Lightning by Ed McBain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"And then, suddenly, a sharp click.
'What's that?' Meyer asked. 'Did he turn off the recorder?'
'No, sir,' Ollie said.
'I thought I heard...'
'You did. That's [...]'"
(A fragment of dialogue in the novel. The readers will have to find out on their own what that click meant.)

It is mid-November and I am three books behind the schedule in my 2021 Reading Challenge. I am overloaded with work this semester and barely have any time for reading. I want to complete the challenge so I will sacrifice the principle of alternating "serious" reads with "unserious" ones, which I have followed for over 900 reviewed books. I may have a chance to read and review 11 "unserious" books in the remaining days of 2021.

Lightning (1984) is the 37th installment in the famous 87th Precinct series by Ed McBain (that is, Evan Hunter). The novel begins when detectives Carella and Genero find a body of a young woman hanging from a lightpost. The narration then switches to a rapist exhilarated about the power he wields over the women he violates.

The multi-threaded narration alternates between the two cases and recounts the 87th Precinct detectives' methodical work on catching the killer and the rapist. Of the 17 novels in the series that I have reviewed on Goodreads, Lightning is the strongest on the procedural aspect of police detectives' work. The investigatory approaches, forensic science methods, and crime scene techniques are described in meticulous detail. The fragments of detectives' D.D. reports are included in the text as are the copies of some of the victims' diaries (chronology happens to play a role in getting closer to solving one of the cases).

The author also includes some sharp social commentary on poverty, crime, and their roots. The novel is only 37 years old, yet I think it could not have been published in 2021 without editing for phrasing; some fragments of the text would violate today's strictly regimented language when referring to certain social issues. I like the straightforward and uncompromising language, and I miss it in today's careful prose. The descriptions of the crimes are chilling, yet certainly not gratuitous.

Despite my aversion to the "conceptual continuity" of a long series of novels - the repeating motifs in most books in a series - I like this installment of the 87th Precinct saga, and recommend it without hesitation. A solid mystery, outstanding procedural, and quite a good read!

Three-and-a-half stars.


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