Well known to fans of the detective genre, Ed McBain is the author of the 87th Precinct series—the most famous and the most widely published in the entire history of detective fiction. According to the author’s design, the 87th Precinct is located in an “imaginary city,” but an observant reader will have little difficulty recognizing New York in it, although the names of streets and districts have been changed. The location of the 87th Precinct is such that its officers are forced to display their extraordinary detective abilities, solving crimes committed both in the upper, privileged circles of American society and at the very social “bottom.”