He Who Hesitates (1st ed.)

1st paperback edition/1st printing – 1975

87th Precinct, Book #19

Roger Broome is in the city to sell the woodenwares he and his brother handcrafted in their shop upstate—and he does so with stunning success. To celebrate, he goes out to enjoy the fruits of his labor and winds up in a bar, where he meets Molly. They have a few drinks and then head back to his room.

Now Molly is dead, and only Roger knows what happened.

The men at the 87th would surely love to get that information from Roger…if they even knew he had it. While Roger wants to report what he knows to the detectives, he struggles to reach out to them when a Spanish beauty named Amelia makes him forget everything else in his life. And with each missed opportunity, Roger delays justice from being served.

One of the 87th Precinct series’ more gripping and psychologically intense installments, He Who Hesitates is bestselling author Ed McBain at his finest as he delivers a brooding, suspenseful thriller Newsday hails as “a tour de force!”