Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book contains the worst crime fiction Ed McBain has ever produced, and that's meant as a complement. After all, it takes a gifted writer to write prose as bad as McBain produces on behalf of one of his less noble fictional creations, Detective First Grade Oliver Wendell Weeks. Weeks figures if he solves the crimes, what's the trick in making one up on paper and getting it on the best seller's lists? Not only does he have a well-worn list of "how-tos" for creating crime fiction ("BE SURE TO AVOID AMBIGUITY"), he's been doing his homework surveying the marketplace by reading Amazon.com reviews.

Clearly this guy is in trouble...

Weeks has been floating around McBain's 87th Precinct novels for a while, and now he gets center stage. Though he's with the 88th Precinct, and much disliked by the 87th Precinct detectives (and many readers) because of his nasty manner and blunt racist approach to life, he's still a decent detective.

Weeks kind of works as a protagonist only if you are playing it for laughs, and McBain is here. "Fat Ollie's Book" is one of the more comic 87th Precinct offerings. People still die, and others mourn, but this time there's more emphasis on laughs, incongruity, and malaprops, particularly when it comes to Weeks' novel. He decides it should star someone like himself (maybe not quite as fat) but female, since he discovers women buy more mysteries than men.

It's not exactly like Weeks transforms himself into Phil Donohue. His opus, "Report To The Commissioner," includes references to the narrator's ample bust and what a hot dish she is in general. She's writing from a locked room, you see, waiting for someone to kill her, and the first thing she wants you to know is there's a run in her stockings...

Then someone steals his manuscript, and Weeks goes on the warpath to get it back.

As a crime drama, "Fat Ollie's Book" is problematic. There's a couple of cases being worked on in tandem with Ollie's crisis, neither which holds much interest. The other detectives, like Steve Carella and Bert Kling, go through their paces but don't manage anything particularly interesting this time around. A problem with this book is that Weeks is probably the most colorful character anyway, and pushing him up to the foreground, especially as entertainingly as this, makes the others pale by comparison.

But as a crime comedy, "Fat Ollie's Book" is a nice reminder of a key reason so many of us visit the 87th Precinct: McBain's one funny writer, and he can spin a yarn.

Pity poor Ollie can't. But at least he can dance, play "Night And Day" on the piano, and come up for a derogatory epithet for anyone else on the planet.

This is my first Mcbain book I have read. I enjoyed the different twist in this book. Fat Ollie is the typical Columbo type cop. Ollie is portraded as a fat, bigot aspiring writer. The book is about the murder of a councilman. It seems more or less important to Ollie to find who stole his book. There are different story lines that are quite easy to follow. It was quite fun to read and guess what OLlie would do next as well as reading along Ollies' book. I read this book on my return flight from Iraq and I must say I am not much of a Crime Fiction guy but, but this was well worth the read.

This is a typical McBain 87th precinct mystery -- two or three story threads, some day in the life information on the detectives and the sharp dialogues present in all of the nearly 60 books in this series. Instead of concentrating on Steve Carella, McBain's usual hero, this one centers on Oliver Weeks (Fat Ollie), a recurring bit-parter in other books who is an obese Archie Bunker with a detective's shield.

All told, this is far from McBain's best (see the books with the Deaf Man -- a recurring criminal mastermind). The central crime (assassination of a city councilman) is not particularly complex, twisted or ingenious. The second thread is an interesting sidebar, but not much else. Ultimately, this is a good break from reality and one for the fans, but NOT for people uninitiated to McBain.

One of the greatest police procedural series is the 87th Precinct novels of the legendary Ed McBain. The first one was written in 1956. It was a straightforward novel with one relatively simple storyline. Today's volumes are conciderably longer with several distinct subplots that intertwine with the various characters. They are much more complex and character rich novels. They might be rarely equaled by current writers but never surpassed in pure writing style.
In this, the 52nd book in the series, Fat Ollie Weeks, a crude and rude detective of the 88th Precinct has just completed a detective novel. He has the manuscript stolen off the back seat of his car while investigating a crime. The case he is given is the assasination of a politician who may very well have been a candidate for mayor. Fat Ollie solicits help on the high publicity case from Steve Carella of the 87th Precinct. Fat Ollie not only wants to solve the crime, he also wants to get his manuscript back.
McBain uses much humor in telling this multifaceted story. The murder of the politician is compelling enough. However, we also meet some of the dregs of society as Fat Ollie trails his book. Characters are superbly portrayed- many of which are old friends to those of us who have followed the series. McBain, once again proves that after almost a half century, he has not lost his touch.

I've read ALL of the 87th Precinct books to date and have loved and reread all of them. This one was unique and captivating, as is typical Ed McBain style. Keep them coming!!

