History Literature / EightySeventhPrecinct

** Invoked and subverted in ''Lightning'' where the killer is raping women who believe in this in an effort to [[ChildByRape get them pregnant]] and force them to change their minds.

* TheSpook: The Deaf Man, a diabolical Moriarty-escue criminal genius. His real name and biography are never revealed, and even his deafness may be an affectation.

[[quoteright:292:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/87th_heckler.png]]
[[caption-width-right:292:A typical book cover for the series.]]

1. Cop Hater (1956)
2. The Mugger (1956)
3. The Pusher (1956)
4. The Con Man (1957)
5. Killer's Choice (1957)
6. Killer's Payoff (1958)
7. Killer's Wedge (1958)
8. Lady Killer (1958)
9. 'til Death (1959)
10. King's Ransom (1959)
11. Give the Boys a Great Big Hand (1960)
12. The Heckler (1960)
13. See Them Die (1960)
14. Lady, Lady, I Did It (1960)
15. The Empty Hours (1960)
16. Like Love (1962)
17. Ten Plus One (1963)
18. Ax (1963)
19. He Who Hesitates (1965)
20. Doll (1965)
21. Eighty Million Eyes (1966)
22. Fuzz (1968)
23. Shotgun (1968)
24. Jigsaw (1970)
25. Hail, Hail, the Gangs All Here (1971)
26. Sadie, When She Died (1972)
27. Lets Hear It for the Deaf Man (1961)
28. Hail to the Chief (1973)
29. Bread (1974)
30. Blood Relatives (1975)
31. So Long As You Both Shall Live (1976)
32. Long Time No See (1977)
33. Calypso (1979)
34. Ghosts (1980)
35. Heat (1981)
36. Ice (1983)
37. Lightning (1984)
38. Eight Black Horses (1985)
39. Poison (1987)
40. Tricks (1987)
41. Lullaby (1989)
42. Vespers (1989)
43. Widows (1991)
44. Kiss (1992)
45. Mischief (1993)
46. And All Through the House (1984)
47. Romance (1995)
48. Nocturne (1997)
49. The Big Bad City (1999)
50. The Last Dance (1999)
51. Money, Money, Money (2001)
52. Fat Ollie's Book (2002)
53. The Frumious Bandersnatch (2003)
54. Hark! (2004)
55. Fiddlers (2005)

Administrivia/NeedsABetterDescription.

* BusmansHoliday: "Storm", from ''The Empty Hours'', has Cotton Hawes investigating a murder while on vacation at a ski resort.

* CrossOver: One of [=McBain=]'s Matthew Hope novels, ''The Last Best Hope'', has that character teaming with Steve Carella on a case.

* CartwrightCurse: Bert Kling. The poor guy just can't catch a break. His girlfriends either end up dying, having too many issues to cope with a relationship, going off with another man or just getting fed up with him.

* ComicBookTime: The same cast of characters were used for the entire 49-year run of the series. This necessitated revisions over time, such as characters who originally had seen military service in World War II getting rewritten so that their service occurred during Korea, Vietnam, the First Gulf War, etc.

* CynicismCatalyst: Detective Haviland was a "gentle" cop before he tried to intervene when a street punk was being beaten up on the streets and both the victim and the assailants turned up to beat up Haviland, putting him in the hospital. He came out a sour man prone to hitting people.

* FatBastard: 88th Precinct detective Fat Ollie Weeks, and police informer Fats Donner. The former is a bigot, the latter a pedophile.

* DefiniteArticleTitle: a few of the early ones - ''The Pusher''; ''The Heckler''.

* EverybodyLives: In [[spoiler:''King's Ransom'' and ''As Long as You Both Shall Live'']] both the victims and the perpetrators of the featured crimes survive.

* ChristmasEpisode: ''The Pusher'', ''Sadie When She Died'', ''Ghosts'', ''Eight Black Horses'', ''Money Money Money''

* EverybodyLives: [[spoiler: ''King's Ransom'', ''So Long As You Both Shall Live''.]]

