87th Precinct
The 87th Precinct series is a Long Running Book Series in the Police Procedural genre, written by Ed McBain (the crime-fiction writing pseudonym of Evan Hunter). It features a revolving cast of police officers from the eponymous precinct, in an unnamed city that isn't exactly New York.
There have been several screen adaptations, including the feature films Cop Hater (1958), The Mugger (1958), The Pusher (1960), and Fuzz (1972); a short-lived weekly series, 87th Precinct (1961-62); and three Made for TV Movies, Lightning (1995), Ice (1996), and Heatwave (1997).
Tropes used in 87th Precinct include:
- Arch Enemy: The Deaf Man
- Badass: Steve Carella, Hal Willis, Cotton Hawes. Lt. Byrnes, Meyer, and Kling have their moments too.
- Berserk Button: Emma is Brother Anthony's in Ice. And vice versa, as the novel's killer ultimately finds out...
- Best Served Cold: The main plot in Ten Plus One.
- Christmas Episode: And All Through the House, Ghosts, Money Money Money, The Pusher
- Comic Book Time
- Continuity Nod: Later books in the series frequently reference events or characters from earlier ones.
- Criminal Mind Games
- Crossover: One of McBain's "Matthew Hope" novels, The Last Best Hope, has that character teaming with Steve Carella on a case.
- A Day in the Limelight: Fat Ollie's Book
- Deadpan Snarker: Meyer, often.
- Disabled Love Interest: Theodora "Teddy" Carella
- Fat Bastard: 88th Precinct detective Fat Ollie Weeks, and police informer Fats Donner.
- Fiery Redhead: Eileen Burke
- Halloween Episode: Tricks
- Happily Married: Steve and Teddy Carella, Meyer and Sarah Meyer.
- Hollywood Satanism: Vespers
- How Unscientific: Ghosts
- Interrupted Suicide
- Jerkass: Andy Parker
- Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard
- Lower Deck Episode
- New Year Has Come: Lullaby
- Noble Bigot with a Badge: Fat Ollie Weeks
- No Communities Were Harmed
- Non Sequitur: Meyer often blurts his (unrelated to the topic at hand) thoughts out loud, confusing the others.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Richard Genero.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Fat Ollie Weeks
- Rape as Drama: Eileen Burke
- Recurring Character
- Repetitive Name: Meyer Meyer
- Scary Black Man: Arthur Brown
- Serial Killings, Specific Target: Long Time, No See
- Skunk Stripe: Detective Cotton Hawes has a white streak in his otherwise red hair as a result of his hair growing back over a knife scar.
- Themed Aliases: The Deaf Man always uses aliases that are some sort of play on words on 'deaf' in a variety of languages.
- This Is a Work of Fiction
- This Is My Name on Foreign
- Those Two Guys: The buffoonish and arrogant homicide detectives Monoghan and Monroe.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: Frequently.
- Villain Episode: He Who Hesitates
- The Villain Makes the Plot: When the Deaf Man is involved.