Killer's Payoff

1958 novel by Evan Hunter
Killer's Payoff
First edition
AuthorEvan Hunter
(as Ed McBain)
Cover artistRobert Schulz
LanguageEnglish
Series87th Precinct #6
GenreCrime novel
PublisherPermabooks
Publication date
1958
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages160 pages

Killer's Payoff (1958) is the sixth 87th Precinct novel by Ed McBain.

Plot

Sy Kramer, a blackmailer, is shot dead in a 1937-style drive-by execution. But it is 1958 and Cotton Hawes and Steve Carella have to find out who killed him. It could have been Lucy Mencken, a rich and respectable lady with a past that included some very unrespectable photographic portraits, or it could have been Edward Schlesser, a manufacturer of soda pop. Or perhaps it was one of the members of a hunting party that went very wrong.

Characters

This novel is the second to feature the character of Detective Cotton Hawes, newly transferred from the 30th Precinct, an area with 'Big, fancy apartment houses with doormen...But not many homicides.'

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Works by Evan Hunter
Novels
87th Precinct series
  • Cop Hater (1956)
  • The Mugger (1956)
  • Killer's Payoff (1958)
  • King's Ransom (1959)
  • Shotgun (1969)
Others
  • Rocket to Luna (1953)
  • Criminal Conversation (1994)
Short storiesNonfiction
Me and Hitch (1997)
Screenplays
  • Strangers When We Meet (1960)
  • The Birds (1963)
  • Fuzz (1972)
  • Walk Proud (1979)
  • The Chisholms (1979–80)
  • The Legend of Walks Far Woman (1982)
  • Dream West (1986)
Adaptations


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