Cut Me In

by Ed McBain

Overview

When a Man’s Partner is Killed,
He’s Supposed to Do Something About It. 

Maybe no one liked Del Gilbert a whole lot, not the men he ruthlessly did business with, not the women who discovered his other lovers, not even his partner in the Gilbert and Blake literary agency – me. But when I found him shot to death on the floor of his office, I had no choice. I had to track down the person responsible. And not just to lay Del to rest, either. Next to his body, the office safe was wide open, and a contract worth millions was missing...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783293629
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	01/12/2016
Series:	Hard Case Crime
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	405,422
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Ed McBain, AKA Evan Hunter, wrote more than eighty novels, including the influential “87th Precinct” series, the longest-running series of crime novels in history. His books have sold more than 100 million copies. In 1986, he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, the organization’s highest honor, and in 1998 he became the first American to receive the British Crime Writers’ Association’s highest award, the Cartier Diamond Dagger.

Editorial Reviews

11/16/2015
Wheeling-and-dealing in a Manhattan literary agency drives this reissue, an ultrasmooth 1954 crime novel from Salvatore Lombino (1926–2005), better known today by two of his pen names, Evan Hunter (The Blackboard Jungle) and Ed McBain (Cop Hater and many other 87th Precinct novels). The firm of Gilbert and Blake wants to cut in on movie money being dangled in front of a client, but one of the firm’s partners, Del Gilbert, lies shot dead on his office floor—“three holes had very carelessly been left in his face.” It’s up to the firm’s other partner, fiction-peddler Josh Blake, to juggle the deal, sweat through the sweltering summer heat while finding corpses faster than the cops, and mix it up with a few even hotter babes. Originally published under the pseudonym Hunt Collins, this period classic features a great whodunit clue. Rounding out the package is “Now Die in It,” a McBain story that’s been lost for more than half a century. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"The the plot twists are quite delightful, but the way McBain wraps it all up at the end is truly elegant. No loose ends, no unexplained tangents, and no characters who didn’t have anything significant to contribute to the story. As lean as it is, it feels just as rich as a more detailed book, with all the sights and smells of a post-war New York rising to new levels of affluence, where social and moral attitudes are changing faster than Buick and Cadillac designs." - Crime Fiction Lover 

"I enjoyed the hell out of it not because it's a masterpiece but because it is one of those books that remind me of where so many writers of my generation, certainly me, came from. And the '50s  ambience if just right." - Ed Gorman

"It’s Mad Men meets Mickey Spillane." - Mystery People

"CUT ME IN is a required addition to the library of any Ed McBain fan. Once again, Hard Case Crime has shown why they do essential work. It is easy to imagine these books lost forever without Charles Ardai searching them out." - Book Reporter

“The noir badassery on display here is hardcore” - Comic Book Resources

“Some writers know how to suck you right in from the first page.  Take the late author Evan Hunter aka Ed McBain.” -  Borg.com

"Highly recommended." - Gloria Feit

"a fast moving, taut thriller ... - Pulp Fiction Reviews

From the Publisher

2015-10-08
Another vintage case from the days in the early 1950s before McBain created the 87th Precinct and broke away from the pack. You might think it's not literary agent Josh Blake's day. Soon after he arrives at the offices of Gilbert and Blake, he finds his partner, Del Gilbert, shot to death, the safe in his private office rifled. The most worrisome item that's missing is the contract novelist Cam Stewart signed granting Gilbert and Blake radio and television rights to Stewart's bestselling Westerns in perpetuity for $500—a document Del had planned to use to extort a major piece of the action from the impending sale of Stewart's work to Hollywood producer Dave Becker out of Carlyle Rutherford, the agent handling the sale. Even worse, the firm's only photostatic copy of the contract is stolen from Josh himself as he's leaving the apartment of Lydia Rafney, Del's secretary and lover. And Detective Sgt. Sam Di Luca, who's working the case, makes no secret of his suspicion that Josh is the killer. On the other hand, the day isn't a complete loss. Josh wakes up in the company of Janice, a half-clad blonde he doesn't remember from the night before, and two other comely ladies proposition him before the sun goes down. (There'll be a third forward pass the next day from a most unexpected quarter.) The complications are juicy, the combination of menace and sexual availability irresistible, and McBain's gift for inventing a full range of wacky episodes already in full flower. Only the solution itself disappoints. As a bonus, fans can savor "Now Die in It," a moody, overwrought 35-page case for disgraced detective Matt Cordell, who also headlined the story appended to So Nude, So Dead (2015). If this sounds like your cup of bourbon, it most definitely is.

Kirkus Reviews