Fat Ollie's Book: A Novel of the 87th Precinct

Written by Ed McBain

Narrated by Ron McLarty

Murders happen every day in the big bad city. They're not such a big deal, you know. Even when the victim is a city councilman as well-known as Lester Henderson.
But this is the first time Fat Ollie Weeks of the 88th Precinct has written a novel, ah yes. Called Report to the Commissioner, it follows a cunning detective named Olivia Wesley Watts, who, apart from being female and slim, is rather like Fat Ollie himself. While Ollie's responding to the squeal about the dead councilman, his leather dispatch case is stolen from the back of his car -- and in it, the only copy of his precious manuscript.
Joined by Carella and Kling from the neighboring 87th Precinct, Ollie investigates the homicide with all the exquisite crudeness, insensitivity, and determination for which he is famous. But the theft of his first novel fills Ollie with a renewed passion for old-fashioned detective work.
Following the exploits of one of Ed McBain's most beloved detectives, this lively and complicated tale -- the fifty-second in the award-winning 87th Precinct series -- is McBain at his best.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Jan 1, 2003
• ISBN: 9780743547000

Ed McBain

Ed McBain was a pen name of the successful and prolific crime fiction author Evan Hunter. Born in New York, McBain served aboard a destroyer in the US Navy during World War II. After earning a degree from Hunter College and briefly teaching high school, he worked for a New York literary agency; his clients included Arthur C. Clarke and P.G. Wodehouse. In 1954, his novel The Blackboard Jungle was published under his legal name, Evan Hunter. His 87th Precinct series is one of the longest running crime series ever published. McBain was also a screenwriter; he adapted a short story into Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, and wrote for Columbo as well as the NBC series based on his books, 87th Precinct. The Mystery Writers of America gave him the Grand Master Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1986, and he was the first American to receive the Cartier Diamond Dagger award from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. He passed away in 2005, but his writing remains popular to this day.