Books like Hail to the Chief

Of the twenty-eight novels in the 87th Precinct series thus far, this one, for me, is the least successful of all.The story opens on a bitterly cold winter night when six naked bodies are found thrown into a trench. The detectives of the 87th must first identify the victims and then figure out who killed them and why.It turns out that the deceased are victims of a gang war being fought by the three principal gangs that dominate the city, one black, one Hispanic, and one white. The point of view alternates between that of the detectives conducting the investigation and that of the leader of the white gang who expounds at great length about his leadership style and the decisions that he's made. The gang leader's point of view, in particular, did not work for me at all. It was boring, repetitive, and often just plain silly. I couldn't for a moment believe that a guy this stupid and self-absorbed could possibly be the hardened leader of a gang of serious street thugs.There seemed to be a lot of filler in the book that seemed to serve no purpose other than to pad the word count, and one is tempted to speculate that McBain was under contract and out of time and simply phoned this one in. The good news is that, having read some of this series out of order, I know that there are much better books than this left yet, but this one is 2.5 stars for me.