The 87th Precinct in a nutshell

"The city in these pages is imaginary. The people, the places are all fictitious. Only the police routine is based on established investigatory technique."

I recently finished one novel from Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series. Nevermind which one for now, but my mother-in-law asked to read it as soon as I put it down. She said: "Once I am started on an Ed McBain, I put the book down only once it is read." She had it finished the next morning, I think. In any case, this deserves to be a great unknown line and it explains very well how gripping the series is. My wife was really surprised that her mother was interested in crime fiction, she said her husband (I mean my wife's dad, not me) introduced her to it. I didn't know my father-in-law read Ed McBain as well, although it seems now it is his wife who enjoys it the most. Anyway, this sums up the series from a reader's perspective. That and the disclaimer at the beginning of each novel, which I quoted at the beginning of this post, just because.