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When a sniper begins gunning down cops from the 87th Precinct in cold blood, it’s up to Detective Steve Carella to solve the case. With three cops already dead, Carella delves into the city’s underworld to search for the killer.
With money and hope in short supply, newly minted attorney Brigham Theodore decides it’s time to lower his standards. He joins a seedy fly-by-night firm in Salt Lake City out of desperation. After he loses his first case - a speeding ticket - he’s convinced his career is over. But to his shock, his boss hands him a slightly more complex case: capital murder.
From the nationally best-selling author of Vespers and Widows comes a masterfully plotted, razor-sharp suspense novel. Detective Steve Carella is faced with a wealthy blonde sporting a beautiful body and two attempts on her life. Her stockbroker husband has hired protection for her, but nothing is as it seems in this thriller.
After an aging rock starlet is murdered and her daughter kidnapped, Matthew Hope must find out who’s come to collect on the woman’s former good fortune.
Samantha Brinkman, an ambitious, hard-charging Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, is struggling to make a name for herself and to drag her fledgling practice into the big leagues. Sam lands a high-profile double-murder case in which one of the victims is a beloved TV star - and the defendant is a decorated veteran LAPD detective. It promises to be exactly the kind of media sensation that would establish her as a heavy hitter in the world of criminal law.
Lieutenant Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels is having a bad week. Her live-in boyfriend has left her for his personal trainer, chronic insomnia has caused her to max out her credit cards with late-night home shopping purchases, and a frightening killer who calls himself "The Gingerbread Man" is dumping mutilated bodies in her district.
When a sniper begins gunning down cops from the 87th Precinct in cold blood, it’s up to Detective Steve Carella to solve the case. With three cops already dead, Carella delves into the city’s underworld to search for the killer.
With money and hope in short supply, newly minted attorney Brigham Theodore decides it’s time to lower his standards. He joins a seedy fly-by-night firm in Salt Lake City out of desperation. After he loses his first case - a speeding ticket - he’s convinced his career is over. But to his shock, his boss hands him a slightly more complex case: capital murder.
From the nationally best-selling author of Vespers and Widows comes a masterfully plotted, razor-sharp suspense novel. Detective Steve Carella is faced with a wealthy blonde sporting a beautiful body and two attempts on her life. Her stockbroker husband has hired protection for her, but nothing is as it seems in this thriller.
After an aging rock starlet is murdered and her daughter kidnapped, Matthew Hope must find out who’s come to collect on the woman’s former good fortune.
Samantha Brinkman, an ambitious, hard-charging Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, is struggling to make a name for herself and to drag her fledgling practice into the big leagues. Sam lands a high-profile double-murder case in which one of the victims is a beloved TV star - and the defendant is a decorated veteran LAPD detective. It promises to be exactly the kind of media sensation that would establish her as a heavy hitter in the world of criminal law.
Lieutenant Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels is having a bad week. Her live-in boyfriend has left her for his personal trainer, chronic insomnia has caused her to max out her credit cards with late-night home shopping purchases, and a frightening killer who calls himself "The Gingerbread Man" is dumping mutilated bodies in her district.
There’s a lot going on in the 87th Precinct this spring, and none of it is good. Jumpers on building ledges, a salesman torn apart by an explosion, and to cap it all off, they find the dead, half-naked bodies of Irene Thayer and Tommy Barlow in bed together. It has all the earmarks of a double suicide: a note, empty liquor bottles, closed windows, and the gas on the stove turned up. At least this one’s open and shut. Or is it?
Something doesn’t sit right with the detectives at the 87th Precinct, so Steve Carella and his partner, Cotton Hawes, decide to give the case a once-over. Routine checks can turn up interesting facts. Like Irene’s mother, who has an insurance policy on her daughter. Or Irene's grieving, cuckold husband who’s riding the ragged edge. Even Tommy’s brother. Problem is, in order to find a killer, you have to prove there was a murder….
A complex, captivating thriller that probes the deep recesses of the human heart, Like Love is a bittersweet addition to Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series and a rare look inside the softer side of hardened detectives.
Again personal preference, stories like this make me melancholy. As an audible book I am distracted by a reader that has too many voices that do not match my imagination. In a less pensive story it matters less as the focus is on the action, interaction and wordplay. In the case of a story as bittersweet as this, the narrator should be nothing more than that, inflection where it is indicated, no contrived voices and minimum dramatic imput.
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Over the years, I've read numerous McBain books and enjoyed them. After listening to this one, I've decided they are better read than heard. McBain's frequent lengthy dissertations on people or This City, etc., are easy to skim on the page but go on and on via the audio version.
I'd recommend reading McBain's works but not listening to them.
What didn’t you like about Dick Hill’s performance?
Hill's voice is raspy, loud and doesn't distinguish well among characters. They all sound a great deal alike when he portrays them.
Any additional comments?
Sorry I can't recommend McBain's books for audio, despite the fact that I do like to read them.