Series like 87th Precinct possibly at the length of Tom Clancy
September 16, 2020 5:21 PM Subscribe
I remember in the late 1980s to early 1990s being in my local, small-ish public library and seeing a series of police procedural novels that fascinated me as a teenager. Seems like they were much longer than Ed McBain's 87th Precinct.
I moved in the summer of 92, it was definitely no later than that. The books had been out long enough to be in a library. And yes, I realize there's a good chance it's 87th Precinct, but a memory of "thick hardcover book, blue, fiction, about the police" isn't a lot to work with, especially since blue is not exactly an uncommon color for police procedural novels.
For years, I thought they were 87th Precinct, and maybe they were, but now that I'm a few books into the 87th series, the length feels wrong. McBain's books are short (paperback of Pusher is 150 pages) and the books I remember felt like Tom Clancy novels (think, 500 pages is short, probably more like 800-1000 per book). It's possible as a child, I overestimated the length, maybe they were much shorter, like 300-500. As far as content, they were much like McBain, with the inner workings of the people in the police building itself, the different departments, descriptions of the desks, the medical examiner and their work, and the field work of the police. Am I just thinking of later McBain books, like Lullaby (1989) that was around 400 pages? Or was there maybe another author in the 80s, similar to McBain, who wrote longer books? The first Harry Bosch was in 1992, so it's not those.
Thank you for any and all help!
I moved in the summer of 92, it was definitely no later than that. The books had been out long enough to be in a library. And yes, I realize there's a good chance it's 87th Precinct, but a memory of "thick hardcover book, blue, fiction, about the police" isn't a lot to work with, especially since blue is not exactly an uncommon color for police procedural novels.
For years, I thought they were 87th Precinct, and maybe they were, but now that I'm a few books into the 87th series, the length feels wrong. McBain's books are short (paperback of Pusher is 150 pages) and the books I remember felt like Tom Clancy novels (think, 500 pages is short, probably more like 800-1000 per book). It's possible as a child, I overestimated the length, maybe they were much shorter, like 300-500. As far as content, they were much like McBain, with the inner workings of the people in the police building itself, the different departments, descriptions of the desks, the medical examiner and their work, and the field work of the police. Am I just thinking of later McBain books, like Lullaby (1989) that was around 400 pages? Or was there maybe another author in the 80s, similar to McBain, who wrote longer books? The first Harry Bosch was in 1992, so it's not those.
Thank you for any and all help!
Seconding Wambaugh. He started publishing in 1971 and had something like 12 novels (almost half of his body of work) done by 1990.
Also possibly W.E.B. Griffin, though he wrote more military novels than he did police novels. See his Wikipedia entry, because he wrote under a lot of pseudonyms as well.
posted by lhauser at 7:22 PM on September 16, 2020
Also possibly W.E.B. Griffin, though he wrote more military novels than he did police novels. See his Wikipedia entry, because he wrote under a lot of pseudonyms as well.
posted by lhauser at 7:22 PM on September 16, 2020
Response by poster: Thank you both! There's a good chance it was Wambaugh or Griffin. I'll check those out.
posted by Meldanthral at 4:54 PM on September 17, 2020
posted by Meldanthral at 4:54 PM on September 17, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
His book The Onion Field, for example, was published in '73 and comes in at about 500 pages.
posted by jamjam at 5:53 PM on September 16, 2020