George Chadderton is a musician who bills himself as the "Calypso King." Late one rainy September night, he leaves a gig with his manager and as the two are walking down the street someone comes up from behind them and shoots George to death. The killer also wounds George's manager in the shoulder. The manager falls to the ground and the killer stands over him and fires directly at his head. But the gun is empty and the killer is forced to flee, leaving the manager still alive.A few hours later, it's still pouring rain, and a hooker who's looking for one last trick is shot to death with the same gun that killed Chadderton. Chadderton's murder took place in Isola's 87th Precinct and the case falls to veteran detectives Steve Carella and Meyer Meyer. They wake up the newly-widowed Mrs. Chadderton to give her the bad news while surreptitiously checking to see if she might have been the shooter herself. (They don't yet know that there is a second victim because the hooker was killed in another precinct and it will take a while before anyone realizes that the ballistics match.)Mrs. Chadderton is a very attractive woman who works at a topless club. She appears to be devastated by her husband's death and has no idea who might have wanted to kill him. Sadly, there appear to be no leads at all, and in investigating the victim's background, the detectives discover nothing of interest save for the fact that Chadderton's brother, Santo, seems to have disappeared into thin air seven years earlier.That's neither here nor there, and the case presents one of the toughest challenges to confront Carella and friends in any of the first thirty-three books in this series. This is also one of the best books in the series, and it first appeared in 1979. By then, McBain had really hit his stride and this is one that any fan of the series will not want to miss.
What do You think about Calypso (1980)?
Knocked out another of the 87th Precinct series. Five more, all early ones, to complete the series.In CALYPSO, the so-called King of Calypso music is murdered headed home from his latest gig. His manager is also shot, but he survives because the shooter ran out of information. A few hours later a hooker is killed with the same gun.Steve Carello and Meyer Meyer catch the case and start looking into it. It takes a few days for them to connect the two cases. About the same time as someone finishes the job on the manager.The only ID Carello and Meyer got for the shooter was a pair of skinnt kegs in black pants. The manager had had eyes only for the gun aimed at his head. The fact that it was in the middle of a driving rain storm, which continues for days, didn't help matters.The Calypso singer apparently was single minded about his career and not especially liked. Which only widened the field of suspects.Another winning entry in the 87th series.
—Randy
