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McBain Ed Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
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Ed McBain Trivia

Ed McBain Trivia Quizzes

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4 Ed McBain quizzes and 50 Ed McBain trivia questions.
1.
  The 87th Squadroom   top quiz  
Multiple Choice
 20 Qns
These questions about Ed McBain's police procedurals should be pretty easy if you've read several of the books. Good luck!
Average, 20 Qns, agony, Jan 09 16
Average
agony editor
845 plays
2.
  Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Novels   popular trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The antics of the 87th Precinct are my favourite set of books and I noticed that a great many of them have one word titles. From the dictionary definitions given, see if you can name my top reads.
Easier, 10 Qns, sad-woman, Mar 01 09
Easier
sad-woman gold member
328 plays
3.
  The Men of the 87th    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
This is mostly about the men of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct, still the best police procedural series of all!
Average, 10 Qns, tjoebigham, Mar 02 09
Average
tjoebigham
728 plays
4.
  Ed McBain's 'Doll' - 87th Precinct    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Ten questions on 'Doll', the twentieth book in Ed McBain's long running 87th Precinct series.
Tough, 10 Qns, morelli, Dec 24 05
Tough
morelli gold member
220 plays
trivia question Quick Question
Who is, through most of the series, the youngest member of the squad?

From Quiz "The 87th Squadroom"




Related Topics
  Mystery & Detective Fiction [Literature] (99 quizzes)


Ed McBain Trivia Questions
1. Book 22 in the series could be described as loose, light, fibrous or fluffy matter and also a slang term for the police?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Novels

Answer: Fuzz

Plot line: After an absence of many years the 'Deaf Man' returns to plague the detectives of the 87th precinct. The 'Deaf Man', yet to be unmasked by the police detectives, plans to extort money from local dignitaries by asking them to pay or die. This, however, is a smokescreen for his real crime, whatever that may be.

2. Where did Tinka Sachs get her first name from?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 'Doll' - 87th Precinct

Answer: Combination of her first and middle names

The name was a mixture of her first and middle names - Tina Karin. We find out later in the novel that her full, maiden name was Tina Karin Grady.

3. What is most striking about Steve Carella?

From Quiz The Men of the 87th

Answer: his eyes are slanted

Steve has Oriental-looking eyes, unusual for an Italian-American.

4. What was the name of Anna Sachs' doll?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 'Doll' - 87th Precinct

Answer: Chatterbox

Anna's doll Chatterbox appears in the first chapter; the little girl's holding onto it when the detectives arrive at her apartment. Later in 'Doll', it's revealed that her mother's murder was captured on Chatterbox's recording device.

5. What happens to Special Forces decoy Eileen Burke in "Lightning" (1984)?

From Quiz The 87th Squadroom

Answer: She is raped

Eileen was raped by a man on a bizarre mission to impregnate as many women as possible.

6. And his wife, Teddy?

From Quiz The Men of the 87th

Answer: she's deaf

Teddy Carella has major roles in many of the 87th's cases.

7. Book 18 and the first to use a one word title could be described as a bladed tool or a sudden termination of employment?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Novels

Answer: Ax

Plot line: The boys of the 87th Precinct know that it took a maniac to kill George Lesser, aged 87, with an ax, but the only oddballs who could have done it, Lesser's wife and son, have air-tight alibis. Just as detectives Carella and Hawes are about to shelve the case, the marauder strikes again.

8. How many years before the narrative of 'Doll' was set did Bert Kling's girlfriend, Claire, die?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 'Doll' - 87th Precinct

Answer: Four years

Bert's girlfriend, Claire, was killed in the fourteenth 87th precinct novel, 'Lady, Lady, I Did It', which was set four years before Doll. She was gunned down in the bookstore she worked in, and years later Bert is still struggling to deal with her death.

9. What job does Eileen take after leaving Special Forces?

From Quiz The 87th Squadroom

Answer: Hostage Negotiator

Eileen joins the Hostage team in 1991's "Widows".

10. What member of the 87th has a white streak in his red hair?

From Quiz The Men of the 87th

Answer: Cotton Hawes

Hawes got it when he was knifed during a robbery. He was named for the famed Puritan Cotton Mather.

11. The title of Book 41 is defined as a soothing song designed to send your baby to sleep?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Novels

Answer: Lullaby

Plot line: The squad room at 5.15 New Year's morning looked much as it did on any other day, but an exceptionally heinous crime was already sending a wave of outrage through even the veteran detectives on the precinct. A wealthy couple discovered their baby and the teenage sitter murdered. As parents themselves, Carella and Mayer resolve to bring in the perpetrator at any cost. Meanwhile gang warfare is overtaking the city streets.

12. What is the name of the modelling agency Tinka Sachs is signed to?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 'Doll' - 87th Precinct

Answer: The Cutlers

Tinka's modelling agency, The Cutlers, is run by Art and Leslie Cutler. Tinka was taken on by the agency when she was just nineteen. Thanks to them she modelled for 'Vogue', 'Harper's' and 'Mademoiselle'.

