Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 16, 1992 TAG: 9202160244
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: E-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO BOOK PAGE EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MCBAIN'S `KISS' IS BLEAK, BRILLIANT
KISS. By Ed McBain. Morrow. $17."Kiss" is Ed McBain's 44th trip to the 87th Precinct, and this series is as fresh, inventive and readable as it was when he began it in 1956.
This time out, the traditional mystery element of the plot is a minor theme. It's not nearly as important as the larger point that McBain has been developing in the recent novels. As he sees it, the system simply doesn't work any more.
His nameless, fictional New York is a dying city, a place where the forces of destruction are winning. The social fabric has disintegrated. Police work is dangerous and useless. The legal system has collapsed under the complex contradictions of its own rules and the sheer numbers of people who pass through the courts and jails. It's a bleak view and "Kiss" is a bleak book.
It begins when someone tries to kill Emma Bowles. Twice. She can identify her attacker but when the police find him, he's dead - murdered. By that time, Emma's wealthy husband has hired a bodyguard from Chicago to protect her.
When he's not working that case, Detective Steve Carella is following the trial of the man who murdered his father. (That happened in last year's "Widows.")
McBain is such an experienced craftsman that the two sides of the novel blend together perfectly. He's able to weave digressions and flashbacks into the story without a ripple. But here he's trying to do more than simply to tell an engaging, realistic story. "Kiss" is a damning indictment of contemporary urban America, as angry and serious as anything from Tom Wolfe or Charles Dickens.
By itself, it's a fine piece of fiction. As a long chapter in McBain's continuing serial novel, it's brilliant.