Long Time No See

Name: Long Time No See
Rating: 4.01 (1525 reviews)
Author: Ed McBain

87th Precinct • Book 32

by Ed McBain

4.01 Goodreads

(1.5K ratings)

304 pages Published 1977 Mystery

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Why You'll Love This

Every victim is blind — and McBain uses that single brutal detail to open up something far darker than a whodunit.

Great if you want: gritty procedural crime with real psychological weight
The experience: methodical and tension-laced — the dread builds quietly
The writing: McBain strips prose to bone — sharp, unsentimental, deceptively efficient
Skip if: you want a fast-moving thriller over deliberate detective work

About This Book

When a blinded Vietnam veteran is found murdered, Detective Steve Carella of the 87th Precinct steps into a case that quickly reveals something deeply unsettling: every victim shares the same condition. They were all blind. What begins as a homicide investigation pulls Carella into the private world of people living in permanent darkness — their fears, their dreams, their secrets — and toward a killer whose motive feels less like cold calculation than something rawer and more dangerous. McBain grounds the story in the psychological residue of the Vietnam era, where wounds both visible and invisible never fully healed.

What distinguishes this entry in the long-running 87th Precinct series is how McBain balances procedural momentum with genuine human texture. His prose is lean without being cold, and his dialogue crackles with the rhythms of real speech. Carella remains one of crime fiction's most fully realized detectives — flawed, tired, loyal — and watching him navigate both the case and his own emotional life gives the book its quiet depth. McBain never oversells the darkness; he lets it accumulate, which makes the whole thing land harder than you expect.