So Nude, So Dead

by Ed McBain

Overview

He’d been a promising piano prodigy, once. Now he was just an addict, scraping to get by, letting his hunger for drugs consume him. But a man’s life can always get worse - as Ray Stone discovers when he wakes up beside a beautiful nightclub singer only to find her dead... and 16 ounces of pure heroin missing. On the run from the law, desperate to prove his innocence and find a killer, Ray also faces another foe, merciless and unforgiving: his growing craving for a fix...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781166062
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	07/14/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 5.00(h) x 0.70(d)

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

05/11/2015
McBain scholars and aficionados will welcome this reissue of the late MWA Grand Master’s first crime novel, originally published in 1952 under a pseudonym. Ray Stone, who was once a promising pianist but is now a heroin addict desperate for his next fix, awakens one morning to find the woman next to him, Eileen Chalmers, with two bullet holes in her belly. Though appalled by Eileen’s murder, Stone is more concerned with finding the 16 ounces of heroin that he knows is somewhere in their hotel room—or was, before he passed out. He spends the next frantic days alternately searching for the stash, trying to score a quick hit, and running from the mobsters—who eventually capture him and administer a brutal beating as they try to extract the location of the missing heroin. The book is crude, clearly the work of a beginner—McBain was 26 when it was published—giving little indication of the superb craftsman that he would later become. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"It’s scary how very good the master was from the start. With beautifully flowing prose and a gripping storyline, this rereleased novel is a must for McBain’s fans and lovers of hard crime tales." - Book Devil

"So Nude, So Dead carries us off into the seedy world [of] hophead jazz musicians, a world where a reefer stick can send a promising young pianist into the arms of heroin, and the arms of any number of amorous young women, be they half-Chinese strippers, supper club singers or just hangers-on." - The Rap Sheet

"So Nude, So Dead  is a remarkable glimpse Ed McBain’s early efforts and the evidence of his amazing talents is apparent throughout." - Pulp Fiction Reviews

"So Nude, So Dead is just so damn awesome." - Pulp Serenade

"So Nude, So Dead is tough-as-cheap-steak noir that goes down quick. McBain’s writing is sharp and concise." - Ravenous Monster

From the Publisher