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Ed McBain / Evan Hunter: A Literary Companion is the Erin E. MacDonald reference book on the prolific writer who published as both Evan Hunter (The Blackboard Jungle, Strangers When We Meet, the screenplay for Hitchcock's The Birds) and Ed McBain (the 87th Precinct procedural sequence, the Matthew Hope mysteries). Elizabeth Foxwell's editorial work appears in the related Companion series. The volume includes critical essays, complete bibliography, character index, and contextual material.
The Companion's strength is the careful attention to both halves of the writer's career. The 87th Precinct material is handled with the kind of insider attention only longtime series readers can provide. The Hunter-name literary fiction is treated as serious literary subject rather than as B-side work. Fans of Otto Penzler's reference work or of Marvin Lachman's genre scholarship will recognize the careful critical-reference tradition.
The bibliography material is unusually thorough across both names and the half-dozen pseudonyms McBain/Hunter also used.
Four stars. A working reference on one of American crime fiction's most prolific careers. The Ed McBain / Evan Hunter Literary Companion is recommended for 87th Precinct readers and for students of the contemporary American procedural tradition.
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