So Long as You Both Shall Live: An 87th Precinct Mystery

by Ed McBain

Paperback, 1976

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Publication

Signet

Description

When Detective Kling's blushing bride is nabbed from their honeymoon suite, the men of the 87th Precinct are out to help one of their own. "Imagine your favorite Law & Order cast solving fresh mysteries into infinity, with no re-runs, and you have some sense of McBain's grand, ongoing accomplishment." --Entertainment Weekly "McBain forces us to think twice about every character we meet...even those we thought we already knew." --New York Times Book Review

User reviews

LibraryThing member ecw0647

Fat Ollie takes center stage in this 87th Precinct McBain. Bert Kling is marrying Augusta, a model, who is kidnapped from their wedding suite by a looney. The scene shifts back and forth between Augusta, who is not about to let things take their course without a fight, and the investigation. They

are stymied with seemingly no leads, but Ollie, “ who was bigoted, slovenly, opinionated, crude, insensitive, gross, humorless, unimaginative…No, that wasn’t true. Ollie was imaginative,” joins the hunt and, with the help of the wedding photographer, develops the two leads that break the case open.

Short, almost a novella, the book is standard McBain fare, that is to say, a solid police procedural.

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LibraryThing member asxz

We're up to the mid 1970s now and Bert Kling is finally tying the knot and on his wedding night his bride is kidnapped by a nutty stalker from the honeymoon suite. Obvs. Bert Kling is literally the unluckiest guy in literature. From that point on it's s super efficient procedural with informers

grilled, leads chased down and bad guys braced. Fat Ollie makes his biggest contribution so far and he's an interesting addition to the team leaving Carella conflicted. In the hands of any other writer, he'd be a two-dimensional bit-player, but McBain offers him up unvarnished and forces us to find value in the least likely of places. The closing scene where Ollie acts without hesitation while Carella and Kling pause, is simple and stunning. Love these books.

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LibraryThing member dbeveridge

The second 87th Precinct novel in a row that a) is more thriller than police procedural; b) features deep mental illness in an antagonist who; c) focuses on cutting, here with a scalpel rather than a knife, and; d) prominently features Fat Ollie Weeks -- a wonderfully entertaining character,

typical of the 1970's tenancy toward antiheroes, although thankfully he's presented through humor rather than brooding. Since I'm reading them all in order I'm interested to see whether this thriller thing continues, but McBain does it very well, cranking up the tension to the very end. That's a good thing here, because the plot is a bit far-fetched, although what was in the '70's a pretty thrilling and probably unusual plot, it's now a thriller trope --the intelligent obsessive deranged killer -- that you can see on television every night of the week. So, with this novel and his Deaf Man books, McBain once again breaks ground for his successors.

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LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco

Bart Kling’s wedding day! But when he goes to take a shower on his wedding night, he comes out to find his brand-new bride has vanished - kidnapped! And Fat Ollie Weeks, of all people, gets to work to get her back. Even though “…Ollie was bigoted, slovenly, gross, humorless,…” , did

terrible impressions of W.C. Fields, and smelled bad, he’s a hell of an investigator. And I really like the way he’s written. Especially his diet of 7 hamburgers and 3 cups of coffee...

This is a taught, psychological-type thriller, a bit different from others in the series. Augusta's battles with her abductor are well written, and a bit creepy. Another good book of the 87th, and I do hope Fat Ollie transfer to the precinct!

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