See Them Die is the 13th mystery novel in the An 87th Precinct Novel series by author Ed McBain.
Local thug Pepe Miranda’s public defiance to the police pushed the heat of July to a climax. His latest crime has put him at the top of Area 87’s most wanted list, and now his recklessness also earns him credibility on the streets. With the city’s deadliest gangs moving for an epic confrontation, the fate of the area is in the balance.
But Lieutenant Peter Byrnes and his detectives are ready for anything. They certainly wouldn’t let a challenge like that lie – not from someone like Miranda and not when a trick made them anxious to follow him. As the soldiers of the 87th squad closed in, they could plunge into a deadly gunfight that would tear their city apart.
Ed McBain’s See Them Die is a visceral journey into the heart of Area 87’s dirtiest streets, a gritty, adrenaline-fueled freight train heading towards its explosive end.
Unlike many of the 87th Sector series, this one is pretty straightforward. It revolves around several teenagers who are trying to become their own street gang while having a confrontation with a man with a gun in an apartment on the same street. The book was written in the 60s and is set in a neighborhood where many people have just arrived in the United States from Puerto Rico and you will see and feel some of the despair they are facing. A darker than usual book with some tragic results for Division 87.
I have never read a bad Area 87 novel. Some are better than others, but this is not one of them.
Rather than the area’s detectives being the star of the story, it’s mostly about the people and events on a block in the Hispanic part of the city on a hot summer day.
McBain is the only author who can turn a city or weather into a real character in a novel. He does it here as in any of his other books, but he does it too many times. That gives this book a cushioned feel.
I believe that authors are sometimes pressured to publish a book to satisfy publisher and public demand for another entry in a series. That’s the feeling I got from this book – that McBain wrote it under pressure and as a result it fell short of his usual standards.
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See Them Die
- An 87th Precinct Novel, Book 13
