Ed McBain's Poison

I just re-read an old 87th Precinct by Ed McBain. I first read it at least fifteen years ago and have always been intrigued with the story because in it there was this really interesting character, a woman who’d been through hell and back and still retained her goodness. The book was Poison and the character was Marilyn Hollis, an ex-hooker who survived a terrible ordeal in a Mexican prison and then later in Buenos Aires. She and Hal Willis meet because she’s involved in a case Willis and Carella are working. They fall in love. They learn about each other’s most hidden selves. It really is a most remarkable mystery/love story. I think this one is so good I’d use it as a stepping off point for anyone first starting to read the series. If Poison couldn’t hook a person on McBain and his boys from the 87th, nothing could. I wish I’d had a chance to meet Evan Hunter/Ed McBain before he died. I think he and I would have really hit it off. His sense of humor, for one thing, is much like mine. He nearly always salts his books with a joke or two. For example, in Poison, Carella sees one of the police lab boys for some information about distilling nicotine. They greet as old friends who haven’t seen one another in a long time. The lab man starts with a joke he’s just heard: A man goes to see a urologist. The urologist says, “What seems to be the trouble?” The man says, “I can’t pee.” The urologist says, “How old are you?” The man says, “Ninety-two.” The urologist says, “So you peed enough already.” See, that’s humor I can relate to.

This is my 500th posting. How in the world did I get to that number? I'm just so full of words (some would say I'm full of something else) that I have to get them out of me before I burst. Now that wouldn't be a pretty sight--pieces of me flying all over the place, words like shrapnel.

And as if I didn't already have enough to do, I went on line to find a cheapie website. I found one and on it I'm putting all my stories, maybe the intros to my novels. In case any of my readers should want to read any of my stories, you can go to www.simplesite.com/jertrav33. The main page should list the stories on the left side. Just click on one and up it will come.