Book Review: Fat Ollie's Book

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Fat Ollie's Book     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Ed McBain
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural
Series: 87th Precinct # 52
Simon & Schuster, Jan 2003, $25.00, 288 pp.

Known for his dissing every race and religion, Detective Fat Ollie Weeks is proud of his first police procedural, "Report to the Commissioner. However, the 88th Precinct cop finds official business interfering with the more important matters of authorship as he is assigned to investigate the assassination of City Councilman Lester Henderson, the leading candidate for mayor. Ironically at least in Ollie’s feeble brain, the murder occurs while the victim was preparing for a major political rally inside the Martin Luther King Memorial Hall.

Ollie has a second more important case to solve when someone steals his manuscript from his car as he wasted time looking at the Henderson crime scene. Transvestite prostitute "Emmy" believes he has found an authentic report by Officer Olivia Wesley Watts. Emmy plans to locate the diamonds mentioned in the report while Ollie aided by Officer Patricia Gomez seeks to recover his novel.

FAT OLLIE'S BOOK is a fantastic police procedural that focuses on two investigations and contains hilarious excerpts from the "bad" book. The story line satirizes the police procedural sub-genre leaves no one standing and especially skinned is Ed McBain. The 87th precinct cops play key roles and the introduction of Officer Gomez actually takes Ollie a few steps away from his normal range of bigotry, but not totally. In the fifty-second 87th precinct novel (think alphabet two times), Mr. McBain shows his wit with one of the series best novels ever and surely will be recognized as one of the year’s finest sub-genre entries.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner