Tricks (and a treat)

For today’s countdown to Halloween reading suggestion: Tricks by Ed McBain. Surprisingly not a horror novel, but it is set on Halloween night. We find the detectives from the 87th Precinct with their hands full on weird and sinister cases in the night of mischiefs: a magician has been murdered and his body cut in little pieces after his last performance, dwarves disguised as children disguised as trick or treaters rob liquor stores at gunpoint, an elderly lady receives an obscene phone call from someone who seems to know her and there is a serial rapist on the lose. There is no supernatural element whatsoever, but plenty of realistic urban horror that takes its source from criminal minds. And plenty of suspense too: McBain worked for Hitchcock and it shows, he knows the tricks of the trade. And there’s a dash of bizarre that just fits Halloween perfectly. Like my mother in law said, once you start reading Ed McBain, you only put it down once you finish it. To end this post on a bad pun, Tricks is a real treat.