Killer's Choice

Written by Ed McBain

Narrated by Dick Hill

Annie Boone is dead. She was shot four times in the chest, pieces of the liquor store’s windows spread over her body like raindrops from a lethal storm. For 87th Precinct Detectives Carella, Kling, and newcomer Hawes, even more troubling is the loss of one of their own. Detective Roger Havilland is murdered shortly thereafter, a shard of glass through his jugular.

Faced with a host of suspects—from Annie’s former mother-in-law to her ex-husband, employer, and a string of boyfriends—the detectives find themselves with a victim whose identity spurns all conventional definition. She was the store’s saleswoman…as well as a divorced mother, pool shark, society lady, drunk, and patron of the ballet. Each facet of her life has a corresponding potential suspect. The only way for Carella and the men to find her killer—and maybe that of Havilland, too—is to find out who she really was. The problem is, the only one who really knew her died in a shower of glass.

A brooding, mesmerizing psychological thriller, Killer’s Choice is a stunning addition to mystery icon Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series. Its complex plotting and extraordinary intensity, which culminates in an explosive finish, will leave you breathless.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Mar 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781455873777

Ed McBain

Ed McBain has been the recipient of the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America. His 87th Precinct novels are international bestsellers. He lives in Connecticut.

Reviews for Killer's Choice

[reverends_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Shards of glass covered the floor like broken chords from a bop chorus."Carella and Kling team up to track down the killer of a woman that becomes more of a mystery than her death. Carella and Kling make an interesting pair, as Kling's young and almost naive rookie appearance clashes with yet compliments Carella's experience and certainty. This is the first real Rashomon-style story in the 87th series, a theme that McBain will return to again and again to effectively illustrate the difficulty in discovering the truth when it's very definition is more than subjective. Conflicting testimonies and descriptions raise many questions about the true nature of the victim's personality, and many of these mysteries remain unsolved beyond the closing of the case, adding a dizzying perspective to the difficulty the detectives face in sorting relevant facts and clues from personal opinion and self serving dishonesty.This novel also sees the exit of Roger Haviland and the introduction of Cotton Hawes, the latter of which attempts to track down the killer of the former after a shaky start at the 87th casts doubt upon his credibility in the department. Meyer also makes his appearances, but mostly he is relegated to the background.

[ericlee_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The fifth book in Ed McBain’s classic 87th Precinct series introduces a new character to the detective squad — Cotton Hawes. Hawes has been transferred over from one of the richer parts of the city (based loosely on New York) and has had little experience with homicide. The veteran detectives of the 87th have had plenty. During the course of a murder investigation, Hawes makes a terrible mistake, nearly costing the life of one his colleagues. But he learns quickly. And as McBain had promised, one of the detectives we met in the first four books the series loses his life in this book. And so it continues, as McBain builds up a group of memorable characters, a collective hero for the series, characters who can be killed, or transferred — just like in real life. He has invented a whole new genre here — the police procedural — and watching it being born is wonderful.

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“… and the moon hung in the sky like a whore’s belly button…”Ahh, nighttime in the city, specifically, it’s 87th precinct! This book welcomes Cotton Hawes to the fold, and bids goodbye to Roger Havilland. And the main case is the murder of Annie Boone, a woman who seems to have had many 'faces'. (Havilland's murder is the secondary story) I enjoyed this fifth offering of the series, and look forward to number six! I also really like the ending:"The car went silent. The men breathed the hot summer air. Slowly, the car threaded its way uptown to the precinct and the squad room."

[jtck121166 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As said elsewhere, yes: short 'n' snappy. Does the job. It's effective, efficient, even entertaining. One can imagine the author as extremely good company: the writing comes easily, the story rattles along, he clearly writes as he speaks - fluently and amusingly ... but perhaps not very profoundly. And this is now a period piece, without quite yet achieving 'historical novel' status. The milieu of late-fifties NYC seems dated, and its inhabitants with it. There are universals in police procedural, for sure, but there is little here to excite a new reader. The plot, too, while clever(-ish), is, shall we say, formulaic, to the point of predictable.

Perhaps I shouldn't have started here?

[csdaley-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another strong entry. I love how fast these books read.

[bekkil1977 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Killer's Choice" was an early one, the one where we meet Detective Cotton Hawes, who was supposed to take over as the "hero" of the series, since McBain's editor determined that women would not find a married man like Carella an appealing hero. He was an idiot, whoever he was. I like Hawes well enough, but Carella and Meyer are my favorites, and they are both married. Anyway, this one is about a woman named Annie Boone who is murdered, and the detectives have to figure out which one of her was killed in order to find the killer. See, Annie Boone was a different person to everyone who knew her: her ex-husband thought she was brilliant and vivacious and missed her dreadfully; her mother thought she was a dimwit; one boyfriend said she played billiards with the best of them and was really fun; another boyfriend thought she was a very refined lady who enjoyed ballet. In other words, a normal woman.

[smichaelwilson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Carella and Kling team up to track down the killer of a woman that becomes more of a mystery than her death. Carella and Kling make an interesting pair, as Kling's young and almost naive rookie appearance clashes with yet compliments Carella's experience and certainty. This is the first real Rashomon-style story in the 87th series, a theme that McBain will return to again and again to effectively illustrate the difficulty in discovering the truth when it's very definition is more than subjective. Conflicting testimonies and descriptions raise many questions about the true nature of the victim's personality, and many of these mysteries remain unsolved beyond the closing of the case, adding a dizzying perspective to the difficulty the detectives face in sorting relevant facts and clues from personal opinion and self serving dishonesty.This novel also sees the exit of Roger Havilland and the introduction of Cotton Hawes, the latter of which attempts to track down the killer of the former after a shaky start at the 87th casts doubt upon his credibility in the department. Meyer also makes his appearances, but mostly he is relegated to the background.