Learning To Kill

With Cop Hater, the first of his superb 87th Precinct crime novels, Ed McBain debuted in 1956. Here, after more than 100 books, the MWA Grand Master culls 25 stories he wrote before he was Ed McBain, writing in «Manhunt» and other detective magazines as Evan Hunter, Richard Marsten, and Hunt Collins. Hunter — already well known as the author of «The Blackboard Jungle» and other books before he adopted the name McBain for his police procedurals — provides new introductions for these stories of kids in trouble and women in jeopardy, private eyes and innocent bystanders, and cops and robbers, explaining how they helped launch his career as McBain.