For those of you not familiar with the literary terms, flat character and round character, here's a brief definition. Flat characters have clearly defined (almost rigid) characteristics and don't change or develop in a story. Most Dickens' characters, though delightful, are flat, in contrast to Huck Finn or Harry Bosch in M. Connelly's novels, both of which are round and have tension, ability to change, often ironic touches etc. Mcbain's characters are always, and tiresomely so, flat. Carrella and Ollie are good examples: Carrella good, p.c., loves his wife passionately (idolizes her and her deafness, not a nice touch but too friggin' p.c. for me) and cares for people. Ollie is a stereotype villain in McBain's universe: bigot, gross, and totally un-politically correct, actually the one of the only interesting characers in McBain's galaxy. Fat Ollie's Book is humorous and flat characters can be fun: the transvestite reaches beyond McBain's usual inflexible character--some minor characters have some roundness: pawnbroker for example. Black doctor and white cop is rather sweet, but again so cloyingly flat and predictable. Do they ever disagree on anything? Black and white lovers is oh so passe. Average plot and sometimes spot-on satire of myster writers characterize this overrated and rather silly book. But McBain gives his readers what they want--could he add a little Rendell and Bill James to his novels--not likely, when he can grind out these stale hamburger novels while watching reruns of Colombo. Come on Mr. Mcbain reach, take a risk. Your Hope novels show promise, but you still can't go for a little more than a modicum of rust and edginess. Entertaining, bus book, nothing else.

Fat Ollie is back and so are the "boys' of the 87th Precinct. The Precinct fans who only met Ollie as a loudmouthed, grossly fat smelly bigot from the 88th, will be surprised to meet Ollie as a bona fide writer of fiction. As usual, McBain spins the yarn in an entertaining, folksy style, tying together action and comment in a fast paced, amusing fashion. Some unusual things happen in this saga, such as Ollie's romance with rookie cop,wherein we find out that Ollie, like many "big" men, is a good dancer, light on his feet, a TV "talent" has a crush on Carella, and Kling encounters Eileen Burke on the 87th's turf.
All in all, it is a typical McBain--fast paced, entertaining, humorous, with an occassional insight into human nature.
If anyone wants escape literature, there's no better.

This book is excellent. What makes Ed McBain special is that he can make a hero out of Fat Ollie Weeks, an overweight policeman who is a bigot. In this book Fat Ollie's own manuscript is stolen. There are excellent comments on writing and on how the author (Fat Ollie or McBain) found his "voice." The book pokes fun of other McBain novels, of Fat Ollie and of bad writing. Ultimately, Ed McBain does not take himself, or Fat Ollie, very seriously, which makes for a great story. Some of the reviewers have misunderstood the cleverness of this book, and that's too bad.

I'd figured it would be impossible to take a character like Ollie- who has been an utterly unlikable irritant in every previous appeaerence- make him the lead character, and still like the book. Though McBain "cheats" a little, softening some of Ollies bitterest racism and introducing an utterly unbelivable(though enjoyable) love interest, I still found it a surprising accomplishment. A very good book, provided you can stomach rooting for someone so lacking in redeeming characteristics.

I have read every 87th Precinct novel -- and every one of McBain's "Matthew Hope" novels -- and enjoyed them all to a greater or lesser degree.

Even "Hail to the Chief", which was a satire of Watergate.

Even "He Who Hesitates", in which the cops of the 87th are barely seen, in a story about a murderer's state of mind.

Even the latest "Deaf Man" book (though that one *did* try my patience a bit).

I didn't finish this one. And i *really* expected and *wanted* to enjoy it; friends and reviewers who i trust had given it glowing notices.

Just proves the old saw about meat and poison and two different men.

The running joke this time (virtually every 87th Precinct novel has some running shtick, often humourous) is that Fat Ollie, the fat, bigoted, annoying cop, has written a novel. And it's terrible.

Wow. I wish he'd actually worked on a readable plot for this book to go with the joke. 'Cos the joke ain't very funny and wears out its welcome long before the book is over.

Yes, Ollie's book *is* terrible. I knew that was going to be true before he rubbed my nose in it. And that's the problem, because, essentially, this book *is* Fat Ollie's book; if you took out the quotes from Ollie's manuscript, this would be a longish short story.

And it still wouldn't be readable, so far as i'm concerned.

I -- apparently almost alone among 87th Precinct readers -- don't like Fat Ollie. If McBain feels a need to write about fat bigoted cops, there's always Andy Parker (who, last time i remember encountering him, was actually becoming a bit sympathetic).

And the pathetic geek who gets hold of Ollie's manuscript and is stupid enough (i estimate an IQ slightly below that necessary to sustain life) to believe that it's a coded official report that will lead him to Great Riches is just too annoying to be allowed to live.

The Worst In The Series. Pass it by; re-read some of the earlier ones.

Or, if you haven't yet read any of the Matthew Hope novels, try some of those.