Fat Ollie's Book

A Novel of the 87th Precinct

By: Ed McBain

Narrated by: Ron McLarty

Murders happen every day in the big bad city. They're not such a big deal, you know. Even when the victim is a city councilman as well-known as Lester Henderson.

But this is the first time Fat Ollie Weeks of the 88th Precinct has written a novel, ah yes. Called Report to the Commissioner, it follows a cunning detective named Olivia Wesley Watts, who, apart from being female and slim, is rather like Fat Ollie himself. While Ollie's responding to the squeal about the dead councilman, his leather dispatch case is stolen from the back of his car - and in it, the only copy of his precious manuscript.

Joined by Carella and Kling from the neighboring 87th Precinct, Ollie investigates the homicide with all the exquisite crudeness, insensitivity, and determination for which he is famous. But the theft of his first novel fills Ollie with a renewed passion for old-fashioned detective work.

Following the exploits of one of Ed McBain's most beloved detectives, this lively and complicated tale - the 52nd in the award-winning 87th Precinct series - is McBain at his best.

Don't miss any of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels.©2003 HUI Corp., All Rights Reserved (P)2003 Simon & Schuster Inc., All Rights Reserved, AUDIOWORKS Is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

Critic reviews

"The excerpts from Ollie's novel will bring tears of laughter to [your] eyes as McBain skewers the inherent conceits of the procedural genre as well as bad writers everywhere. Wonderful entertainment." (Booklist)
"Priceless. One would never know that this is the 52nd book in a series, for it is as fresh and vibrant as all the rest." (Library Journal)

Reader 6 stars. Plot 2 stars.

The writing is clever, with one very glaring exception: The method by which the cops are led to the murderer is absolutely sophmoric. It spoils the plot, but the vocal stylings of the reader (Ron McLarty) are brilliant and make it a very entertaining listen overall.

I love the 87th precint novels.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I am a mystery story lover. I like the characters and how they are developed.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Ollie himself. He is real if not always the ideal.

Did Ron McLarty do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

yes. Lots of personality.

Did Fat Ollie's Book inspire you to do anything?

I want to listen to all in the series.

A must read for any and all aspiring writers

This is one of the funniest books. It is a detective novel and meant to be a detective novel but unlike other such novels, Detective Ollie has decided to write a book and attempts to fictionalize the cases he is working on until a major part of the manuscript is stolen and causes all kinds of strange turns in the plot. I couldn't stop laughing all the way through the book.

Leave it Lay.

Fat Ollie was a great minor character, but never grew in this novel about him. The recording is so bad, I threw the CD's away, assuming my car radio was skipping around. It wasn't. That's the way it was written, or recorded, skipping from one scene to another without any reason and so often I cound't tell you now what happened, or who it happened to. Death accompanies all murder mystery, but this novel died before it got to paper. Leave it lay.