Money, Money, Money (#Christmascrimes)

'Tis the season to be reading, falala lala, and so on. For today's (and this year's) first Christmas reading suggestion (and sorry if I have been late this year to kickstart the tradition): Money, Money, Money by Ed McBain. Because I always read some crime fiction during Christmastime, there's just something about blood on snow. This is one of his later novels, featuring the team at the 87th Precinct, especially Steve Carella, and Fat Ollie Weeks. It has cocain, phoney dollar bills, Mexican druglords, a woman eaten by lions, a duo of sexy blonde hitwomen, the Secret Services and Islamic terrorism. Did I say that this was published days before 9/11? Both chilling and very entertaining, albeit at times a bit far fetched. All set between Christmas and New Year.

Ed McBain for #Noirvember

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

This is of course the start of every novel from Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series. It always gives me shivers when I read this. November is almost over and it struck me that I haven't blogged all that much about #Noirvember. It is kind of ironic, come to think of it: I used to dislike that month and could not wait until it was over and start getting properly into a Christmas mood, now I think it's going too fast and I barely had time to read and share any crime fiction on this blog. Anyway, I have started reading Money, Money, Money by Ed McBain. The novel also fits my Christmas reading list, but I digress (more on that next month, obviously). I wanted to mention that any McBain is very fitting for #Noirvember, especially if you like police procedurals. Once I am finished with this 87th Precinct's story, I will probably hand it to my parents-in-laws, who both are avid readers of McBain, as I mentioned here. Heck, maybe I can hand them one or two McBains before the end of this month and in the meantime introduce them to #Noirvember!