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Rating: 
Summary: The Frumious Bandersnatch
Review: "The Frumious Bandersnatch" is the 53rd novel in the exceptional 87th Precinct series by Ed McBain. Barney Loomis, CEO of Bison Records, throws a party on a boat to launch the career of pop singer Tamar Valparaiso. As Tamar finishes doing a live performance of her video "Bandersnatch", 2 masked men storm the boat and kidnap her. Steve Carella of the 87th takes the call and he and Cotton Hawes begin to investigate. At Barney Loomis' request Carella is asked to join a special elite task force known as "The Squad", comprised of policemen and FBI agents, to investigate the kidnapping. The kidnappers contact Loomis requesting $250,000 ransom and asking that a cop come with Loomis when he drops off the money. Carella goes with Loomis and they drop off the money. The kidnappers get greedy and ask for another $750,000. Carella quits the task force but he and Hawes remain on the case and they are instrumental in solving it. Fat Ollie Weeks from the 88th is in this novel but is not involved in the case. The book follows his personal relationship with fellow cop Patricia Gomez. This series began in 1956, yet 48 years later it is just as fresh as it has always been. Ed McBain is still the master of the police procedural. "The Frumious Bandersnatch" is an excellent read.
Rating: 
Summary: And James Gandolfini as Ollie Weeks . . .
Review: I don't know who does his research for him, but McBain pulls it off again, another vivid and believable milieu, this time in the field of recording, producing and distribution of dance music. He must be in his 70s but he has a remarkably young attitude, and his description of the pop single "Bandersnatch" by his fictional heroine, Tamar Valparaiso, is totally convincing to the point that you'll believe it could be in heavy rotation on MTV (if they still played videos). Tamar would be a great part for Jennifer Lopez, even if she is a bit too old to play her properly, and she wouldn't like what happens to her in the course of the script.I hope this is the first of a whole new "Lewis Carroll" series for the 87th Precinct. It isn't McBain's best book by any accounting--for me, the best run was the long list of vintage novels from the late 70s through late 80s, from Calypso through Heat, Ice, etc, when he could do no wrong. But this is the best of the recent crop of titles. Hooray for a great grand master!
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Summary: Priceless!
Review: I have always been more impressed by the humor in the 87th Precinct mysteries than the police procedural. For instance, in FRUMIOUS BANDERSNATCH, McBain uses Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "Jabberwocky" to create a single used in a video as a sendoff for a new singing sensation, Tamar Valparaiso. This gives McBain a chance to lampoon music critics, TV entertainment news, and civil rights advocates who carry political correctness too far.
The plot revolves around the kidnapping of Tamar off a river yacht. Steve Carella soon finds himself playing second fiddle to the FBI and their advanced technology. But, surprise of all surprises, Tamar's record producer insists on Carella accompanying him when he pays the ransom.
Something else you usually get when you read the Grand Master is a brutal twist when you least expect it. He will stop at nothing. I'm kind of surprised he hasn't killed off Carella by now, especially since he's been working at the 87th for something like fifty years.
All of the above would not make a great mystery. This is also a character vehicle. Ollie Weeks furnishes the sub plot, still romancing his fellow police officer, Patricia Gomez. A while back McBain made up his mind he was going to transform the mysogynistic, racist Weeks into an almost likable human being, but rather than do it all at once he's been chipping away at the big fellow for two, three books now. First off, Ollie decides to take music lessons, then he writes a book, a police procedural of course, and now he's dating a Hispanic police officer and learning how to play "Spanish Eyes" for her. He even takes her to see a movie about the making of Richard III.
McBain pretty much telegraphs the resolution of this mystery when Tamar's record goes through the roof, but the interplay between the characters, as they say in those credit card commercials, is priceless.
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Summary: McBain does it again!
Review: It's hard to believe that the 87th Precinct series has been around for over forty years, and covers fifty-three novels. The Frumious Bandersnatch (incidentally taken from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky") is classic McBain.
Young, beautiful and talented, Tamar Valparasio is about to make her breakout debut when she is abducted from her performance by "Yassir Arafat" and "Sadaam Hussein". Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes work inspite of lack of clues and the complex tangle of investigating Tamar's abduction in cooperation and in competition with "The Squad", the joint Isola PD/FBI Task Force, in order to bring the criminals to justice and rescue the sexy young star before it is too late. As can be expected in an Ed McBain novel, there is the twists and turns and the humor. albeit dark at times, with the usual cast of the detectives of the 8-7. As an interesting sideline(Or is it subplot?), we begin to see another dimension of "Fat Ollie" Weeks as his relationship with Officer Patricia Gomez go another level. Will the boys get to Tamar? And who is behind her kidnapping? I won't disclose the ending. Listen to the audiobook to find out.
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Summary: 3 1/2 Stars -- A Good, Fast Read!
Review: The Frumious Bandersnatch is about an up-and-coming music star who is kidnapped from a rented yacht while performing at a party promoting her first album. In typical McBain fashion, his latest 87th Precinct police procedural combines an enjoyable, fast-paced plot with true-to-life characters and dialogue. Having said this, on a comparative basis, The Frumious Bandersnatch has a somewhat more predictable ending and has less action and surprises than several of McBain's previous books. Further, I found a few of the romatic sub-storylines (i.e., those involving Detctives Hawes and Ollie Weeks Hawes) to be more filler than having anything to do with the real plot of the book. If you're a fan of the 87th Precinct series I think you might feel (as I do) that The Frumious Bandersnatch is a good, fast enjoyable book but one that is a slight notch below some of the others in this series.
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Summary: Yet Another Great 87th Precinct Novel
Review: Through over fifty volumes over nearly fifty years, Ed McBain has been crafting his tales of the 87th Precinct. And far from running out of steam, the series just gets better. In "The Frumious Bandersnatch" (a rising pop diva is launching a new song based, improbably enough, on Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" poem) Detective Steve Carella is back on center stage to solve a high profile kidnapping. But we also get to see some of the other regulars -- Cotton Hawes, Bert Kling, Fat Ollie Weeks (showing his new gentle, sensitive side), and Andy Parker (who shows us his old rough, insensitive nature). Throw in the FBI, music industry people, and the usual selection of criminals and you have another winning 87th Precinct story. There are some suprises here and there, backed with a narrative showcasing good solid police work. And McBain has a little fun skewering pundits who insist on reading their own obsessions into the Bandersnatch song.
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