Not one of McBain's usual mysteries, but a crime drama, or even an urban social drama, centring on a single Sunday morning on a baking hot street in a Puerto Rican neighbourhood in McBain's fictitious city. A teenager on the make, a drunken sailor looking for a good time and McBain's perennial Bad Cop, Parker, congregate in luncheonette. The cops of the 87th Precinct are hunting notorious killer Pepe Morano. While the sailor looks for love, the teenager looks for blood and Parker mouths off, a violent siege develops, a crowd gathers and the neighbourhood threatens to explode. McBain winds the tension and suspense with consummate skill and a keen eye for the foibles and failings of multifarious humanity. Fast paced and unputdownable, but then I don't think McBain ever produced a dud in his life.