‘The Mugger’ novelist Ed crossword

The name “Ed McBain” now stands for tough city crime stories that held readers for decades. Under that name he wrote the famous “87th Precinct” books - his skill reached far past what a short crossword hint can show. He was born Salvatore Albert Lombino in 1926 and his rise to fame followed no usual path. He learned to write - turning out stories for cheap pulp magazines, later moved to novels plus there produced some of the best known police tales ever printed. His clear pictures of city streets, his layered people and his tight plots won praise but also a loyal audience. The “87th Precinct” line ran to more than fifty titles - it gave the world a range of detectives and the daily tests they met in the invented city of Isola. McBain mixed plain reality, quiet comment on society as well as swift suspense - his books rose above the crowded shelf. Many later crime writers follow the trail he blazed. Apart from the books, McBain was expert at crossword puzzles, a knack that no doubt helped him weave plots within plots. The clue “‘The Mugger’ novelist Ed” shows that readers still meet and remeet the full weave of his work.