The Mugger

The Mugger by Ed McBain


This is a crime novel that was written in the 1950s. The Mugger is very much of that era. It wasn’t bad, but it was—at least to someone born in the 70s and raised in the 80s—pretty ridiculous. The primary story is that of a squad of detectives trying to find a man who has been mugging and beating up women walking alone on the city streets. It’s standard stuff, just a straight procedural. The interesting thing is that the novel’s title and primary plot actually don’t really concern the protagonist, Bert Kling.

Kling is a young patrolman in the unnamed city. He’s the stereotypical All-American boy. That is, I don’t relate at all to him and I find him pretty creepy and disgusting. He reminds me a lot of the officer Tony on Showtime’s Shameless. He’s a guy who feels owed and entitled because he’s nice. My only true issue with the book is Kling. He’s a bad guy, yet McBain treats him as a hero. He lays lascivious eyes upon 17-year old Jeannie Paige and he badgers Jeannie’s friend into going out with him while he’s trying to investigate the girl’s murder. There was one disturbing scene near the novel’s end during which he threw a tantrum on a first date that only occurred because he’s a policeman and he wouldn’t accept the woman’s “No.” Kling’s fit was the result of the woman not quite being over her previous boyfriend, who’d been killed in war. Kling yelled at her, made her cry in the restaurant, and threatened to leave. Then she apologized to him and they lived happily ever after.

As The Mugger opens, Kling is on medical leave after being shot, and he’s itching to get back into action. Just before he’s medically cleared to walk his beat again, an old high school classmate seeks Kling’s assistance in keeping his teenage sister-in-law in line (the friend’s wife, the girl’s sister, is worried about her). The girl, of course, ends up dead. Finding her killer is the novel’s the actual mystery. If you’ve read enough crime fiction, you know who the killer is before the murder actually happens. This is the price you pay for reading something written so long ago. The mystery is gone, and it all comes down to execution. McBain’s not a good enough writer to make the story great when you already know what’s going to happen, but he’s good enough to keep it interesting.

It’s OK. It moves quickly.

D+