History Literature / EightySeventhPrecinct

* DisabledLoveInterest: Theodora "Teddy" Carella, a deaf mute.

* TheAdjectivalMan: The recurring villain the Deaf Man, a cold-bloodedly vicious criminal with a ComplexityAddiction who is [[VillainExitStageLeft usually beaten but never caught]]. He's sometimes been seen wearing a hearing aid, has described himself as "hard of hearing", and tends to use aliases alluding to deafness [[ThisIsMyNameOnForeign in different languages]], such as "L. Sordo" (el sordo) and "D.R. Taubman" (der taubman). He's certainly not completely deaf, but whether he actually is even hard of hearing or if that's simply an affectation is unknown.

* TheAdjectivalMan: The recurring villain the Deaf Man, a cold-bloodedly vicious criminal with a ComplexityAddiction who is [[VillainExitStageLeft usually beaten but never caught]]. He's sometimes been seen wearing a hearing aid, has described himself as "hard of hearing", and tends to use aliases alluding to deafness [[ThisIsMyNameOnForeign in different languages]], such as "L. Sordo" and "Taubman". Whether he actually is deaf or if it's an affectation is unknown.

* FairPlayWhodunnit: ''Like Love'', although the main clue can be confusing for the modern reader.

* IdentifyingTheBody: In ''Tricks'', a stage magician's decapitated body is found and his wife identifies him by some scars on the body. [[spoiler: They actually had faked his death and the body is that of his assistant.]]

* {{Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard}}

* NumberOfObjectsTitle

* ExcitedShowTitle: ''Lady, Lady, I Did It!'' and ''Hark!''.

* TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled: In ''Tricks'', a liquor store owner the squad warns about a group of murderous thieves brags about how he's gunned down many such robbers in the past. A few pages later, the current gang of robbers kill him before he can get a shot off.

* 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 scuzziest]]. Isola includes many features of Manhattan, and the other districts mentioned are clear expies for New York City's other four boroughs.

The series began in 1956 and continued until 2005 with the novels progressing from short pocket novels of roughly 200 pages (often released two or three times a year) to the longer style of novel common today (released once every year or two). The series was atypical in a number of ways from most other mystery/police drama series in that cases were often solved through routine police work, mistakes made by the criminals, or the criminals were not apprehended at all. Also atypical was that the detectives were usually less invested in the case - they went home at night, let other detectives handle part of the foot work, and treated the cases as a matter of routine. Detectives who served as the primary protagonist in a previous novel in the series would often be a secondary character in the next and there was no set pattern as to which detectives were partners or not. Given the time-length of the series it also had its own version of ComicBookTime where the officers stayed roughly the same age throughout the series but still referenced [[ContinuityNod previous cases and major events]].

There have been several screen adaptations, including the feature films ''Cop Hater'' (1958), ''The Mugger'' (1958), ''The Pusher'' (1960), ''Fuzz'' (1972) and ''Blood Relatives'' (1978); a short-lived weekly series, ''87th Precinct'' (1961-62); and three {{Made for TV Movie}}s, ''Lightning'' (1995), ''Ice'' (1996), and ''Heatwave'' (1997). Most famously, ''King's Ransom'' was adapted into the Japanese film ''Film/{{High and Low|1963}}'' (1963) by Creator/AkiraKurosawa. ''So Long As You Both Shall Live'' and ''Jigsaw'' were also adapted for ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' (as "[[Recap/ColumboS10E05 No Time To Die]]" and "[[Recap/ColumboS10E09 Undercover]]" respectively, with Arthur Brown joining Columbo in the latter).

* BullyTurnedBuddy: As a kid Meyer had a bully named Patrick Cassidy (one of the many kids who called him "Meyer Meyer, jew on Fire") who once literally tried to force Meyer to kiss his butt as a form of dominance after Meyer gave him an EmbarrassingNickname of his own. Meyer hoped to beat up Cassidy some day, only to find that the man was a cop when he looked him up again, with Cassidy actually being the one to encourage Meyer to join the police force as well.

** The officers on duty in ''Ten Plus One'' when a hot blonde actress - and potential victim of the book's villain, a sniper - arrives at the station. [[spoiler: She does not get killed, by the way.]]

* ChristmasEpisode: ''The Pusher'', ''Sadie When She Died'', ''Ghosts'', ''Eight Black Horses'', ''Money Money Money'', ''All Through the House''. (The latter of which is actually [[FormulaBreakingEpisode an illustrated short story]].

