Tricks by Ed McBain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"The stripped pajama bottoms that showed beneath the hem of the robe were spattered with blood that seemed to have dripped from an open wound in his belly, where a dagger was plunged to the hilt."

The above quote comes from the first page of Ed McBain's novel Tricks (1987), the 40th novel (if I am counting right) in his famous 87th Precinct series. I am not a fan of series of novels in general, but because of heavy workload in recent weeks I had to reach for lighter, easier reads. McBain's books are perfect for this purpose: short and extremely readable. Actually, I am happy to say that I quite like this novel, which is a sort of surprise. Maybe it is because of this strong first page? I certainly got fooled by the author, and I love when it happens.

To be precise, calling Tricks a novel is sort of a reach; it is rather a patchwork of several separate threads that do not have much in common except that criminal activities and 87th Precinct cops are involved. In fact, I find it refreshing that the threads do not eventually merge together in a cliché literary device.

The most prominent thread features Eileen Burke, known from other novels in the series, who serves as a decoy to ambush a suspect in murders of several prostitutes. We witness how she and her support crew prepare for the dangerous job and how the ambush plays out. The second thread - where one of the main characters is a magician - involves human dismemberment: body parts have been found in various locations of the city.

Then we have a thread about children doing holdups of neighborhood stores; yes, children enter stores, demand money and kill the shop personnel. It does sounds a bit incredible, but when one reads the book, things get neatly explained. In yet another thread teenagers are getting shot. Moreover, in the background we have the Halloween night's wild activities.

I like the author's play with words: what is common between magic, Halloween, and prostitutes? Not a very difficult yet cute puzzle! There is a lot of humor in the novel: not only the low-brow yet funny bits like the "Have Mouth Will Travel" job description or identification of the deceased by a beauty spot located on a normally invisible part of the body, but the reader will also find a hilarious passage where Andy Parker, one of the 87th Precinct cops, pretends at a party that he is a cop, and suddenly he begins feeling like an actual cop. A viciously insightful observation of human nature.

True, the novel is a trifle, yet a thoroughly entertaining trifle! It made me want to read more of Ed McBain (i.e., Evan Hunter (i.e., Salvatore Albert Lombino)).

Three-and-a-quarter stars.

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