Guns by Ed McBain
Guns was a re-read. It’s one of McBain’s non-87th precint, non-Matthew Hope books, telling the story of a two-bit punk who accidentally becomes a cop killer and his subsequent attempt to escape capture. As usual, McBain does a good job of getting into his characters’ heads and making their conversation, their thoughts, and their environment one hundred percent believable. However, Guns isn’t a mystery. The only question is whether or not he’ll get away with it and since he’s the bad guy, you aren’t rooting for him that hard. So the book isn’t one of McBain’s more compelling stories but it’s masterfully done nevertheless.