* ChristmasEpisode: ''The Pusher'', ''Sadie When She Died'', ''Ghosts'', ''Eight Black Horses'', ''Money Money Money'', ''All Through the House''
** Then there's ''And All Through the House'', which is actually [[FormulaBreakingEpisode an illustrated short story]].

** Invoked and subverted in [[spoiler:''Lightning'', where a SerialRapist targets devoutly pro-life Catholic women and keeps re-attacking them in a deliberate effort to [[ChildByRape get them pregnant]] and force them to change their minds about abortion]].

** More specifically, according to [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isola_(fictional_city) "Calm's Point" is Brooklyn, "Majesta" is Queens, "Riverhead" is the Bronx, and "Bethtown" Staten Island]]. Then there's the Harb (Hudson) and Dix (East) Rivers, and the similarly unnamed "next state" (New Jersey). George M. Dove's unofficial 1985 companion to the series, ''The Boys from Grover Avenue'', analyzes the geography of [=McBain=]'s "Imaginary City" and describes it as NYC shifted to the side, so that north becomes east, east south, etc.

** One short story has a Rabbi murdered by [[spoiler: An ultra conservative coulleauge upset that he -reluctantly and only due to the workers busy schedule- was willing to hire a workman to renovate the Synagogue on the Sabbath]].
** In ''Lady, Lady I Did It!'', [[spoiler:The killer is a garage employee who gunned down a customer -and three innocent bystanders- out of simple anger that the man didn't like the color he'd repainted the car and made him do it over again. Not helping the matter was that the main victim was Jewish and the killer was an antisemite]].

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The entire roster of the 87th (up to that time) only appears in one book -- the appropriately named ''Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here'', the [[MilestoneCelebration 25th]] of the series.

** [[spoiler:Jeannie Page]] in ''The Mugger''.

* CreatorCameo:
** ''Axe'':
-->"Who wrote ''Strangers When We Meet''?."
** The opening line of ''The Blackboard Jungle'' is quoted in ''Killer's Payoff''.
** A drunk sailor in ''The Mugger'' says his ship is "U S S Huntuh".

* 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.

** Invoked and subverted in ''Lightning'', where a SerialRapist targets devoutly pro-life Catholic women and keeps re-attacking them in a deliberate effort to [[ChildByRape get them pregnant]] and force them to change their minds about abortion.

* OddballInTheSeries: ''He Who Hesitates'' is the only novel in the series told from the villain's POV.

* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Just about any time Carella thinks about Assistant District Attorney Henry Lowell he remembers that he's the guy who failed to convict the murderer of [[spoiler:Carella's father]], usually admitting to himself that the man tried hard and it isn't fair to hold it against him, but he still does.

** Then there's ''And All Through the House'', which is actually [[SomethingCompletelyDifferent an illustrated short story]].

%%* {{Meganekko}}: Annie Rawles

* RabidCop: Masterson and Brock in ''Ten Plus One''.
* RapeAsDrama: Eileen Burke. In ''Lullaby'', she goes into therapy after the events of ''Tricks'' (see BrokenBird above).

* SkunkStripe: Detective Cotton Hawes has a white streak in his otherwise red hair as a result of his hair growing back over a knife scar.

* HalloweenEpisode: ''Tricks''. There's even a group of [[spoiler:circus midgets]] who yell 'trick or treat!' before shooting people.

# Lady, Lady, I Did It (1960)

# So Long As You Both Shall Live (1976)

* TheBadGuysAreCops: [[spoiler:Mike Ingersoll]] in ''Let's Hear It For The Deaf Man''.

** In ''Lady, Lady I Did It'', [[spoiler:The killer is a garage employee who gunned down a customer -and three innocent bystanders- out of simple anger that the man didn't like the color he'd repainted the car and made him do it over again. Not helping the matter was that the main victim was Jewish and the killer was an anti-semite]].

* DyingClue: In ''Lady, Lady I Did It'', one of the victims manages to gasp the word "carpenter" before dying. Investigation by the 87th Precinct fails to turn up a suspect who is named Carpenter or who works with wood. It turns out [[spoiler:the victim was actually saying "car painter" (i.e. the man who had recently painted his car) but his thick accent turned it into "carpenter"]].

** ''Lady, Lady I Did It'' involves a teenaged girl [[ChildByRape impregnated by a rapist]] who died from the effects an illegal abortion.