Fri 11 Jan 2019
A friend of mine named Jim recently asked me the following question:
“I’m interested in police procedurals taking place in New York City in the 1980s. Are there any you can tell me about?”
I don’t read a lot of police procedurals and the only immediate suggestion I could come up with was Ed McBain’s series of 87th Precinct novels, assuming that Isola, his fictional setting for the books might just as well be New York City. (And did you know that Isola has its own Wikipedia page? It does: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isola_(fictional_city).)
Jim said he’d look into them, but that maybe I could ask the fine people who read this blog if they had any other suggestions, so he could put together a good reading list. Any help would be appreciated!
January 11th, 2019 at 11:22 pm
Off the top of my head only ONE POLICE PLAZA by William J. Caunitz comes to mind.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:33 pm
Couple for you
Lillian O’Donnell – Norah Mulcahaney
William Bayer – Frank Janek
Lawrence Sanders – Edward X Delaney
Christopher Newman – Joe Dante (pbo)
January 12th, 2019 at 12:32 am
Great suggestions so far. Thanks, gents. Maybe I’ll have to read some of these myself!
January 12th, 2019 at 9:58 am
The Bayer books I really enjoyed, there were only three or four of them, but well done. The first couple of Sanders books (especially the first) was really good, after that he seemed to drift into more soft porn and humor in the books than the mystery (the Archie McNally and non-series books).
January 12th, 2019 at 12:15 pm
Sleeping on a question sometimes helps, but the only author that came to me overnight was Dorothy Uhnak. Most of her books were written in the 60s and 70s, though, with two in the80s and two more in the 90s.
January 12th, 2019 at 1:09 pm
The 80’s seemed to be the time that a new PI series was coming out every other week, and the police procedurals went by the wayside. I know that was most of what I read then.
January 12th, 2019 at 5:26 pm
Stephen Solomita wrote some books featuring detective Stanley Moodrow of NYC police. I liked ’em. I think the time setting is what you are looking for.
January 12th, 2019 at 5:58 pm
Thanks, Howard. The first three of eight came out in the late 80s. Those will count. Maybe even all of them.
January 12th, 2019 at 6:02 pm
David P, Comment 5. Given how many PI series there were in the 80s and how few of these authors came readily to mind, I think there’s a lot going for that theory of yours.
January 13th, 2019 at 11:06 am
Jim says to say thanks to everyone who’s helped come up with such a good list of books and authors. They’re just what he was looking for. He’s already ordered some of them from third party sellers on Amazon.
January 14th, 2019 at 12:50 pm
Late to the party, but George Bagby’s (Aaron Marc Stein’s) Inspector Schmidt series (1935-1983) might be of interest. There were over 40 of them and some/most can be acquired relatively cheaply.
January 14th, 2019 at 1:08 pm
Never too late,, Bill. Thanks!