13. In which book does Carella meet Teddy, his deaf wife?

From Quiz The 87th Squadroom

Answer: Cop Hater

They meet while he is investigating a burglary in her workplace. "Cop Hater" (1956) was the first 87th Precinct novel.

14. What member was murdered?

From Quiz The Men of the 87th

Answer: Roger Havilland

Havilland met his fate in the early work 'Killer's Choice'.

15. The 42nd book in the series can be described as a religious service usually held in the late afternoon or early evening?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Novels

Answer: Vespers

Plot line: Father Michael Birney lies dead behind the church rectory with multiple stab and slash wounds surrounded by his beloved roses. Also teenage crack barons are fighting in the streets, looking for drugs which may be hidden in the church. Who killed Father Birney and why? Listen. You won't believe your ears.

16. Which officer's car was found burned out at the base of a cliff with a corpse inside?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 'Doll' - 87th Precinct

Answer: Steve Carella's

Steve Carella's car was discovered burnt out at the base of a cliff in the adjoining state, the day after he was abducted on the job. The coroners later worked out that Carella hadn't been the person discovered inside, that it was the elevator operator from Tinka Sachs' building instead, Cyclops Messner.

17. What is Teddy's tattoo?

From Quiz The 87th Squadroom

Answer: Butterfly

Teddy received her black butterfly in "The Con Man" (1957), long before tattooed ladies were common.

18. Who is the fat detective from another precinct known for his W.C. Fields impersonations?

From Quiz The Men of the 87th

Answer: Fat Ollie Weeks

BTW, William Conrad played both Cannon and Nero Wolfe!

19. Book 43 on the shelf can be identified by this definition - a number of women who have all lost their husbands in death?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Novels

Answer: Widows

Plot line: The detectives investigate the number of a beautiful blonde in the penthouse apartment along with her older married lover, but for Detective Steve Carella it is the murder of his own father in a bakery holdup which sends him on a fevered hunt for the one who made his mother a widow.

20. What was the nickname of the elevator attendant in Tinka Sachs' building?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 'Doll' - 87th Precinct

Answer: Cyclops

Cyclops' proper name was Ernest Messner. As he told Steve Carella and Bert Kling, he'd lost his eye in World War I when it'd been bayoneted by a German soldier in the Ardennes Forest. Cyclops hadn't realised it was gone until he'd killed the German and returned to the aid station. He wore a black patch to cover his empty eye socket.

21. Who is not a 'snitch' for the 87th?

From Quiz The 87th Squadroom

Answer: Danny Boy Bell

Danny Boy Bell sells information to Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder.

22. What member has the same first and last name?

From Quiz The Men of the 87th

Answer: Meyer Meyer& Meyer

Perhaps the best-known member next to Carella. Helen Hudson also wrote a novel called 'Meyer Meyer' about a character with the same name (inspired by McBain's?), and McBain included it in his 'Fuzz'(later the motion picture starring Burt Reynolds and Rachel Welch)

23. Number 35 in the series can be defined in these terms - a sensation of warmth or hotness, a slang term for the police and a single course in a race?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Novels

Answer: Heat

Plot line: When a failed painter and twice-failed husband is found dead in his sweltering apartment, everyone assumes it is suicide. But Detective Steve Carella knows that suicides leave notes and they don't turn off the air conditioning on the hottest night of the year. Carella is on the trail of a killer.

24. Which two detectives found Carella in the apartment in which he'd been held prisoner?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 'Doll' - 87th Precinct

Answer: Kling and Meyer

Following a call from a California detective that detailed Tinka Sachs' drug conviction back in Los Angeles, Kling and Meyer headed to a house occupied by Fritz Schmidt, an addict friend of Sachs'. Schmidt and his girlfriend are shot when they arrive but the two detectives manage to free Carella.

25. Who is, through most of the series, the youngest member of the squad?

From Quiz The 87th Squadroom

Answer: Kling

Blond, blue-eyed Bert Kling is often described as having a 'cornfed' look. Later in the series, Genero is promoted to Detective, and he is possibly younger than Kling.

26. Who is the chief of the 87th?

From Quiz The Men of the 87th

Answer: Peter Byrnes & Pete Byrnes

The oldest member, to boot.

27. Book 44 on the shelf could be described as the touching of lips between two persons or the slight touch of two snooker balls?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Novels

Answer: Kiss

Plot line: Certain that someone is trying to kill her, Emma Bowles turns to another killer for protection. Only a dedicated cop trapped in a defective legal system can save her.

28. How much did Tinka Sachs earn in a year?

From Quiz Ed McBain's 'Doll' - 87th Precinct

Answer: $150,000

Tinka earned sixty dollars an hour and worked eight or ten hour days, six days a week, meaning she received roughly $150,000 a year. However, due to her drug addiction, the only asset she owned at the time of her death was a Chagall painting.

29. Who is the seemingly unbeatable, recurring antagonist of the boys of the 87th?

From Quiz The 87th Squadroom

Answer: The Deaf Man

He uses the aliases 'L. Sordo', 'Taubman', and 'Dennis Dove'; 'el sordo', 'taube mann' and 'den dove' all mean 'Deaf Man' in Spanish, German, and Swedish, respectively.

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