** Gregory Craig in ''Ghosts'' is one as well; he blamed his wife for his penultimate novel being slated by critics, dumped her for a younger woman who claims to be a psychic, and was killed by [[spoiler: the man whose story he basically stole for the basis of his final, hugely successful book. The author's lover later declares through her powers that he killed his wife - she drowned, but she was an excellent swimmer. It's never proven... but her powers ''are'' real, and see also HauntedHouse below.]]

* ADayInTheLimelight: ''Fat Ollie's Book''.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: In [[spoiler:''Shotgun'']] and [[spoiler: ''Tricks'']].
* DeadpanSnarker: Meyer, often.

* ADeathInTheLimelight: [[spoiler:Frankie Hernandez]] in ''See Them Die''.

* PointyHairedBoss: Captain Frick. The best thing that could be said about his leadership is that he realises his own incompetence and most of the time just don't do anything.

* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: The novels are set in Isola, a district of an [[CityWithNoName unnamed, fictional city]] in an unnamed state which, as mentioned above, closely resembles New York [[TheBigRottenApple at its ugliest]]. Isola includes many features of Manhattan, and the other districts mentioned are clear expies for New York City's other four boroughs.

* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: The novels are set in Isola, a district of an [[CityWithNoName unnamed, fictional city]] in an unnamed state which, as mentioned above, closely resembles New York. Isola includes many features of Manhattan, and the other districts mentioned are clear expies for New York City's other four boroughs.

* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: The CrapsackWorld city is a fictional one.
* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:Pepe Miranda]]'s death in ''See Them Die''. First, he is shot repeatedly by the ''army'' of cops. Then Andy Parker empties his gun into him. And then, Parker grabs another gun and shoots [[spoiler:Miranda]] in the head. Twice.
* NonSequitur: Meyer often blurts his (unrelated to the topic at hand) thoughts out loud, confusing the others.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Some of the most mild and harmless-seeming people turn out to be killers, such as [[spoiler:Timothy Moore, the victim's medical student boyfriend in ''Ice''.]]

** Oddly enough, New York itself is occasionally mentioned in the books. Apparently [=McBain=]'s universe has two huge and virtually-interchangeable metropolises co-existing very close to one another on the East Coast of the United States.

* AllBikersAreHellsAngels: Played straight and subverted in a subplot of ''Let's Hear it for the Deaf Man''. Two of the bikers in it are drug-using rapists who torture the rape victim's artist boyfriend and fatally crucify one of their own friends for trying to stop them. On the flip side, said crucified friend is described as a NiceGuy who just liked traveling around on his bike and was interested in carrying around art to sell across the region.

* AllBikersAreHellsAngels: Played straight and subverted in a subplot of ''Let's Hear it for the Deaf Man''. Two of the bikers in it are drug-using rapists who torture the girls boyfriend and crucify one of their own friends for trying to stop them. Said crucified friend is described as a NiceGuy who just liked traveling around on his bike and was interested in carrying around art to sell across the region.

* TheTheTitle: a few of the early ones - ''The Pusher''; ''The Heckler''.

* KarmaHoudini: The murderer who is the protagonist of [[spoiler: ''He Who Hesitates'']].
** KarmaHoudiniWarranty [[spoiler: Said murderer ends up confessing in ''Shotgun'' and does get charged and presumably convicted. Karma caught up to him.]]

* BlackGalOnWhiteGuyDrama: Kling's relationship with Sharyn Cooke has some of this.

* ButtMonkey: The Deaf Man, surprisingly. On one hand he constantly gets a lot of people killed and avoids being arrested. On the other hand, he ''always'' ends up empty handed, continuously fails to prove himself smarter than the detectives of the 87th Precinct, and is repeatedly badly injured and/or forced to flee town with his tail between his legs. [[CatharsisFactor The guy is such a smug, sadist that it's pretty satisfying to watch]].

* ColdSnap: ''Fuzz''.