Introducing Cotton Hawes (87th Precinct)

As you know, this year I have been reading Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series, as much as possible in order of publication. So I recently read Killer's Choice, the fifth entry of the series. The novel is significant in the series for a number of reasons: one of the detectives of the 87th gets murdered, for one, and it's also the debut of Detective Cotton Hawes in the series. Cotton Hawes was invented by McBain at the request of his publishers to provide the series with a ladies' man (the other cops are rather monogamous). Hawes is tall, muscular, redheaded except for a shock of white hair (caused by a knife wound) and of course handsome. I hadn't paid all that much attention to Hawes in the past. I'm not sure if it's because most of the series' entries I read often did not feature him prominently or just that others caught my attention. But now that I have read his debut, I will see the character in a new light.