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Fiddlers

by Ed McBain

Fiddlers is Ed McBain's final novel – sadly enough, Mr. McBain is no longer with us. However, we're left with a treasure chest of 87th Precinct books, as well as all the other stuff he wrote! Fiddlers is Ed McBain at the peak of his creative career. During his lifetime, Mr. McBain won every prize available to writers of his genre, and became justly famous for police procedurals in the 87th Precinct series.

In Fiddlers, Detective Steve Carella is stumped by a serial killer who simply doesn't fit any previous pattern – a killer who targets primarily the old instead of the young, and who murders a number of times within a very short time frame as opposed to the usual rest periods in between. All the victims are over fifty years old. And they're curiously disparate: a blind violinist, a cosmetics sales representative, a college professor, a priest, and a retired woman out walking her dog. The only thing linking them before Carella can discover why they've been killed is the fact that all were shot in the face – and all were shot with the same gun. Yet it's imperative that Carella nails the murderer before he/she kills again.

Finding out why each of these people were targeted is a very gradual process, and the 87th has to dig into the background of each individual. Detective Carella finally discovers the link – and from there he goes on to apprehend the killer. Whether or not the murderer had a good reason to eliminate his victims is something you'll have to decide for yourself!

Alan Paul Curtis

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