teenagers, endangered women, private detectives, and police populate the tales, accompanied by introductions explaining their origins and his developing craft.

Three suspense novellas by Jeffery Deaver, Ed McBain, and Joyce Carol Oates explore crimes and their consequences. A girl's abduction and the murders of Muslim cabdrivers feature among the investigations, exposing dangers that reach beyond individual victims.

Former piano prodigy Ray Stone wakes beside a murdered nightclub singer, with a supply of heroin missing. Pursued by police and criminals, he must identify the killer while his addiction makes every attempt to escape more difficult.

Six stories follow private detective Curt Cannon, whose lost marriage and license have left him drinking toward oblivion. When a man seeking help is murdered before him, Cannon must recover enough purpose to pursue justice through a hostile city.

Johnny Lane hears gunshots and discovers that a man he recently fought has been murdered. Police seize on his motive, leaving the young Black New Yorker to find the killer while struggling against suspicion and isolation.

Twelve stories explore troubled teenagers amid urban crime, gangs, drugs, and violence. The title tale follows an overwhelmed teacher confronting muggings inside his school, where surviving the students' brutality becomes as urgent as educating them.